Did you know that this is considered a "Private School"?
Therefore, the Director is accountable essentially to the Board of Directors who are in many ways hand picked to agree with her policies and procedures. She runs the school as she pleases, and most parents, dhildren and teachers are ruled and intimidated by her.
My children were there for years without receiving the IEP mandated services for speech, counseling, and language. The Director, Maari De Sousa, recieves and takes the money from the Board of Education and does not give the services. The children suffer year after year. Becuase there are so few choices in special ed schools, parents reluctatnly accept the lack of services for fear that their child will be dismissed by the director.
While one's child is in the school, the parent and child are too frightened to register official complaints for fear of having no alternative special education schools to attend.
The director cannot be spoken to or reasoned with. She does not allow teachers to have private meetings with parents. We know that IEP's are falsely filed annually at the director's direction. Teacher are afraid to loose their jobs should they refuse to lie or follow her dictates.
This is the beginning of a dialogue for all of you who had expereinces at the Child School to voice your stories and tell how they affected your children and your families. It is not meant to unfairly "bash" the director. It is meant to give a voice to all those who she intimataed and refused to keep the welfare of the child as the priority.
We invite you to share your fair and honest experiences about theChild School in this Blog.
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4 comments:
This is a great idea. Thank you!
Tom Ott said...
Hi,
Just wanting to test out the easiness of leaving a comment and.......to thank the person who has put so much time into setting up this blog. As we know from LDResources.....it is a much needed source of communication!
Thanks,
Tom
October 3, 2007 2:44 PM
I am the current parent of a LHS child. I am not one of the so-called elite parents and my family and I African-American.
After reading so many comments, I feel compelled to speak briefly to the issue of the school. My son was assessed as ppd/nos in pre-school. After his early childhood experiences my wife (our educational leader) and I searched diligently for a middle school for him.
Upon finding Maari and TCS we felt happy that he would be admitted. I personally experienced Maari as direct and tough. I stated to her that I was concerned that my son, who had been "nurtured and supported" in his previous school might not have that nurturing experience at TCS. Maari stated to me clearly and certainly that her job was to take my son (from me?) and prepare him for the world.
I believe she is keeping her promise. He is a Junior now and continuing to develop into an independent and capable young man. Three years ago I was fearful that he'd never be able to cross the street by himself and now he's traveling all over the city on the buses and trains and joyfully studying Japanese!
As others have said, no school is perfect nor is any of us. All visionaries have to be strong, single-minded personalities or their unique visions will never come to fruition. The school, its founder and all of us are works in progress and we should all be as brave as Maari is. Brave enough to come to the front and lead, to take risks while there is still something to lose, to create and construct something meaningful and concrete out of one's own passion, rather than to attempt to dismantle that which someone else has invented out of their vision and sweat.
New schools are born all the time out of teachers' and parents' dissatisfaction. I suggest that this is the constructive approach. Start your own and make it perfect. And when you get it done, invite us over.
Peace.
David Helper
I am a former parent, left the school two years ago, and while I continue to receive occasional bulk emails from TCS (like info about the Parent Survey), I received no email about this meeting. I consider myself a "parent in good standing" with the school, but knew nothing about it.
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