Even as CPS opens more new schools, children with special needs have a tougher time finding options. Placements in private therapeutic schools are scarce, and some charters are reluctant to enroll them.
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Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story [edited]
By: Alexander Russo / July 27, 2009
Comments and emails keep pouring in about parents desperate to figure out a public school option for their children, only to have to go with private schools or a backup plan.
Read below for one parent's story about what happened to her daughter at Edison, and keep writing in with your experiences and questions about the challenges Chicago faces for parents.
NB: This entry and some of the reader comments that follow have been edited to remove details that might identify the individuals involved.
Comments
and emails keep pouring in about parents desperate to figure out a
public school option for their children, only to have to go with
private schools or a backup plan.
Read below for one parent's story about what happened to her
daughter at Edison, and keep writing in with your experiences and
questions about the challenges Chicago faces for parents.
NB: This entry and some of the reader comments that follow have been edited to remove details that might identify the individuals involved.
LETTER:
My daughter was
admitted to Edison Gifted in 19XX.
After a month and a half we decided
to take her out. We returned her to the pre-primary school
where she had started from since age 2 and a half. A little girl in
her Edison classroom had molested her repeatedly and when we tried on
several occasions to protect our daughter, the administration just did
not get it. The other little girl it turns out was being molested by
her mother's boyfriend. They lived in our neighborhood and the
boyfriend started calling my daughter on the phone. It was very scarey
especially when my husband and I went to the police (I was afraid to
let her play out in the yard) and the school would not own up to any
problems with the children.
I was getting my master's at the time
and my professor suggested a
therapist for me who specifically worked with educators. My daughter
throughout her childhood had therapy when she needed it (understanding
what had happened at Edison, our divorce when she was ten years old,
teenage angst, etc.) She has incredible communication skills probably
because I wasn't going to let her out there alone in the world if she
needed to talk through something.
Anyway, after my child returned to [her original school], my husband, my therapist
and I met with the District Superintendent and a CPS child psychologist
he brought with him and they apologized. I never sued. Edison at the
time had teachers who were hired for their content knowledge and not
for their understanding of developmental issues with small children. I
actually liked her teacher and feel she didn't get the support she
needed to handle the situation. I also realize that our experience
with Chicago Public Schools is uncommon.
All worked out exceptionally
well for my daughter. I concentrated on raising my child and doing a
good job as a teacher taking care of other people's children, grateful
that Near North was taking good care of mine. My daughter's father made a
good living and with encouragement, he paid his part for her
education. She went to [her original school] then XX high school and
finally XX University. I am very proud of her.
I read the Lottery article and all of these memories flooded over me.
I was so torn at the time because we had to decide whether to take her
out of the school or insist that the other child be removed. I decided
the other child IDENTIFIYING DETAIILS REMOVED would get lost
without the opportunity Edison afforded her (and her mother) and my
husband just wanted us to get our daughter out of there. Edison, from
what I heard over the years, took very good care of the other child and
she graduated. And Montessori gave her an environment where she
could grow at her own pace and express herself in her own unique
style. Because I'm a Montessori parent I'm not sure about public
gifted education but that's another story.
I learned
through this experience how important schools are to children and their
families and that I have an important responsibility to do my best as a
parent and a teacher. I keep working at it.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
This thread needs to continue. The multiple issues being discussed here can't be covered up for another 20 or 25 years. The problems revealed at the opening here are problems we're facing in the schools now and will continue to face in the future in every profession that serves children. It's one of the reasons why you can't substitute an outsources lesson plan from the Washington Post Corporation for practical veterans with experience. A kid can't learn if she's worried about what happened last night and what's going to happen after school today. Etc.
The biggest scandal in this particular area of reality in CPS is the fact that someone at Illinois removed the name of James Moffat from the Illinois Offenders data base and Web site. The reason that story was big and difficult a quarter century ago was that Moffat's clout (and blackmail tapes) went all the way to City Hall.
