After having two children at Christian Unified South campus for several years, my greatest…read moredisappointment is how leadership handled repeated concerns involving staff, bullying, communication, and accountability.
My wife witnessed and recorded an interaction on campus involving another student, a staff member who also served in a security role, and Principal Brenda Sniff that she found concerning. She reported what she witnessed to school leadership, including Superintendent Bob Ruhlman and Principal Sniff, and the other child's parent was informed about what my wife had witnessed.
Afterward, our family was presented with a written contract stating that "in order to continue at Christian Unified Schools," we had to agree to additional conditions. Among them, we were told we would "not go to another teacher, student, or parent" with concerns and instead communicate with the classroom teacher first or the principal. The contract also stated that Christian Unified had "sole and absolute discretion" to determine whether we violated its terms, with possible probation, suspension, or dismissal.
Another part noted was the portion noted about videotaping .To our knowledge, this was not a standard condition required of other parents. Given the timing, we found it troubling that videotaping became part of an agreement.
The contract also specifically stated that we would "gladly celebrate Christmas." Our family has sincerely held convictions about how we observe this season. We do not participate in many of the traditional or festive aspects of Christmas; instead, during December we intentionally focus on Christ and His birth. We found it uncomfortable that an agreement concerning our children's continued enrollment included language telling our family how we were expected to celebrate a religious holiday. It felt unrelated to the concerns that had led to the contract.
Taken together--the restrictions on whom we could speak with, the videotaping provision, the religious language, and the consequences attached to the agreement--the contract felt intimidating to our family.
This was not our only concern.
We repeatedly raised concerns regarding a staff aide, Miss Lisa, including what we understood to be a pattern of negative language toward the fifth-grade class throughout the previous school year. We felt her interactions with students could be unnecessarily hostile. Another student also told us that Miss Lisa had made comments about the way Julian dressed in a negative way which is unprofessional.
Toward the end of our time at Christian Unified, several incidents became the final straw for our family. We had concerns about repeated comments and interactions involving Mrs. Warners son and both of our children.
We followed the communication process the school itself had required of us and emailed Mrs. Warner that Monday. We received no response.
On the morning of September 3, Mrs. Warner had time to prepare a written account of a classroom incident that had just occurred earlier that morning and came down to sit in a meeting with us, yet our email remained about concerning interactions with one of her children remained unanswered.
During that meeting, I personally witnessed her interaction with my wife and found her demeanor dismissive and disrespectful. When my wife addressed the unanswered email, Mrs. Warner turned toward me rather than addressing her directly. The lack of response, followed by her treatment of my wife during the meeting, felt retaliatory to us.
Communication with leadership was also a frustration. Principal Sniff told us that she was not receiving our emails because of network issues something we have been told over the years .
Around this same time, another incident involving the new PE teacher, Mr. Figueroa, added to our concerns. Julian told us that Mr. Figueroa was telling two other students that he felt he always had to babysit them. Julian said he became uncomfortable with the way the teacher was speaking to those students and walked away. According to Julian, Mr. Figueroa then asked him, "Are you a boy or a girl?"
We found that reported comment inappropriate and humiliating.
By that point, these were no longer isolated incidents to us. Superintendent Bob Ruhlman and Principal Brenda Sniff had been made aware of multiple concerns during our family's years at the school. Ultimately, we did not feel there was sufficient or responsiveness or accountability of the adults.
Accountability should work in both directions.
Despite these disappointments, we want to acknowledge Mr. Rheam, who is no longer at the school. Throughout the previous school year, he took the concerns we brought to him seriously, investigated, and responded promptly. We were thankful for his leadership and follow-through.
After several years at Christian Unified, we ultimately lost confidence in how leadership was handling our concerns and withdrew both of our children.
