Research Elm Street School Public Schools in Gardner, Massachusetts

“Issues of bullying flow from the top down. The adults are setting the example and the kids are struggling to survive the administration's random approach of allowing some to bully and 'blaming the victim' for being bulllied.”

“I was so disappointed when my son entered Elm Street School. I had gone there and have such fond memories. My son was miserable. His teacher was the biggest problem. His grades had gone from A's to D's. She said he had a behavior problem which surprised me because his previous teachers only had good to say about him. He said that she blamed him for neighbors talking because she was always out of it and did not know what was going on in her own class. I know not to believe all he says but I changed his school to see what happened and he went back to A's and good behavior reports. He said the children did not behave at Elm and it made him uncomfortable. He is shy and there is a lot of verbal bullying there.”

“The Elm St School is a very old,dark,& gloomy. I would like to suggest the teachers go back and be retrained on how to treat children. My child switched classes with 2 teachers for academics. One teacher would ridicule & put the children down in front of there peers. And the other teacher she was very nice and compassionate but my only problem with this teacher is, she tended to favor certain students and would make it known to the class by praising these students in front of the whole class which made the other children very resentful of the students this teacher favored.”