I have struggled for a few months before I could decide whether or not to write this review, because I have met some wonderful and very professional people who worked at CWS. On the other side, however, I feel obligated to share my experience as part of the community, and especially as a parent. At the end of the day, I would expect other parents to do the same for the well being of our children.
So, initially, my family's experience with CWS was absolutely wonderful. My son was enrolled at about the age of 18 months, and he was placed in the toddler room. His teachers at the time were fairy tale-fantastic. Very caring, attentive, and sweet. The school offered a wide range of activities, both curricular and extra, especially during the warm months (which, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, sum up to about 75% of the year). I guess I could safely say that everything changed for us once my son reached his second birthday and was therefore placed in the 2 year old room, with two teachers, Miss Desiree and Miss Tika (I believe this is how her name is spelled). In all fairness, the school has a transitional period before the official class transfer, during which the child is exposed to the new class environment for a few hours every day, and after a month the official transfer takes place. My son did very well during the transitional period and seemed to be adjusting very well. I guess all was fine as long as he just spent an hour or two a day in the new class, but everything went South rather quickly once the official change took place. Within just a few days from the day of transfer into the 2 year old room, my son completely stopped eating. In fact, he was even refusing to drink water. In addition, almost over night, he started displaying very aggressive behavior, he became afraid of sleeping at night alone, and he became absolutely defiant and would refuse to cooperate with anything that was asked of him; in particular, he was extremely opposed to go to school. For an entire week, every morning, he would shout in panic out of his lungs all the way to his school, and once there, would categorically refuse to come out of the car seat. In addition, once I would pick him up, he would be upset with me and his father for the rest of the day. And again, no eating, nothing. So this went on for about a week to 10 days, and each time I approached the teachers about the subject, their response was a complete deflection unto me and my parenting style, rather than being humble enough to consider the possibility that something was taking place within the school environment. Miss Desiree in particular would answer to me with one liners of this sort: "You don't pack his food right", "You don't make him what he likes", "You need to put the food in a different backpack", and many more, including my favorite: "Come on mom, get a grip!"... Needless to say, each time I was told to do something different, I listened to their guidance because my only interest was to make sure my son was properly taken care of. However, I realized later on, I was not dealing with my son's teacher. I was dealing with her ego, with her inability to look at her professional behavior and accept the mere possibility that even for her, there was room for improvement. ...Because of space limitations, I cannot go on with all the details of my experience, but I will summarize the experience as much as I can. My son was hit by Miss Desiree's daughter, also attending the school, and Miss Desiree scolded my son while saying absolutely nothing to her daughter, she also yanked his paci out of his mouth and decided that he could not have it, in spite of the fact that other children did. My husband witness the accident with M. Desiree's daughter with his own eyes. Once he was crying at the snack table, unconsolable, and another little girl was crying. Miss Tika was handing out snacks, Miss Desiree was consoling the other girl, and nobody could care less about my son convulsing. After many other accidents, we took our son out and three Child specialist confirmed he displayed post traumatic behavior and suggested we remove him immediately. Miss Vivian the director, once we sat and spoke about it, suggested we move him to the other class, which was a very poor solution, given that in the afternoon the classes are joined and at that time Miss Desiree and Mika were also covering the other class because of a shortage of teachers. I decided to write this review because to this day Miss Desiree is working there, and was not held accountable for any of her actions. Unfortunately, again, I have to summarize all that happened because of space limitations, but I must underline that I did not take the decision to remove my son lightly. It came after three children specialists told me I had to. I loved many people who worked at this school. But if you must enroll your child there, I advise you to do all you can to keep him away from Miss Desiree's class. read more
