Platte County R-III School District — Local services in Platte City

A couple of weeks ago, my friend's daughter was lured into the bathroom by two eighth-grade girls at the middle school. They told her they "just wanted to talk" to her. They proceeded to beat her, knock her unconscious, and kick, hit, and pull her hair. The victim's mother was told by the school staff that her daughter "passed out again in the office"; they later denied it. Because her daughter fought back in self-defense, she was told that her daughter was an "active participant" in the altercation, and the school would not be issuing any disciplinary action toward the two attackers. This incident was not reported to law enforcement by the school. My friend took her daughter to the Emergency Room, where it was confirmed that she sustained a concussion, among other injuries. The victim's mother met with the principal and the superintendent of the school district. The attackers were not expelled from school. No known disciplinary action was taken. No child is safe at the middle school when this type of dangerous, physical bullying is permitted without consequence. The victim's mother was told by the principal that the school has video of the incident but would not allow her to view it. I have personally seen video of the incident from another student's phone recording of the attack. These bullies still roam the school where my kids attend. I am extremely disappointed with the way this school district has handled (done nothing about) this situation. Knowing that my the child had been attacked, hit her head, and knocked unconscious, the first thing they should have done would be CALL 911! Brain injuries can have permanent effects and can cause death! It can happen quickly! But nothing was done by the PCMS staff!...

Feeling like more and more the emphasis is to try to get kids to perform on standardized tests at the expense of actually being concerned about whether they are mastering the concepts. 1-4 grading system is a failure since it is often converted to A-F for comparison and attempts to expain and the kids are not prepared for the grading system in middle school and high school. Paperless system means kids don't bring home papers so it's hard for parents to follow along. Kids work online but they can't "assign online homework because not everyone has access at home" so kids are expected to do this work whenever they can fit it in during the day. This makes it so much more challenging for parent involvement. There is a bombardment of communication by email and various apps, however no place to search for the information for centralized reference. Info sometimes conflicts between newsletters, emails...

The administration staff lack basic communication skills such as listening. They are confused as to basic duties of different roles within their administrative structure. You need to know the name of the person you need to speak to and their role because if you do not the staff does not have the listening ability and/or cognitive problem solving skills to hear your request and route it appropriately. The staff seem to operate on the premise that no one ever leaves Platte County and so you should be perfectly abreast of the staff and policy there even 20 years after...