The Whitefield School has a major problem with a lack of professionalism, safety and overall education of the students. The president of the school once accused me of being a pedophile , for hugging the children of my friends in the lobby. He never asked me if I knew the kids, he simply said "you are not allowed to touch the little girls, it is not appropriate". He accused me of seeking out the hugs, which by the way were from the kids of my friends. I had the video of the lobby pulled of the morning if this accusation. I was in the lobby of the school dropping my son off when a few kids ran out of their way, over to me, to hug me. Never did I coax them or seek them out. The superintendent of SAU36 and I watched the video, she agreed that I did nothing wrong and made the principal apologize to me. Oh, and for the record, on that video less than 30 seconds after I left the lobby, the principal himself is seen hugging two young boys in the lobby, yup....right after telling me I cannot hug. The principal singled me out for unknown reasons. If you spend any time in the lobby of that school during pickup and dropoff times , you will see students hugging lots of people, including staff. So, if it is not appropriate for me to hug the kids of my friends, then teachers hugging kids should certainly not be allowed. There are staff members, teachers, who speed and ignore stop signs in the parking lot of the school. A parking lot which is very small and often crowded with small children walking back and forth. I have almost been hit many times walking in that lot, including by teachers and staff. Raising this concern to the school got nowhere. The only thing the principal did was to send out an email reminding staff to obey traffic signs. Even after the date of that email going out, I still witnessed staff driving dangerously in the parking lot. Upon speaking with the principal on this again, he invited me to contact the chief of police in Whitefield as they control traffic for the town. I did contact the chief, his quote was "it is private property, they would have to ask us for special attention to something there". This, by the way, was the answer even though the school has an on site police officer, a school resource officer. I asked the school to contact the police and ask them for extra attention to the matter. The SAU36 superintendent told me "we defer to the police on these matters and trust their opinion.". I asked the police chief his opinion, he said "obviously we don't want that kind of driving there". But never did anything about it, no action was ever taken. Matter of fact, instead of watching the drivers at stop signs in the parking lot, the school and the police decided to have the stop sign flat out removed! Great solution. It was time to move on from dealing with these people. I then contacted the School Board. The answer was "we trust the police to make these decisions for us". Well, what if that decision is wrong? The worst part is the school passing the buck to the police, while the police passes it back. The liability ultimately falls on the school. I have emails and letters to the SAU36 office and school staff raising the concern of this matter. Our new school has a teacher at every stop sign, making people obey the traffic. Whitefield should be ashamed of themselves. It CAN be done, they just refuse to do so. Another clear sign of lack of safety, a parent was driving the wrong way down a one way in a school zone for months with nothing done about it. It was happening almost every day. I made the assistant principal aware of this situation. I then proceeded to check in at the office with the vice principal three times over the next two weeks for a follow up, as the situation was still happening. The answer was "gee, I have been so busy getting my desk packed up to move my office that I just haven't gotten to it yet". Packing up her desk held priority over a parent driving the wrong way down a one way in a school zone. The vice principal also lied to the chief of police about the time line in which she was notified about the wrong way driver, to save face. The leaders of this school, in my opinion, should be removed. Two years ago while waiting in the front lobby and dropping off my son, we both witnessed the principal putting a child in a head lock and dragging the child across the lobby, to the main office. This child had kicked over a trash barrel , which I witnessed. This is inappropriate, a child is never to be handled that way unless he is armed and dangerous. I have MUCH more to share, but have filled the available space here. SAU36 office leaders s/b ashamed and Whitefield School admin the same. read more