Bullying and possible causes

[William Ullman]

I agree - I would like to hear some specifics about the bullying. I would also not be surprised if this is the result of 4 systemic problems that need to be addressed at Trillium:

1) Poor nutrition (hungry kids can be irritable kids).

2) Not providing PE and enough time for exercise for All students.

3) Teachers leaving at a regular and alarming rate: having the bottom drop out whenever a teacher leaves is frankly demoralizing for students. I'm still dissapointed and desturbed about how Steve was not supported and essentially forced to leave without any discourse or communication until it was too late (He was an exceptional teacher). My son was excelling and enjoying learning, and being challenged with three of his teachers....Two left last summer and one is leaving after this year. This cannot be the new face of education...

4) Three grades in a classroom doesn't work...This makes the teachers job extremely hard...the kids are too emotionally, physically, and intellectually different and incompatible in a classroom from 6th to 8th. This is true at the lower school and it is true at the upper school. I would suggest going to a two grade class room.

It is my belief that these four problems have partially if not completely contributed to "bad" behavior. It is time for this school to start making the student's needs and the teachers needs a priority...basics first!

Will Ullman

[Michelle Eyres]

My son is a high school student.  He was bullied at Trillium and the mediation that was conducted between him and the other student worked well.  He has also spoken about middle school bullying issues and that there have been steps taken to stop it.

While I can appreciate the concerns of parents who have kids in danger of being bullied (my son has been bullied at 3 different schools including Trillium), I believe it would be more productive to have this conversation offline or in a separate email stream.  I unsubscribed to this listserv previously because of these types of online conversations.  My understanding is that this is for recruiting volunteers or notifying parents of school events.  The middle school is closing should come from Kieran.

Thank you.

Michelle Eyres
mde...@icloud.com
503.521.6896

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[deb butzen]

When is the meeting to address the bully concerns taking place?  It would be helpful to hear some specifics and solutions other than what is now not working.  We came to Trillium to escape PPS bully issues and had a hard 5th grade situation last year.  I appreciate this information and am curious how we move forward.

Deb

[Thane Norton]

> On May 25, 2016, at 12:35, William Ullman <willullma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 3) Teachers leaving at a regular and alarming rate: having the bottom drop out whenever a teacher leaves is frankly demoralizing for students. I'm still dissapointed and desturbed about how Steve was not supported and essentially forced to leave without any discourse or communication until it was too late (He was an exceptional teacher). My son was excelling and enjoying learning, and being challenged with three of his teachers....Two left last summer and one is leaving after this year. This cannot be the new face of education…

I recommend you take it up with Salem. Until Trillium is given comparable funding, teachers will continue to leave for public schools that pay better.

> 4) Three grades in a classroom doesn't work...This makes the teachers job extremely hard...the kids are too emotionally, physically, and intellectually different and incompatible in a classroom from 6th to 8th. This is true at the lower school and it is true at the upper school. I would suggest going to a two grade class room.

Which classroom is that? My kids are both in dual grade classrooms and it is working fabulously.

- thane
thane at crashbox dot com

[Ness Blackbird]

4) Three grades in a classroom doesn't work...This makes the teachers job extremely hard...the kids are too emotionally, physically, and intellectually different and incompatible in a classroom from 6th to 8th. This is true at the lower school and it is true at the upper school. I would suggest going to a two grade class room.

Which classroom is that? My kids are both in dual grade classrooms and it is working fabulously.

How can it be working fabulously when teaching is at a standstill because of bullying, etc?  Perhaps these problems are largely localized to some of the classes?  We need to know what has actually happened to make the Trillium MS stop functioning in terms of teaching.  Elsie seems to be doing OK.

Does anyone have detailed information about what we're actually talking about???  Obviously in a school which is no longer functioning due to violence between students, there should be extensive logs of what has happened, what were consequences, etc.  I haven't heard of any students being expelled this year, for example.  How many have been?  Ness

-- 

Ness Blackbird
evek...@gmail.com
503 568-4438

As Tip watched her, his uneasiness increased.
"What's that for?" he asked.
"For you," returned Mombi briefly.

[Johanna Norton]

Folks,

This email list is *not* the place to have this discussion. As mentioned previously, it is primarily a place for community announcements and volunteer recruitment, and is run by our PTA chapter. Trillium administrators and teachers are not monitoring this list, and we run the danger of repeating and spreading rumors and misunderstandings. 

The Positive Discipline model works on a case-by-case basis, and unless we are directly involved in a particular situation, we will probably *not* see what disciplinary steps are taken, *nor should we*. Just because we aren’t privy to the actions being taken, does not mean that nothing has occurred. 

If you have specific concerns, please send those concerns directly to executive director Kieran Connolly and student support specialist Sarah Cramer. And let’s allow them some time to address the immediate issues in the school building today, and to draft a response to the community’s concerns through appropriate channels.

Warmly,

Johanna Norton

mom to a 4th and 7th grader, and now in our 10th year at Trillium

[Ness Blackbird]

If our kids are going to a school which is as broken as all that, we need to know about it.  We need to talk about it, as soon as possible, in whatever format is available (and this is it, for right now).  Let's also schedule an emergency meeting.  Kieran, do you want to take the lead on that?

At the very least -- just for right now -- I'd like to know how many examples of what kinds of student aggression have been logged, and how many students have been suspended, expelled, or just talked to or whatever.  Because frankly, if the middle school no longer functions, we don't have a Positive Discipline model -- we have a mess.

Hotly,

Ness

-- 

Ness Blackbird

[Jennifer Springsteen]

I'm confused. I feel like I walked in on the middle of a conversation. Did I? 

We attended the middle school open house and all seemed well. The teachers were super enthusiastic, smart, and organized. Kieren actually brought up the difficulty with bullying that year and how it had been a challenge, but that they were working on how to make it work using the democratic learning style and conflict res. The teachers piped in in a positive way without seeming to be coerced. 

Who has said teaching is at a standstill? Teachers? Students? Admin? 

I'm an excited parent of a soon-to-be middle schooler and want to parse out here what is fact and what is fiction and why do these conversations on this list always make me feel like I'm missing the first and middle half of something?

---

Subject: Re: [Trillium Info Exchange] Bullying and possible causes
To: InfoEx...@trilliumcharterschool.org
From: evek...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 14:04:17 -0700

[Winn]

Is this thread in regards to the physical fight that broke out between a high school student and a middle school student?(among other issues?)

Was anyone informed about this? 

Winn

Sent from my iPhone

[Winn]

So I disagree, all schools have issues, all

Schools have fights and disgruntled students. What is being displayed here is a lack of communication from the school to the parents. Our school is small enough that if a physical fight breaks out and my 3rd grader knows about it, so should the adults. If the middle school has a "riot" and flees across the street (again I don't have middle school children but I hear this) I want to know about it. We are a small community, and we all contribute to it. We all deserve a right to know when major issues happen. 

When the personal safety of our children are in question, parents should know about it. The response could be simple and sweet. We had an issue today involving ----- we are looking into the matter and will inform you appropriately. 

Silence is terrible communication. The reason why we are here...searching for answers. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Travis Brown]

No, you are right, we do deserve to be informed and I suspect that we will be shortly (or hope we will be). I'm just meaning that the details concerning the incident is LEGALLY only supposed to be shared between the parties involved, that is PPS's stand point. The school should have however at least let us know there was an altercation.

More importantly if the students walked out of school grounds after finding out about the Oaks Park cancellation, THAT certainly should have been told to us and I didn't know about that.