The reason it's been wiped out of the historical record (from Education Week to here at Catalyst) has to do with the same way in which official lies have a way of substituting for inconvenient truths. This was the largest and most extensive series of crimes of this type in any public education system in any part of the USA ever. But since it went all the way to the "top" (in corporate Chicago; in politics; and in the schools) it's still being covered up.
So...
I'm just weighing in in the hope that people continue discussing all the issues weighed here. They are as contemporary as the box scores of the Sox and Cubs. And just because Chicago has purged them from the official record doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to talk about them somewhere. Just because the victims were (at the time at least) poor and powerless doesn't mean they were nobodies to whom anything could be done by the Somebodies in power.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
This was a personal letter, not intended to be public. Her family is hurting. This is enough of this, take it down. It has nothing to do with the current discussion. This was 20 years ago. with no permission from the mother for this letter.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Just wanted to clarify my last post. By "poster," I meant the person who posted the story. Namely, Alexander. Not the mother who wrote the private letter.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
It was a personal letter to Alexander. I'm sure if the poster intended it to be public she would have been more discrete. It's of marginal relevance and she's asked, so I think it should be taken down.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
This was clearly written as a private letter and was irresponsibly made public by the administrator. That does not make it public property. What this poster has done is inexcusable both legally and morally. Take the thing down.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
We should all be careful of what we say and do in all situations so that ethics, morals and integrity remain intact. Our personal worlds have become less private and more public in recent years. It has become even more important to evaluate with care what we put in written form because by writing something down, you have created public property.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Is there anyone else who believes this blog has gone its distance and should be taken down? I've asked Alexander to please do that. When I wrote the letter, I did not intend it for publication. It was such an awkward, raw and incomplete letter. I tried to put it in a more intelligible condition after it unexpectantly appeared as a blog.
I hope the blog has helped people understand that children may ask for our help in ways that make us uncomfortable but the important thing is to help. That rarely gets done gracefully. Hence, this strange and bumbling thread that I think has healing qualities.
However, the blog has become too invasive of the two people most innocent. They never gave their permission to be discussed. It is not sufficiently edited to protect their identities, although Alexander tells me it is. Not so, as another Edison student wrote so compassionately.
My daughter is able to forgive me for my part in exposing her private life so publicly and I am grateful she can come to that place. I do not know how to make amends to the other young lady. I do not want her to be harmed.
As Alexander tells me, once something is posted, it remains online even if it is deleted. That's still no reason to keep the blog up. It's time to bring it down. Isn't it?
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
The main thing we might want to take from this story, everything else aside, is that whenever society gives a group of people (usually adults; sometimes younger people like camp counselors) a great deal of power over children, this kind of problem will probably arise (not allegedly, by the way). In every society, there are predators, often powerful and quite sophisticated.
A secondary warning might be that for every two charges of abuse, one is bearing false witness.
So this stuff is always going to be complex, and, as noted in this wonderful thread, the facts might not even begin coming out until all of the victims are adults and able to reflect (in some position of power) on their fate as children.
This is one of the reasons (not the only one) why we so fiercely oppose the rush to deregulation and "innovation" (for what?).
The deregulation part leaves the door open for the infiltration of predators and the development of a culture of predation, whether it is the cover ups of the Catholic Church in the USA (and, now, also in Ireland) or in the public, Catholic, and charter schools of Chicago.
I won't even revisit those analogies to the recent debacles on Wall Street, in The City, and elsewhere across the global economy. People who preach deregulation in the abstract as a kind of general good, like those who preached that stock prices or home prices would always go "up" ignore history and, need we add, human nature.
Every one of the great moral systems (usually articulated by one of the great religions) demands regulation to a greater or lesser degree, going all the way back to Exodus (cf. the Ten Commandments, the original narrative, not the epic movie).
