Need info on Landrum Middle School (school district, moving, deal)

[Buffettjd]

Hello! We are currently building in Nocatee. We will be moving from an excellent school district in PA. I did a great deal of research into the academics on the St. John's Cty schools and they look great. The other day, however, I found a number of reviews written by students about Landrum Middle School that caused me some concern. If anyone has a child attending there, or one who has attended recently, can you please let me know if what I read is accurate? I know kids can exaggerate....

Are there really NO bathroom doors on the stalls????? Including in the girls' bathrooms? I will have two girls at Landrum and they will completely freak out if this is the case. I think this would be an immense violation of privacy and I can't imagine the school hasn't been sued over this if it is actually true.

I read the reason there are no doors is because the school has a huge drug problem and kids were doing drugs in the bathrooms. Is there any truth to this?

The kids also claimed they are not allowed to sit with their friends at lunch. Apparently they have assigned seats???? And have to sit with this specific group of kids at the same table every day? One girl was writing about how she was forced to sit at the same table as a girl who was bullying her for the entire school year. That is outrageous. Why can't you sit wherever you want? I think a big advantage of a large school is the ability to get away for the bully! And I can't imagine why in the world teenagers would need assigned seats.

There were also many other accounts of bullying and mean kids in general. I know this can happen anywhere, but it is disheartening. We were hoping to see some of the southern niceness in this area.

This is all quite upsetting, especially as we are leaving an amazing school district. Our kids will go to Landrum, regardless, but I am hoping to find out, what, if any, of this stuff is actually true. At least then maybe I can prepare them for some of the bad things.....

Thanks so much.

[Ivan Putski]

I'll check with my neighbor across the street. Their son's 11 yrs old (finishing 6th grade at Landrum) and stops by often to say hi to me and my toddler son. I asked him about the assigned seating few weeks ago (I had read that as well) and that is no longer true. They can sit wherever they want. They were warned however that if there are any problems, they will go back to the assigned seating (today is the last day of school for St. John's County so we'll see what happens come August).

I'll ask him about the bathroom stalls.

[Ivan Putski]

Just spoke to my neighbor's son. He said there are doors on each stall. There are no doors going into the bathrooms from the hallway but they are private.

He said you go through the entrance from the hall (no door), walk to the right and you go into the area where the stalls/urinals are located. Can't see anything from the hallway.

[Buffettjd]

Thank you SO much for the info and for asking your neighbor's son. I really appreciate it. I think I'm just having a bit of panic attack about moving, lol. I guess I should know you can't believe everything you read on the internet. : ) Thanks again.