King Open

My daughter has spent two years in the Portuguese immersion program, Ola. The program is a mix of families who have a connection to speaking Portuguese and those who simply wish to give their child the gift of speaking a second language. Thus far I can say it is a wonderful program which our family feels lucky to be a part of. The King Open school as a whole fosters and teaches inclusion and kindness—and we can see our daughter growing in leaps and bounds not only academically but also socially.

I was a paraprofessional in an Autism Spectrum Disorder classroom. The classrooms use Applied Behavioral Analysis, regardless of the intelligence level of the child. This method involves sitting even kindergartners down with an adult, for almost the entire day, and forcing them to answer the same questions over and over again. Statistics are taken. Obviously, the repetition and lack of interaction result in profound boredom, and the children act out as a result. They are then often restrained and always sequestered into a padded room where they can scream for hours. In some reasons, the rooms are situated by the hall where horrified general ed kids parade by. Chit chat with children, which is how all research since the 1950's shows children learn, is discouraged. We are encouraged to use as few words as possible when interacting with the children. Reading books is reduced to repeating questions until the child gets them right. A program that is 50% Applied Behavioral Analysis may be appropriate for 50% of the time for very low functioning children, but it certainly isn't the right fit for most of them. The lead teachers in the ASD classrooms have a degree in Applied Behavioral Analysis, and almost no training in special education. When they aren't doing ABA, their teaching methods are basically the same as how they were probably taught. They initiate a lot of activities that have been shown in the past 10 or 20 years to not be the most effective educational strategies. It's all very therapeutic.

During inclusion activities, I found the general ed teachers to be incredibly racist. The differentiation of consequences based on race astounded me. Further, the general ed teachers knew nothing about adapting academic assignments to the language status and intellectual level of the child. This situation renders it nearly impossible for children, both above and below average, to reach their capacity.

Further, the general ed teachers have no idea what to do with the kids who have autism. They are almost entirely ignored.

The administration was incredibly unsupportive about my concerns. At one point, the principal told me that if I wanted a union rep at a meeting, then that meant "you don't trust, and that's a problem." So he was basically telling me that I can't have my legally authorized representative in the meeting.

This is the worst school ever. They do not know how to deal with kids. I have watched one day how rude one staff member deals with children. I think there is a problem with this school teaching philosophy. I wish if have not sent my kids to this school. My advice to you do not send your children to this school

King Open is a school with dedicated and engaged teachers, and this review is in no way meant to take away from the effort that they put in.

That said, the school has a principal, Darrell Williams, who cannot anticipate problems or address them, does not listen to the concerns of parents, and who has in improbably low bar for educational and behavioral standards.

Concretely, Principal Williams has failed to address ongoing disciplinary overreaches on the part of his staff (not the teachers, but other staff) that include a child being put into a locker by an adult as punishment, children being physically forced to run, do pushups and situps as punishment, and a systemic approach to collective punishment that results in children who are behaving well being punished regardless because of the behavior of their peers.

In addition, he has overseen a catastrophic failure in the portuguese immersion program, and a catastrophic failure in the management of the current 5th grade in a period of only two years. The former required a complete reset for the program, and the latter resulted in six children transferring out of a class where his limited and ill-conceived efforts to support the class entirely failed.

During his tenure the academic performance of King Open, already not terribly good, has gone down, and the parent community that supports the school has watched in dismay as the institution that so many people worked to build has failed their children.

If you can possibly avoid it, do not send your kids to this school while Principal Williams is the head master.