The recent orgy of deregulation behind the various silly rhetorical smokescreens opened more doors than necessary to predators. Since Arne Duncan and Barack Obama want to force the Chicago Plan on the rest of the USA, I'm glad all this discussion is coming out of Chicago. The least we can do (after apologizing for foisting Duncan and his lies on the USA) is keep digging at each set of facts as they unfold and maybe now and then getting closer to a few hard earned truths.
The most notorious predator in the history of American public education operated out of Chicago, yet his crimes have been erased from the collective memory. He was convicted and served more than five years in the penitentiary for his crimes against children. His name was James Moffat, who once rose to the status of Deputy Superintendent of Schools for Management Services and who committed his most serious crimes while serving as principal of Chicago's Kelvyn Park High School.
And I helped bring him to justice by writing or editing more than 60 articles in Substance over the course of three long years.
We learned a lot during those hairy years, including how far a man with clout could go when carefully selecting his victims based on vulnerability. The poorer the child, the more the need for social protections. Poverty is the place where predators seek their prey. Socially, we need to protect the children in poverty as carefully as possible, not serve them up (like is currently happening from Bangkok to Cicero) on platters for predators.
We've learned a lot more about predation since James Moffat went to prison in 1988. We learned about the continued corruption that comes with Chicago clout, and about coverups. One of the two people who sat at Moffat's defense table every day of the trial was Anne Burke. That's the same Anne Burke wo was later hired to investigate the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. That Anne from those Burkes. Now a judge.
And, therefore and not surprisingly, James Moffat is the only major league Illinois sex offender you won't be able to find in the sex offender registry. Nor can you tease out much about his crimes, all of which were committed in Chicago, by Googling. Somehow, that all went down the memory hole (see Orwell, George, 1984).
A coincidence? In this town? Feel free to believe what you want. But don't impose those beliefs on the rest of us. Predators in schools have been around from the days of Socrates and will be around until the Second Coming (or whatever is out there at the big and final finish line).
The best we can do in an imperfect world (unless we really believe with Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush that every student, every teachers, and every school can become "above average" by 2014 or so) is have a really solid and ethnical median.
Carefully but not tyrannically supervised, with appropriate but not stupid regulations. Regularly revised and updated.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Thank you for such a clear, compassionate and insightful post. Apparently you have been shaped by a loving, nurturing environment equal to your abilities, specifically Edison 20 some years ago.
I have a few points to make - first, life happens. There were no acts committed by a child. There was a child to whom life happened unkindly. I agree with you about the privacy issues. And I'm trying the best I can to work this out now because I never wrote the letter with a public audience in mind. A hurt surfaced and I wrote a letter, not a blog.
Be that what it may, neither child has anything to feel guilty about. Guilty for what? Trying to get some help? Okay, so we grown-ups fumbled around and each in our own minds fret about how better we could have handled this. I don't think the ball got dropped though. Not knowing my daughter. Not reading your letter. Not at all. You give me much hope the other child is living a good life. Edison worked hard to do that and I suspect the rest of you children also benefited greatly from their effort. That's what you are showing me.
Your letter makes me cry. Thank you very very much.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
another well connected principalship line--what sorority is at that school? they have assured that AA women are and have been the only principals for quite a long time.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
To former Edison student,
One anecdote: one family reportedly left Keller Gifted in a primary grade because they judged the teachers' skills to be subpar (teaching incorrect facts, poor written grammar, etc.) and lost the belief that CPS could support students such as theirs. They also reported that they were not impressed by the average ACT scores from CPS SE high schools (lower than the average score needed for state university admissions). They also were allegedly bullied. This family moved to a private school with a grade school and high school program.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
As an educator, I agree with those who have commented that this is an appropriate story. We have a responsibility to protect our students from harm; just because this story is over XX years old does not make it any less relevant.
