Cedar Hill, Desoto (Dallas, Arlington, Plano: appointed, house, employment)

[ladyjay73]

Happy New Year!

I hope that all of us that are planning to relocate to the Dallas area this year, are blessed with safe journies, & fast employment (For those of us that will be relocating without a job )
In my continuing request to get as much information about my relocation, I have come up with a few more areas that have picqued my interest. They are Cedar Hill, & also Desoto.

Does anyone have any information on these areas. I am trying to find a happy medium between my family (in Ennis), & my children's father, in Sasche.

[stargazer]

We use to live in Cedar Hill and then moved to Duncanville. I loved living in southwest dallas county in the 90's. We though have gone over that way many a time to visit old haunts and see family and it has been on a economoic downcline. There is a huge bag of issues living on that side of town and I would just steer clear, if though you decide to live that way I would recommend private or home school. Most of the families I knew did either option, they did not send their children to public.

[The Gribbler]

Cedar Hill is great. I moved there in August of 05, and our house was dirt cheap compared to the older burbs of Garland or Plano or Richardson or even Arlington. My house was built in 1971 & its a 4 bedroom 2 bath, 1500sqft in a diverse neighborhood, for only $95k. If you don't live in the hills you're 5 minutes away from great scenary, great hiking & biking, and a nice lake. There's plenty of restaurants in town, and an outdoor mall being built. Unless you commute out of town for work, there's no reason to leave except for a Cowboys or Rangers game. Or in my case, an FC Dallas game.

[stargazer]

Do you have kids , Gribbler? The schools are not good there in Cedar Hill.

[The Gribbler]

Originally Posted by stargazer

Do you have kids , Gribbler? The schools are not good there in Cedar Hill.

A 1st grader who attends an exemplary elementary, with a class makeup of about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, & 1/3 hispanic. Suits me just fine.

[stargazer]

I use to live in Waterford Oaks and the elementary there had kids sexually harrassing and raping other kids on the play ground and in the bathrooms when we lived there. I was so floored by that and knew I did not want my child to go there because at the time they refused to put any sort of
monitors in the bathroom where the little boys raped and harrassed the other ones. I also questioned why the kids weren't monitored any closer on the playground as well. I still wonder how harrassing other kids can go unnoticed like that. We knew we didn't want our child to go to school there when this incident happened. This was years ago though but I asked my sister in law whose daughter was slated for Waterford Oaks this year if she was going to put her in, she did not want to because of many issues that still were going on. It had nothing to do with harrassement but there just wasn't a good rapport it seemed to her between the teachers and the parents. They left and went to Midlothian for my niece's kindergarten year.

with a class makeup of about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, & 1/3 hispanic. Suits me just fine.

This is why we chose to live in Cedar Hill and Duncanville. We liked the diversity however we were very disappointed with the school districts. We knew so many who decided to run and go to Mansfield or Midlothian for better education . There are many people wanting to get out of Cedar Hill and Duncanville. I love that area so much and it is ashame that it has turned out the way it has.Your school might be good but there are issues with many there, Duncanville being worse though than Cedar Hill though.

[Vicman]

Stargazer, if this is true, that would make the national news. Don't just walk away from the situation; get people to talk, make a news story, and embarrass the authorities for not watching the kids enough.

As for school districts:

Cedar Hill is mostly in the Cedar Hill ISD.

Other parts are in:
* Duncanville ISD
* Midlothian ISD

Duncanville is mostly in the Duncanville ISD. Other parts are in the Dallas ISD.

Originally Posted by stargazer

I use to live in Waterford Oaks and the elementary there had kids sexually harrassing and raping other kids on the play ground and in the bathrooms when we lived there. I was so floored by that and knew I did not want my child to go there because at the time they refused to put any sort of
monitors in the bathroom where the little boys raped and harrassed the other ones. I also questioned why the kids weren't monitored any closer on the playground as well. I still wonder how harrassing other kids can go unnoticed like that. We knew we didn't want our child to go to school there when this incident happened. This was years ago though but I asked my sister in law whose daughter was slated for Waterford Oaks this year if she was going to put her in, she did not want to because of many issues that still were going on. It had nothing to do with harrassement but there just wasn't a good rapport it seemed to her between the teachers and the parents. They left and went to Midlothian for my niece's kindergarten year.


This is why we chose to live in Cedar Hill and Duncanville. We liked the diversity however we were very disappointed with the school districts. We knew so many who decided to run and go to Mansfield or Midlothian for better education . There are many people wanting to get out of Cedar Hill and Duncanville. I love that area so much and it is ashame that it has turned out the way it has.Your school might be good but there are issues with many there, Duncanville being worse though than Cedar Hill though.

[stargazer]

Actually it did make the news. I have looked up the Dallas Morning News and can not find it, I can't seem to find an archive section for that time period. I am going to have to go through archives at the local library.
I want to prove that this did happen and if anyone has access or information where I can look up on the net, great.

We at the time were horrified that anything like that even happened. At the time I did not understand how little boys could do that from a anatomical point of view but it did.

What had happened is that the boy who started doing this, he had access to pornography in his home and he got other little boys involved first by assaulting them and then they went out and did it to others. They became a group that harrassed other children on the play ground and in the bathroom and I am surprised to know that no child would speak up for as long as it happened. One of the little boys who was being abused finally came forward and told his dad and that is when the teachers and administration found out. They said they would council all those that had been hurt and deal with the children who did the abusing however they were not going to put monitors in the bathroom, which is where this initally started. It outraged so many people in the neighborhood who used the school because they felt it could happen all over again. I lived just a stone's throw from the school. When we moved there, I had planned on walking my kids to school there every day. The school is in such an pretty setting and I had looked forward to that( this is before kids). When this happened, it shattered any sort of dream I had about doing that . That was not the inital reason to move out but one of many things I saw that made us want too. So we left and built a home in Duncanville which was declining when Cedar Hill started to thriving with the shopping amenities. We though believed at the time that D'ville could be revitalized and wanted to live there to see it happen and knew we would private educate our kids. So the public schools there were a no issue to us. We though were forced to move out of state and since moving out of state, it got worse and that really does sadden me.

I don't recall it being national news, it could have been but it was all over the local news here. At that time, all across the nation, there seemed to be so much talk of abuse going on in schools and there seemed to be so much violence with shootings in the school grabbing the headlines, so maybe if it did not reach national ears, the story might just seemed to those in charge not such a grabber of attention. Hey when I lived in Florida too, my family would call me up asking if I saw on the news about such and such and I would have no clue. They just thought the stories seemed so big that it had to make it all over the country but they didn't. So there you go....

I don't hate these area at all infact southwest Dallas county is very close to my heart. I have much affection for the area because I created many great memories living there however that area is in decline and I hate seeing it getting like that. I still go over that way quite a bit, our family and friends are laced all through the area.

[ladyjay73]

That's scarey. It's hard enough for adults to handle rape. I can't even imagine what those children were going through.

Stargazer, what became of those children? What did the district do?

[dallas76]

I have to chime in here being that I live in C. Hill. If you look closely enough, in any area of any city not just Dallas, you could find something disturbing. First of all the Cedar Hill area is not in decline. I can't same the same far some parts of Duncanville or Desoto.
I not saying that the school district is the best in DFW, but I can most certainly say the it is not even close to the worst in the area. The area is growing and with that comes pains related to that growth.

So stargazer, what about cedar hill is in decline. What made you leave the area. Was is that one event or something else? Do tell. I like good dialogue and hopefully I can learn something.

THANKS