Maybe because I was not a technology baby and when we were in 7th and 8th grade, we were learning how to type on typewriters and had to memorize the keys because there were no characters, letters, or symbols on them. No social media. No internet. The Brady Bunch. Life was more naïve, and maybe that’s why we survived?
Yes we had mean girls and plenty of bullies back then, and a few from back in my day are still just that. Of course that makes me laugh, and I love when grown up mean girls and bullies like to apply those names to me for either speaking the truth or speaking my truth (take your pick.) This is also why I encourage people to go to reunions if they can once in a while. When the abused see their former abusers still stuck in that time warp of small mindedness how many years later, it’s very freeing since so many of them are still stuck in their proverbial glory days.
So what has brough about this post? Well it started with something I saw on the Great Valley Middle School website:
Umm ok so why? Dr. Souders, right or wrong IS the TikTok principal. Wow just wow the grief over saying that. Someone said he wasn’t principal when this happened. Yes he was. It began in what? February? And that doesn’t count when those lovely kids (sarcasm) decided trying to destroy teachers was the best blood sport, ever was it?
I do my research and from what I can ascertain – which is hard because Great Valley is somewhat secretive – just try to find any reference to the TikTok of it all on their websites. Existing parents who follow meetings and such have told me interim Dr. Cohen can only be voted as interim for 40 days at a time. I was also told there was no official notice of Souders being put in academia time out until just before school started. It showed up under personnel. I personally found it buried in a July 24th agenda. They don’t seem to keep much historical anything on their website. Someone else told me this started June 17th? So that kind of started right before the media exploded with this, which means they knew, right? And also there is the irrefutable timeline of when this began, correct? This did not begin when the New York Times landed the article on July 6th. It began in February correct?
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2024/07/08/great-valley-middle-school-tiktok
Pennsylvania Education After targeted TikTok campaign, Great Valley teachers are pushing for a digital citizenship curriculum
They “sincerely appreciate your ongoing cooperation and partnership”
They want to be “addressing it together” with the parents.
They state “our greatest asset is for collaboration between home and school”
They “have always valued your partnership and will continue to do so as we move ahead”
Two female students posted an apology video in June through a TikTok handle that used the name of a seventh-grade teacher, according to the Times. They claimed in the video that they planned to post new videos but would make them private at the beginning of the school year, “’cause then they can’t do anything.”
So for my critics regarding Souders, even if you know zero parents in Great Valley or don’t have kids in the district but live there, FOLLOW the media reports who are pretty god damn accurate as to when Souders was where, correct?
Like it or not, deserve it or not, he’s the Great Valley TikTok principal. It happened on his watch. And yes, it would be definitely nice to hear from INTERIM principal Sharon Cohen. Sharon Cohen came to Great Valley from Manheim Township School District where she was an Assistant Principal circa 2019-2021. She became an Assistant principal in Great Valley in 2021. Prior to Manheim, she was an Assistant Principal at Collegium Charter School from half way through 2017 through early 2019. It’s on her LinkedIn.
What does Dr. Cohen have to say about this? Is Dr. Souders coming back? I have heard discussion of him from people who liked him, and those who were not overly fond of him. No matter what people may think, my questions now are as follows:
Will Souders come back or is he the scape goat for TikTok?
Or is there something else going on with Souders?
Why is the Great Valley School District being somewhat obtuse in my opinion? I am no fool, I know HR and personnel issues etc are out of the public view for the most part, but these are unusual circumstances aren’t they? So much has happened, shouldn’t the parents and taxpayers and residents of the district perhaps know a little more?
Of course my other opinion is I think maybe the teachers union has never been as supportive as they could have been? I think the union should have provided legal services for the teachers who had the fake accounts made about them. And it is a shame that so many feel that there are teachers who could actually provide more information to police but won’t, haven’t, and didn’t for myriad reasons, correct?
Look at what has happened at Great Valley to the staff list: it’s very generic now. (https://www.gvsd.org/our-district/our-staff) No photos, nothing personal. That I think is a result of the TikTok of it all. So what is the District doing? I mean besides locking up phones now? And phones aren’t the only thing that those kids can take photos with, correct? What about the school issued tablets? Apple Watches? Kids are often more tech savvy than adults so is it so hard to go around what Great Valley has set up to secure those tablets? They also refer to teachers as “constituents” which is an absurdly misused term. I have seen it misapplied with regard to alumni associations when referring to alumni.