However, as a former Edison student, I find the presentation of this story, especially the headline, to be the kind of sensationalist story I'd expect from a tabloid, not a blog which I (usually) hold in high regard. The proper context needs to be explained so that people don't start calling up the school in a panic to inquire about something that happened over twenty years ago. The current Edison faculty has completely changed; no one who was there in 1985 is still there. The current Edison faculty is made up of highly competent professionals who would not let something like this happen now.
Since I graduated from Edison years ago, it didn't take me long to figure out which one of my childhood peers was being implicated in this story. It was (and still is) a very small school. I was a child at the time and was quite oblivious to anything that might be considered remotely scandalous, so I had no idea that something like this allegedly occurred. This parent included a number of details that not only identified the girl in question, but were disrespectful and could damage a person's reputation. Given that the girl who allegedly committed these acts was a minor at the time, her anonymity should be protected. I am not defending these alleged acts, but I think given the sensitive nature of this situation, the story should have been reported in a more careful and respectful manner. This girl is an adult now and one hopes that she has made it past her childhood circumstances to live a good life.
Other facts that were not mentioned (but should have been in order to provide a proper context): the gifted program at Edison, in 19XX, had only been in existence for a couple of years. Any new program is going to have issues with the preparation of its teachers. Now, it and the other gifted programs in the city have evolved (one hopes, that is) into high quality programs with teachers who are trained in both content knowledge and cognitive/emotional development. Things are completely different now. To say that this is a story about "leaving Edison" is misleading and does not take into account the simple fact that the Edison of 19XX is not the Edison of 2009.
As tangential as this story is to the ongoing discussion of public school options for Chicago families, it does beg an interesting question. We hear so many stories about how so many parents want to get their children into gifted/magnet programs and selective enrollment schools, but what about the parents whose children do get into these schools, but then end up transferring them to their neighborhood schools or other gifted/magnet/SE schools after a few years? Did something go wrong, or were there better options? Were there problems with academics or the administration or were there other factors that led to these choices?
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Laughter is good, allegedly!
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I am a little confused. I feel guilty for (allegedly) not protecting my child for a month and a half until we finally removed her from the alleged situation. I've already written that we called the police, but I didn't have an exact address. The school allegedly finally got on board. I assume they called DCFS. If the other child was in danger in her own home, that person left. One thing is certain though. Edison did a good job with the child who stayed and my child did well elsewhere.
I like the way you expressed yourself about the charitable teachers who stay for a few years and then move on. Teachers who devote their whole careers to teaching at risk chlidren are my heroes too.
Brooklyn where Alexander resides now (I read that somewhere) seemed far away when I told my daughter I had emailed Alexander and not to worry, her privacy wouldn't be affected. Didn't expect it to go blog and now it's probably being read in China too. Today, she's easier about it. Yesterday not so much. We've had some laughs at Alexander's expense but one of these days she's going to write him herself. He's a good person. Allegedly :)
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I'm sorry, are you saying you didn't do anything because we have no extradition treaty with - Brooklyn?
I am glad you so honorably served [i]other[/i] African-American children.
Alexander, this is why it no longer surprises me that your blog attracts so many people who blame the teachers who stay and fight for the children they serve while deifiying those who are just killing time til a 'real job' comes along, while providing those drifters, as well-intentioned as as they are unprepared with the opportunity to characterize their brief stint at CPS as some sort of charity work for which the system should be grateful.
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/6066/
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
George we love ya but yer off topic here... Not even Substance would say "This is what happened at Edison," they'd say this is what is alleged.
No wonder I rarely visit this blog, Russo posts whatever with no standards.
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Remember when Arne Duncan went before the Chicago Club for his first "State of the Schools" ramble with Paul Green and the others acting as cheerleaders.
In that speech, he clearly said that he wanted "every Chicago school to be a school of choice." He didn't say that he wanted to improve every neighborhood school until it was so desirable that people from the community would go there and the limited number of people from the outside who were allowed to go (because of desegregation guidelines) would want to.
