A terrible school. The teachers are terrible for the most part, the school administration is…read moreterrible, and this school district in general is terrible. It is a stain on the community it is in. I had the misfortune of going here while growing up, and as someone with high functioning autism, I was forced into the special ed program even though I very much shouldn't have been and didn't belong there. I was seperated from my friends and treated like I was too stupid to learn anything, and so I didn't, other than the things I taught myself. I am not a stupid person and I am not a bad learner, I just had bad teachers, and trust me, this whole school, and especially its special ed program, have no shortage of bad teachers.
They do nothing to stop bullying, either. They say they have a zero tolerance policy for bullying. What they mean is they have a zero tolerance policy for those who get bullied. They do nothing to punish bullies, ever, not even once, but whenever I'd stand up for myself, despite being told to do so by teachers, I'd get in trouble. The teachers would also join in on the bullying. I am gay, and while I wasn't open about it when I was that young I definitely knew it and it was pretty obvious. So the bullying was relentless. This is not a safe place to be for anyone who isn't completely conformist in every way, be it due to being queer, or being autistic. This school doesn't nurture individuals or individuality, it doesn't recognize student's talents, it crushes them.
I was and still am an artist, and teachers would always try to stop me from doing art whenever they could, try to spin it like my art was inappropriate. It wasn't inappropriate art, in fact a lot of my art had major historical themes, which you think would be educational. But I was only ever punished for engaging in my talents and passions.
This school was the first step on the long road to having lots of trouble going through school, and I struggled all the way until I had to drop out, and eventually get my GED. That wasn't entirely because of this school, but it didn't help and I had to swtich schools after 6th grade. From what I've heard from other students, their experience wasn't much better. If you live in Pepperell, I recommend you homeschool your kids, or send them to a charter school, neither of which I would usually recommend. But our school system is terrible and by far the biggest embarassment to our community. I will never recommend raising children here to anyone. I'm glad I don't plan to, because other than the terrible schools, Pepperell is a great place to live.