VBCPS

Kemps Landing Magnet School has appeared in the news repeatedly, for the good (surfing field trips) and the bad (rat infestations). What didn’t reach the papers was hushed up by loyal students.

In the 2008-2009 school year, there was a less publicized infestation of cockroaches. The bugs were found everywhere from the cafeteria to the gym. On the very first day, sixth grade students were told about the procedure called “Cockroach Broom Hockey” in Mr. Karle’s portable for removing the bugs.

That same portable, during the same class’s period later in the year, was graced with the presence of several wasps. One such wasp landed in the hair of Cecilia DiNonno, causing considerable panic.

The space heaters in the hallway were and still are fire hazards. Cecilia’s classmate Estelle Teske, whose locker was on the end of a row beside the heater, accidentally left her binder on the top of the heaters. Within thirty minutes the binder melted completely. Only then did signs reading “Do not leave stuff on heaters; Fire Hazard” appear over the heaters.

Another danger in the fifty year old school building was the roof in the gym. The gym was barely big enough for one class to line up shoulder to shoulder for the Pacer aerobic fitness test. When it rained, the roof leaked. In order to avoid students slipping in the puddles, trashcans were placed around the gym and students had to run around the obstacles. However, there were only so many trashcans and the only real way to keep water off the floor would be to have trashcans everywhere.

Early in the 2009-2010 school year ants were all over the school, even found in the lockers all over the binders. Throughout that school year seventh graders, Silverbacks, became aware that math teacher Mrs. Pinner spent the class periods on Facebook instead of grading.

Many people remember the rats of the 2010-2011 year. Student attempts to sell t-shirts mockingly celebrating these new creatures were quickly squashed. Once, half of the cafeteria kitchens were closed due to rats, consolidating the students to one lunch line and significantly shortening the amount of time unfortunate students who bought lunch at the end of the line had to eat lunch, like Titans student David Blumenthal, who only managed to scarf down half of his meal.

Fruit flies invaded that spring, mainly in the eighth grade hallway due to indoor compost bins in Ms. Young’s science classroom. Throughout the year, the Chorus portable had at least one wasp a day for weeks on end. One May afternoon, no less than four wasps were spotted during bell 7.

Yet the bugs were only the tip of the drama iceberg.

Titans teacher Ms. Li repeatedly insulted her A1 class’s intelligence, and at one point told Eddie Lin of block A1 that he “makes Chinese look bad.” During Focus, Ms. Li would insist students arrived on time, no matter how valid the reason was for them to be coming in late. She also repeatedly pulled students out of other Focuses and refused other teachers her Focus students in addition to going against team policy to ban water bottles from her class. This caused unprofessional friction between Ms. Young and Ms. Li that showed quite clearly.

A student from the Titans team, Hannah Misitis, suffered from chronic debilitating migraines that caused her to miss much of her eighth grade year. Her make-up work just kept piling up to the point that the stress caused more migraines, triggering a vicious cycle of the headaches.

On one occasion Ms. Li point-blank refused Hannah a worksheet she missed because she thought she’d already given the worksheet to her. Hannah’s mother appealed to Ms. Li, but she still wouldn’t budge. Hannah only scraped a C on the lesson’s subsequent quiz.

Multiple times her mother, Donna Brooks, tried to find a way to get the school to be consistent with their handling of Hannah’s absences. Finally a desperate Google search of the right combination of terms revealed a solution known as a “504 plan.”

“I just don’t understand why no one mentioned this before. I asked the guidance counsellor [Ms. Schwitter] repeatedly what we could do.” Donna said later.

Before the parent-teacher meeting to discuss the 504 plan, Hannah as pulled out of her first bell class and asked several questions about her migraines. She reported that “it felt like they were interrogating me, trying to catch our stories contradicting each other.”

Eventually, however, Hannah was placed in Homebound Instruction, where she took Geometry and Earth Science online and had a tutor come twice a week to teach her Latin III, English, and Civics. Almost immediately her grades soared.

Reluctantly, Hannah was allowed to perform in the Chorus musical Guys and Dolls, which she’d been working on in Chorus for several months. However, she was banned from the eighth grade semi-formal and picnic, something she says she’d been looking forward to since she’d heard about it in sixth grade.

“I did a lot for Kemps Landing. I came to all but one of the SCA dances, often just to sit in the corner with my close friends and try to ignore the music, to support the SCA. I went to a few Thalia Creek Clean-ups, an after school activity set up by my friend James to clean up the creek behind KLMS. In sixth grade my science class helped plant the rain garden and in eighth grade I replanted that same garden. It just seems like they turned against me because of my migraines. I didn’t ask for the headaches. I loved coming to school.” Hannah said, “If I went to the semi-formal, the school could claim my Homebound Instruction was invalid because I was obviously in good enough health and clear my grades, causing me to fail after all this work. But they know perfectly well that even when I missed school I came in a few days a week feeling fine. I already had a dress and shoes and everything, so there’s money down the drain.”

It seems the Virginia Beach Public School System and the Kemps Landing faculty have some explaining to do…