St. Margaret of Scotland School

The lack of supervision and classroom coverage has made Saint Margaret’s a festering cesspool for school bullies. My daughter has been physically assaulted by three different male students, one continuously. She has been head butted and shoved during car line where students wait to be picked up. She has been kicked, shoved, punched, and slapped in the face on the play ground. She has been shoved, kicked, punched, and now had her arm twisted to the point she has a sprained elbow.nnWe have requested that the school informs us of any incidents involving our daughter. We are never contacted by the school. We are informed after school by our daughter. When we contact the school we are told the kids were just rough housing or that no one saw anything. Most recently, the principal denied talking with my daughter while she was in the office with an ice pack for her elbow. My daughter is devastated to learn an adult who is suppose to be concerned for her well-being would lie about something that directly effects her safety.nnWe are a Jewish family at a Catholic school, we’ve always been open and honest about this fact. We’ve always taught our daughter respect and learn about other religions.nnWhen the situation at school escalated rather than being addressed, I asked the principal if there could possibly be Anti-Semitic concerns, the principal laughed at me and said “She’s not Jewish!” He laughed at me as if I didn’t understand what the word meant. I looked at him and said yes she is and we’ve never hidden that fact. I told him I also knew she wasn’t the first one at Saint Margaret’s. The principal never addressed my concern but claimed most issues are handled by the teachers to empower them and that he tries no to get in the way of “empowering” his teachers.nnAny previous reputation the school may have had does not apply to its current condition or principal.

Due to a long history of Saint Margaret of Scotland school being recommended to me by my co-workers, my wife and I decided to send our daughter to St Margaret of Scotland school. This is my daughter's third year at St Margaret's of Scotland. She's currently in the second grade and I am sorry to report that not only can I no longer keep my daughter at this school but I can no longer recommend sending a child to the school at all. There's a child in my daughter's class who is assaulted her multiple times and has not been expelled or even severely disciplined. The most a child has gotten is a talking to. In fact at one of our forced volunteer events I spoke to the child's mother and she was unaware that there had even been any problems with my daughter despite having had multiple problems in the past with her son doing similar things to other children. Assault after assault the principal has been incapable of handling the issue when I confronted him about it he feigns ignorance. He tries to tell me that he wants to empower his teachers by letting them handle things. However when you speak to the teachers about this, they tell you that they are discouraged by the principal from contacting parents about issues like this. I wish I could recommend this school because academically I have zero problems with it. However due to the recent events over the last seven months that my daughter has been in the second grade I cannot recommend a school that cannot keep a child safe or stop another child from assaulting other children. It's a sad State of Affairs when you can not trust a school to keep your child safe from other children.

We pulled our daughter out of St Margaret's at the end of the 2017 - 2018 school year for the same reason listed below. The school is completely unwilling or unable to handle issues with student bullying and assault. We were not the only ones, In our case most of the girls in last years 2nd grade class did not return the next year because of a single female student who is still enrolled in the school.nnThe former principal whom everyone liked and was involved was replaced at the end of the 2016 - 2017 school year for reasons not disclosed to the parents. To this day I do not know why. Since then the school has been on a slow decline. They spent a year without a principal (the music teacher filled the role).nnThey replaced the preschool teachers who were fantastic, always had the kid's doing structured activities, crafts, etc. Their replacements put the kids in front of a TV.nnEven things we did not think were bad at this school, turned out to be bad in hindsight. Her new school's academics and activities are far above what we had at St Margaret's under the best of circumstances.nnI decided to write this review after seeing other reviews. I regret not doing it sooner. It may have prevented someone from going through the same experience.

The greatest teacher, Mrs. Cancilla, was here. I still cherish those memories with her (I’m tearing up thinking about them), particularly the times we watched Dora. The nostalgia is deadly right now.

This school does not take a child's safety seriously. I have sat and watched my God daughter get physically sick because of the physical bullying she has suffered from the hands of another child. After repeated physical interactions between 2 children one would think that a conference between the parents, teacher and principal would be a logical next step. No such conference has occurred. Even after a physical agression from the other child ended with my God daughter needing medical attention there has been no meeting called between parents. I dont understand the schools lack of response or care.