He said "school of choice" in that Ayn Rand sense of the term that he's now foisting on the USA. As a result, he did everything he could to sabotage the neighborhood schools that were on his Hit List each year (the only year after his first (2001-2002) that he didn't attack schools was his second (2002-2003) because Arne and his handlers were still probing to see how much they could get away with. So Dodge and Williams were in that one year of "planning" that went along with the first "renaissance" (small "R").
Once he saw what he could get away with (2003-2004) it was all "choice" all the time. In 2004, I was there (as CTU director of security) when he double crossed the union. We were trying to fix the security problems at Austin and Calumet by identifying the gangs active in each school and neutralizing them with the help of school, community, parents, and police.
Arne and Michael Scott, on orders from City Hall, used our work in identifying the problems as Calumet and Austin to privatize Calumet and Austin (and in the process make the gang problems across the west side and south side bigger, resulting in many cases in the Body Count that Arne then utilized, again, for propaganda purposes, and not to solve real problems).
The trouble with establishing a Culture of Scapegoating, which is what the Scott years have been, is that nobody is willing to talk about real problems because -- like Austin, Calumet, and dozens since -- they are going to get your school closed and your people fired. The people who prattle about Calumet and Austin from their privileged seats on the Chicago Board of Education wouldn't walk those streets after dark. Cowards are like that. But as long as they have the power to bully people (and then have their lies amplified as the official Truth), they become bolder. Board members. Mayors. Schools CEOs. Board of Education presidents whose "volunteer" work gets them $36,000 per year in expenses.
And then, when they elect a dissembling memoirist President of the USA, they get to spread their lies and programs from Atlantic to Pacific.
This "choice" thing has always been about the destruction of public schools. As we put it in our May print edition headlines:
Chicago's lies go national.
These lies are just as toxic about public education as they were when the banks were using them to destroy the global economy (except for their executives' bonuses) in the name of "choice" and, let's not forget the others -- "innovation," and (the one that slams into educational sanity) "entrepreneurship."
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Just add the word "alleged" before the posting. There. That's what journalists do. No more "shoddy" intro.
Guess Russo Never Took Journalism Either
Russo, you can't use that lead: "what happened to her daughter at Edison," you can only say this is what is alleged. Any journalist knows that's the case. I'm not diminishing the story, I'm just saying you have NO CREDIBILITY if this is how you treat every story that comes your way.
Example: "One parent recalled how, 25 years ago, he was molested by Alexander Russo at the Edison playground."
Who's to say whether that's true or not? How would you like it if we spread THAT story like wildfire? It's NOT a "story," it's an allegation.
Well, how you handle it is you say: ONE PARENT ALLEGED HE WAS MOLESTED BY RUSSO. Use the word ALLEGED.
Otherwise, just publish whatever president-lacks-birth-certificate nonsense you want and we'll all see this blog for what it is.
Alex, I cannot express how disappointed I am in that you do not appear to understand how irresponsible you are being with your shoddy intro. I'm not diminishing the woman's story, I'm sadly disappointed in your nonexistant standards for how you present "facts."
Learn the word "allege" and its forms (alleges, alleged, etc) The word is your friend.
-Pearls Before Swine
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I taught at an African American low income school. The teachers there kept me honest and on track about the other little girl deserving the chance that Edison could give her. It is a travesty that so many African American teachers are losing their jobs in the Chicago Public School system now. Chicago children, including my own, live in a better world because of the good work and generous hearts of AA teachers. Mentors, role models, friends - and the best teachers I ever worked with.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 7:52 PM
By: Important Stuff
Your instincts are excellent. It is seriously out of whack. The emperor is not wearing clothes!
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
The boyfriend left the other child's mother around this time. We did go to the police. We just didn't know the other child's full name or her address. I knew her first name and that they lived in our neighborhood. School had just started, she was in kindergarten. We had not bonded yet with the school. And the school did take responsibility and embraced the other child. It was of upmost importance to me that she and her mother were well cared for by the school when we met with the District Superintendent and the CPS psychologist.
