The Losses of USD 501

In the Sunday edition of the Topeka Capitol Journal, the headlines read “USD 501 Head Count Falling”. In this story, some unidentified school district officials insinuate that real estate agents are to blame for the decline because they “steer home buyers away from the school district.” USD 501 Superintendent Tony Sawyer further implies that real estate agents are at fault by saying, “What we’d like to get is a fair message from our real estate brokers that says our school district is really improving,...” I disagree.

My disagreement is based upon my personal experiences with USD 501. As I am sure I have told you before, my son, who is now nine, has Autism and is in special education. My son attended Kindergarten at Berryton Elementary in the Shawnee Heights School District. That year, my daughter attended Tecumseh North, also in the SHSD. Both children had outstanding years, with no problems.

However, to be closer to the center of town, we moved into USD 501 district three years ago. It seemed that both of my children immediately started to have ‘issues’. It started with my son coming home with bruises on the inside of his arms. He started to wake up in the middle of the night screaming from nightmares. He came to dread going to school, whereas at Berryton, he drove my wife and I nuts with his impatience of waiting for his bus to arrive each morning.

As we slowly discovered the truth, it was so astounding that I couldn’t believe it. It turned out that it was not other children leaving the bruises on his arms, it was his teachers. Rather than asking (or even telling) him to move from one activity to the next, they would grab his upper arm, and physically pull him over to where they wanted him. Rather than showing patience with my disabled son, they would yell at him for not doing what they wanted as fast as they wanted (typical of his disability).

My sons doctor who is a man who loves all of the children under his care. He spent a day observing my son in his classroom, and during a followup meeting, told the teachers that some of the things they were doing could reasonably be considered child abuse and some could even be considered human rights violations. Very strong words from such a gentle man, but at least they seemed to work temporarily, as the bruises stopped appearing for about two months.

During his second year in USD 501, after my son showed that he really didn’t like his teacher (he called her ‘very mean’), the school district agreed to transfer him to another school. My son immediately fell in love with his teacher at the new school. Unfortunately, the schools tolerance of children bullying other children was simply unacceptable. This bullying had the impact of teaching my son that violence was not only acceptable, but in certain cases, it was approved of.
One day, when I went to pick up my son for an appointment, all of the students were attending an assembly in the school gym. I was standing in the hall chatting with a few teachers, when a couple of students came walking out of the gym. One of the students was relatively small, and the other relatively large. The smaller student walked up to one of the teachers, as if to tell her something, when the larger student walked up, interposed himself between the teacher and the student, and told the teacher that she needed to tell the smaller student to stop pushing people. He then proceeded to place both of his hands on the smaller student’s shoulders, and physically shoved him to the ground.

One teacher reacted by looking at the bully, and telling him something like, “Now you know you’re not supposed to be doing that, now get back inside the gym and sit down!”

The other two teachers only reaction was to help the smaller student pick himself up off the ground, asking if he was hurt.

I was shocked. I went to the school’s office and demanded to see the principal. I told him what I had seen, and he promised to attend to it.

However, I was wondering if this was the way students acted in front of the teachers, what type of behavior went on when the teachers weren’t watching. Maybe the stories my son told me of being accosted on the playground by two or three students at a time were true!

It was then that I then decided, never again. As soon as our lease was up, we fled back to Shawnee Heights, and once again, my children seem to be receiving the education they deserve.
Fortunately, we were able to escape from USD 501, and no matter what propaganda is spewed, I don’t foresee any improvements forthcoming until such time as the district gets back to the basics of teaching in a safe and secure environment.

In the school my son first attended in USD 501, the teachers were bad. In his second school, his teachers were excellent (thank you Margaret Price of Avondale West), but they were unable to control their students. Whether due to policies, or because there were too many students for too few teachers, I don’t know. But it is definitely a result of the failures of the USD 501 school district.

My advice to you Mr. Sawyer, is that you make the district worth attending before you attempt to blame others for your own faulty policies.