Schools in Deerfield beach/Pompano Beach (Coral Springs, Boca Raton: school district, live in, legal)

[StEt0417]

Anyone know about the middle schools and high schools in these areas? Ive heard that the middle school at Crystal lake is ghetto but the magnet is good and gets you into Pompano high but the school itself is very rough and all black. Ive havent heard to many things bad about Deerfield beach or Pompano Middle. Anyone have any insights about these schools. Our children are assigned to Crystal lake and we are trying to debate if she would stick around and try to get them into magnet programs in the area or just move out of broward to a better school district. I know there are many private schools around but we do not want them in private schools.

[jwfla422]

Originally Posted by StEt0417

Anyone know about the middle schools and high schools in these areas? Ive heard that the middle school at Crystal lake is ghetto but the magnet is good and gets you into Pompano high but the school itself is very rough and all black. Ive havent heard to many things bad about Deerfield beach or Pompano Middle. Anyone have any insights about these schools. Our children are assigned to Crystal lake and we are trying to debate if she would stick around and try to get them into magnet programs in the area or just move out of broward to a better school district. I know there are many private schools around but we do not want them in private schools.

Just to give you an idea, the boy that was set on fire who was in the news AND the girl who was beat almost to death both went to Deerfield Beach Middle school...I wouldn't send my daughter there. She briefly went to Lyons Creek which is west in Coconut Creek but she had such an awful time adjusting I had no choice but to put her in private school. You might be better off checking out Palm Beach County/Boca area schools.

[Dragonmam]

My kids attended Crystal Lake Magnet for one year. There are excellent teachers there and some very good administrators (and a few duds). Also, some of the non-magnet kids I met through the band were really good kids. The magnet kids do mix with the regular kids in electives and PE. They may end up in a classroom with them if there is a shortage of substitutes. They share the cafeteria with them, the hallways and all dismiss together. It's a problem. You can easily tell a magnet kid apart from the rest because magnet kids carry full backpacks, non-magnet carry small empty ones or none at all.

In one year, my son had his phone stolen out of his backpack while he was wearing it; his PE locker was broken into 4 or 5 times (they picked several different types of locks); and my daughter thwarted an attempt to steal her phone by kneeing the kid in the face as he tried to open her backpack on the floor below her seat. Cafeteria fights were frequent and vicious (especially the girls!). The kids circle around the fights and join arms so the adults can't get in to break it up.

My son was physically bullied for months by a kid in his PE class who threatend to kill him if he told anyone. One day my son told him to "f...off". The kid came up behind him later in the cafeteria, grabbed his ankles and pulled his feet out from under him. Once he hit the floor, he beat his head so badly that he required medical care (but not the ER). This was about a month after the Josie Rately incident at Deerfield. The kid was suspended for 7 days, removed from the PE class and had to sit at a supervised table the rest of the year at lunch. I pressed criminal charges but it was referred to a court program run by kids and nothing came of them. I was told not to expect anything since the kid was a ESE student and it is hard to do anything to them due to legal protections they have.

Then that summer, due to budget cuts, they replaced five of the security people with untrained "hall monitors" and we decided not to return. I have spoken to people still there (parents and an administrator) and have been told we made the right decision.

[lydialuna]

If I had children and my children have to go to public schools (and get good education) I would not live in Deerfield Beach if I could. I don't know about Pompano Beach, but I would say for better schools consider Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Weston, Parkland, or Boca Raton.