I wrote that in the letter, but maybe not clearly enough.
Except about the boyfriend. It scared me when he began calling and asking to speak to my child. And that he lived in our neighborhood somewhere.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Here's the issue - regardless as to what's goiong on, why should a parent have to "find" a good public school. Why can't every neighborhood just have one? Playing the lottery or "buying" your way into a "good" school is ridiculous. Don't we pay hefty homeowner's taxes? All the Catholic schools in my neighborhood aren't "good" anymore, so I have to do private. I don't know about you but this seems out of whack to me.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I think it's appropriate, but not because Edison is in the headline. During the years in question, we were reporting on a number of sex criminals in CPS, the most notorious of which was James Moffat. It took five years between the time students and one social worker began to try and blow the whistle on Moffat (who had clout all the way up to City Hall) and the day he was locked up after being found guilty at trial and sentenced.
The stresses of blowing the whistle on a sex crime anywhere -- including a public school -- are enormous. Teachers are mandated reporters (that means we're legally required to report suspicions of activities like those recounted in the narrative here), but parents have some discretion. None of the choices is a good one.
One last thing.
These narratives remain for decades, and this one shows. I recently received a phone call from a woman in a northern suburb whose life was undermined at Age 14 by Moffat. She was together enough to get a really good lawyer and win a decent settlement (more than a half million dollars) from CPS on the eve of trial in the damages case. (Did CPS really want to civil trial on why it was allowing one of its principals to rape kids?).
Like the Catholic Church, every other institution that deal with children and places children under the power of adults will be facing these stories, true and otherwise, forever. I'm glad Alexander posted this piece. Certainly there will be others. The question is how we face these problems today, since in any service as large as our they are going on as we speak.
This is one of the reasons why at Substance we're do angry at the claims of the charter people on behalf of deregulation. Part of our job as professionals is to guard those whose lives are entrusted to us. Not to let them come to danger or worse because of our negligence. Back in the "old days," I can't remember a school where this wasn't drummed into everybody over and over.
The floodgates and victims of the deregulation craze of the last 20 years or so will just be coming forward now. I guess we need to take the histories seriously when people have the courage to send them to us, check them out a bit carefully, and then decide whether we will continue to discuss such forbidden topics.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I'm reading all the various and sundry sidebars, but I can't stop staring at your post and wondering [i]why you didn't call the police. [/i]If you were concerned about this child's future, as you profess, did it not occur to you that it might be just as helpful to her development if she also stopped being molested?
I'm an educator as well, but even if Edison were all that and a bag of chips, in my mind, not being abused trumps gifted education every time.
[i]That[/i] is what is bizarre about this post to me.
I'm not trying to hurt your feelings but I'm hoping you remember going forward that as a teacher, you are a mandated reporter of child abuse.
Saying that an African-American child was better served by your silence sounds like when Former first lady Barbara Bush said that New Orleans refugees being housed in the Houston Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them"....
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
This is something which strikes a chord. And makes people uncomfortable. I wrote the letter and didn't expect it to blog. There is something right about it to me now that it is here. My daughter is angry at me right now and Alexander is a good person. I'm going to trust in the right outcome because it's all about healing anyway. Have you ever noticed that healing is a clumsy thing? Full of grace, but not graceful. Again, apologies and thanks to all.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I'm with Bob on this.
As for the acronym, see [url=http://www.netlingo.com/word/rotflmao.php new=true]here[/url].
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
What is ROTFLMAO?
And good for the writer, and good for Alexander. I can't stand the bloggers who criticize others. I got slapped the other day for being "off topic", but to me it was SO on topic. and then a "we mean business here" IT'S A BLOG
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Thank You
How many of you insensitive louts realize the guts it took to write that letter?
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Wait a minute-I think you are all too quick to jump on Alexander.
