Trouble at Miss Porters

<p>Thanks for posting IloveAs - it's very beneficial to our forum to hear from actual Boarding School students.</p>

<p>My daughter and her friends have been telling my husband and I of Miss Porter's School bullying for three years now. Their school is another boarding school in the same network as Miss Porter's. They were not surprised at all by this latest news release. Keep this in mind when considering the school.</p>

<p>Unsubstantiated gossip from students at a rival school. Yep. </p>

<p>Talk about reliable sources!!</p>

<p>Lol Periwinkle, my thoughts exactly. They don't go to MPS...so they must be absolutely right about these rumors. Perfect logical sense.</p>

<p>The real story of the girl's expulsion from MPS has nothing to do with "torment" or "harrassment" terms which stem from the Hartford Courant story which in turn had only one source which you can figure out. The girl was in a student leadership position and a senior. She was caught cheating on a test and withdrew rather than have the cheating go on her record when applying to colleges. Months passed and her family approached the school wanting her to be rematriculated, the violation expunged from her record and her leadership position restored. MPS's response was: of course, not. Then the family decided to come up with the harrassment line and went to the media. My daughter is a sophomore and is quite familiar with the facts. They are not a part of media coverage to date.</p>

<p>Have no delusions: Prep schools boot seniors all the time, particularly for honor infractions. Their interest is to protect the school name for the long run, not nurture the individual child. Paying tuition is not a guarantee or a contractual right to a diploma. Follow the rules or you are gone, even if its is April of your Senior year. </p>

<p>School with big sports programs are notorious for moving senior athletes on to greener pastures once football/basketball/wresting season is over. They've been recruited to some big name college, which at that point does not care where the HS diploma comes from.</p>

<p>BS D has seen a trend that many students who are booted did not want to be there in the first place.</p>

<p>Bumping for an update & because I’m nosey.</p>

<p>I can’t see it!</p>

<p>The for rent sign was Tatum’s; it was willed down to her by a senior while she was an underclassman. Her roommate helped her pack by taking all her wallhangings off the wall (including the sign) and putting them with her clothes and other belongings on her bed. MPS is a terrific and respected school and their reputation is reflected in it’s students. I’m not saying that there aren’t “mean girls” but there sure isn’t active schoolyard bullying. This entire story has been warped and blown up by the press for means of entertainment. I just want to get the whole “sign” thing straight.</p>

<p>One has to be realistic. BS administrators are CYA kind of folks. When push comes to shove, they will push your kid under the bus without a moment’s hesitation to keep their skirts clean if that’s what it takes. That’s just life, and BS is no different. There are good administrators, terrible administrators, and so-so administrators. But, as someone wise said, no one goes to a ballgame to watch the refs. They go to see the game. And the game is incredible kids, mostly great teachers, and a great learning environment.</p>

<p>So what happens when kids get kicked out of BS their senior year- for cheating, or for drugs or shoplifting? How do colleges respond to this type of thing?</p>

<p>Anecdotally, it’s all over the board. I’ve heard of kids kicked out for that kind of thing who were still able to go to their first choice, and others who had to move down a tier or two. Depends on the kid, the nature of the offense, full pay or not-and chance.</p>

<p>I am an Ancient of MPS, a former Keeper of Traditions, and a high school teacher, so I have a few things to say about Tatum Bass and the law suit.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Bullying and hazing was very rare at MPS (at least while I attended). It was much more rampant at other schools. The administration worked very hard to keep the traditions fun and lighthearted, and they were. I adored my four years at Farmington.</p></li>
<li><p>The Keepers were tapped to manage the traditions for the new girls like “Welcome Tradition” or Singing in the Garden. Keeping “old girls” “in line” was not part of our job. This is not to say that Ms. Bass may or may not have experienced some bullying on the part of her classmates, but the Keepers would not have organized it.</p></li>
<li><p>The cheating–the point was made that Ms. Bass had probably cheated before because MPS has a two strike policy, and as a high school teacher, I can say that she no doubt had a history of cheating for a few reasons. Firstly, she was asked to leave for cheating which indicates that this was not Ms. Bass’s first time. Secondly, some students are habitual cheaters. I teach at a small public school (ironically, my subject is art history, but I also teach English and history), so I have students that I have taught in different classes over the years, and I always catch the same ones, year after year, cheating. </p></li>
<li><p>Interestingly, my chronic cheaters are not students who need to cheat. but are terrified of failure. This past academic year, I caught a habitual cheater, again, and busted her in her senior year. She is losing college money and some admissions as a result and her parents are bringing a suit against our school board. Naturally, we now “discover” from the suit, that all sorts of terrible things have been happening to this “poor” girl for four years. We had never heard her breathe a word of all the harassment she had suffered. And strangely, none of it came out until she was being punished for and suffering real consequences from cheating. Hmmmm…pass the salt please.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>While Scordelia makes a convincing case about what she sees with cheating students, even cheaters don’t deserve to be abused and hazed at school. We really don’t know the extent to which the Keepers acted, or the extent to which the school knew and turned a blind eye, but we know for sure that groups of girls (in high school and without boyfriends!!) can be unbelievable mean and caddy. The issue is the school culture and how they respond to issues, not whether the victim was otherwise a less than honest student.</p>

<p>erlanger, I think girls in high school are much more likely to be catty and mean when there are boys around that they need to impress! My daughter graduates this week from Miss Porter’s and I have been very happy that she has had this wonderful opportunity. I have never seen or heard of institutionalized bullying. My daughter is very outspoken - I would have heard. Clearly, there are different groups of girls and there are certainly conflicts as in any other adolescent situation.
Miss Porter’s policy is two strikes and you’re out. There was a drinking offense earlier in the year which was the first strike. The lawsuit was an attempt to prevent Porter’s from reporting the suspension and following expulsion to the colleges that the student was applying to.</p>

<p>I just read the Vanity Fair article [The</a> Code of Miss Porter’s School | vanityfair.com](<a href=“http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/07/miss-porters-school200907]The”>The Code of Miss Porter's School | Vanity Fair) . It seems she was a cheater and got what she deserved.</p>

<p>Hey emdee - </p>

<p>As members of the MPS community, we are not allowed to share specifics. But as a student, I can just say that we were shocked. There is a large amount of information left out of all the press releases, and all I can say is that as a community we felt very attacked. I survived my “new girl” year and did not experience any harassment, never felt afraid, and have honestly fallen in love with the school. If your daughter felt the connection once on campus, I truly feel that she should follow it! She would be very safe at MPS and trust me, there is no harassment. If there are any issues at all we have a fabulous administration who are willing to take on any and all problems. They help us through rough family times, fights with friends, fights with roommates, and anything of the like. My decision to enroll was probably the best choice I ever made.</p>

<p>speaking as someone who went to an all girl’s boarding school i don’t believe for a moment any of this talk about there being no bullying or harassment. of coure every girls school has traditions and people want to try to instill them into new girls. i’m sure there are new girls every year that try to resist them but seniors make sure that they listen. with this girl tatum bass, i’m sure what happened was the amount of people hating her started small but then grew and people just fed off of each other. while i don’t condemn her cheating in any way, i do believe her side of the story. boarding schools aren’t perfect, and many administrators are corrupt. i know at my all girl’s school the more money you had, the less of a punishment you recieved. also if you were close the administration or didn’t speak out against their ways your punishment was a joke. i understand girls who want to defend their school but let’s be honest, there is no way that no bullying occured.</p>

<p>that sounds a little pessimetic.</p>

<p>btw, I think you meant ‘condone’…freuding slip? ;-)</p>