And then there is the job, yes of the parents. So many parents are more concerned with being their kids’ friends, versus parenting. And then there are the parents doing their best to parent who do not feel the school has resources to offer them, or might not altogether. But there are the parents who find electronic babysitters easier. There are parents too tired to be concerned with what their kids are up to. So many variables, right?
But don’t you think there should have been more of action earlier on with this from the school district? To kids being disrupters, a couple of suspension days are a badge of badass honor and free vacation days.
I wonder if there will ever be resolution to this? I am sure if you ask the district lawyers, as is the case with any school district, there is a lot of legal doubletalk not answering questions, correct?
I knew before this that there were bullying issues in Great Valley School District. There are lots of bullying issues everywhere. It’s become a pathetic societal norm with lasting and pervasive after-effects.
Which brings me to the Radnor Township School District of it all. What’s up with another year of middle school thugs over there?
In September 2022 it was the Dunkin’ Donuts of it all:
In September, 2023 it was danger at the Chick Fil A:
It’s September, 2024 and today it’s this the purported Five Below fever at the Five Below Plaza in Wayne:
So is this fact or is this fiction or somewhere in between? It is no secret that a lot of these middle schoolers are punk asses whose parents use downtown Wayne as their after school babysitters, correct? Here are the comments and it would be nice if the district or Radnor PD weighed in:
Radnor Middle School has been a hot bed for misbehaving for quite a while hasn’t it? It’s another school district that doesn’t like to ‘fess up and admit they need to do better. A lot of it has to do with the misplaced entitlement of the nouveau Main Line. I actually DO know parents who pulled kids out of the district because of bullying especially in elementary and middle school. And remember 2017 when Radnor Middle School kids were arrested for attacking a kid in the King of Prussia Mall?
Charges have been filed against five Radnor boys in an assault of a Norristown boy in the King of Prussia Mall.
Justin Heinze, Patch Staff
Posted Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 1:33 pm ET
Charges have been filed against five Radnor boys in an assault of a Norristown boy in the King of Prussia Mall.
The boys, all under 18, face misdemeanor simple assault charges.
The incident occurred at around 8 p.m. on Friday, March 31 as the victim, of Norristown, was celebrating his birthday with his girlfriend and another friend, authorities said.
The victim told police that the suspects, seven teenage boys from Radnor, followed his group through the mall for around an hour.
In front of the Journey Kids store, the group began yelling at the victim and telling him they were going to beat him up, according to reports from the scene. Then they attacked him, knocking him to the ground and punching him repeatedly.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/king-of-prussia-mall-attack-arrests/14284
I don’t know what is with Middle School in today’s world. The problems are similar and nationwide, not just in Southeastern PA. Take what I found today:
https://www.covnews.com/news/crime/middle-school-student-charged-threatening-school-florida
https://www.abc27.com/local-news/4-districts-3-days-midstate-schools-see-slew-of-violent-threats
I ask again: When did Middle School become such a hell hole? Is this what today’s world including planted political misinformation has caused? Probably, but hell adults aren’t accountable to other adults, you expect them to be accountable to kids?
I went on a wander with this topic. We as adults especially with kids in school have to do better. I think school districts need to do better. I remember being told by a Radnor Middle School parent once upon a time that part of the issue they felt with middle school in general also has to do with a lot of middle schoolers not having enough time during the school day to blow off steam – you know like recess I guess? Or just being allowed to be kids?
These kids are the future. It’s time to show them a way other than growth as budding sociopaths right? Unplug. Go outside. Manners. Accountability. They are supposed to be kids, but kids are not supposed to be wild animals, right?
Ok keyboard tigers, roll up. (And some have like above who don’t seem to *get* that Congressional Candidate Neil Young gave an interview to a NATIONAL publication and where do people *think* they got the screenshots from???) I know you are lurking and I don’t actually care. I have been thinking about what happened to Middle School for quite a while.
I am still asking that.