While it is true that this story is not current, it still is in keeping with the current situations within CPS. As a parent, I can empathize with this author. As CPS takes every opportunity to undermine public education, and as CPS makes every effort to support tyrannical principals, and as the BOE dismisses parents and teachers who plea for help, then parents all over the city have to go through a version of this story. How much effort should a parent make to address and resolve problems, while waiting for the mountain that is CPS to respond? How much should one family take before they decide to change schools? How do you balance the decision between trying to change the situation for the better, with doing the right thing for your children?
Is it related to selective enrollement "scandal"? Not directly. But it is certainly related to the plight that many parents experience when dealing with CPS.
As a final note, I do think, Alex, that it might be a more transparent policy to inform the author that you are going to creat a blog and ask for permission to publish, rather than just publishing. Parents may not realize that submitting a story to you will become a public discussion.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
OK, at LEAST change your smarmy statement, "Read below for one parent's story about what happened to her daughter at Edison, and keep writing in with your experiences and questions about the challenges Chicago faces for parents."
To something more REALISTIC such as:
"I UNDERSTAND THIS ISN'T RELATED IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER TO THE CURRENT STORY ABOUT SELECTIVE ENROLLMENT, BUT read below for one parent's story about what SHE ALLEGES happened to her daughter at Edison XX YEARS AGO, and keep writing in with your experiences and questions about the challenges Chicago faces for parents. "
Otherwise, Alexander, your intro post is disingenuous. To say the least. If you won't take it down, fix your smarmy intro post. Thanks.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
Yipes! I didn't intend this letter to be read by the whole world. My daughter wasn't happy I wrote it but I told her, "He's in Brooklyn!
Your last name is different than mine! You were such an itty bitty thing and you were there a month and a half. I was the one who needed a lot of therapy!" Since I emailed Alexander I thought and thought about it because it was something that unexpectantly emerged from reading about parents who are concerned about getting their children into schools. It just emerged.
I realize that there is some hurt still remaining in both my daughter and myself but that we are fine today. Both children have always been in my prayers and still are. What was driving this whole inicident was that the Child Abuse system was rather new and as a whole we were all awkward using it. It makes me rather sad to think of that. As the years passed, I had situations when I helped protect children and instances where I also was slow on the uptake. I fret about that. But in the end the system works.
I have so many people to thank for listening to me and trying to understand when sometimes my hurt would just hang out and make for very uncomfortable moments. Sorry that I just did it again. However, I didn't expect it to go into the blog. But it did and maybe it will serve as a lesson to all of us to talk with our children, listen to them, and work together to keep them safe. Children are very resilient and heal with our attention.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
cermak rd writes: [i]Heck just the fact that it reads fairly well, as though the writer had more than a third grade education is a refreshing change from the usual comments posted.[/i]
ROTFLMAO!
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I think this post is important in showing the human side of the school story. In this case, it is good knowing the end of the story which is that the student grew up with supportive schools and turned out just fine. The writer of the letter acknowledges that her story is not the common one. Heck just the fact that it reads fairly well, as though the writer had more than a third grade education is a refreshing change from the usual comments posted.
CPS still doesn't deal well with bullies and it definitely doesn't deal well with emotionally disturbed children who seem as though they are frequently allowed to disturb other children with impunity.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I also agree with ty and used to think, please take this story down. Very weird and no revelance whatsoever. i to am disappointed.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I'm with "used to think..." take it down. now. just weird.
Leaving Edison: One Parent's Story
I appreciate the hindsight this post offered. We fret about our schools nowadays. It's great to hear how those who went before us fared. This is relevant to me.
This is just hard to understand or believe--the blog owner's act
Let me get this straight. XX YEARS LATER, this parent posts her 19XX allegations that have nothing to do with the current discussion regarding CPS enrollment--and this blog owner POSTS IT AS RELEVANT?
Alexander, we all make mistakes; just admit you forgot to have your coffee this morning and posted this woman's letter by mistake. Then, take it down. It has nothing to do with the current discussions regarding selective schools whatsoever--and you know it!