River Oaks Middle School

Good school. Great teachers, fully engaged and supportive. Positive all the way around. Blue ribbon education, hurry up and send your kids now
--Submitted by a parent

We are new to S.C. and new to River Oaks. My child is very happy there and so are we. My child has seen no signs of bullying, at least in her grade. There are bullies in every school. It is how you teach your children to deal with it and how you as a parent deal with it. The one issue that I would address is the fact that there are children in the class that seem to cause a disturbance on a regular basis and they are sent out of class and no further punishment is pursued especially with repeat offenders. Parents always are looking for the schools and teachers to fix their children and their issues. It is time for paretns to take responsibility for THEIR children. I feel that RIver Oaks is a very good sc and I am happy with it.
--Submitted by a parent

Our child is constantly called the N word at this school. they are told to ignore it and nothing is done to the student. The teachers claim they are too busy during transition to see anything as students get from class to class. You will be told your child is the root cause of them getting bullied because they are too emotional. Even when they get the activity on tape you will be told that what was not caught on tape justifies the actions of the bully. If your child IS a bully this is the best, most advanced school you can get. If your child is not a bully...good luck. The more you push back and get involved the more frustration you will get dragged into with no resolve. Once you know these rules, this is a GREAT school ... if your child is a bully,
--Submitted by a parent

I love ROMS. I have been teaching there for three years and love my students. I wish there was more parent involvement. Middle school is difficult and when parents back off at this age it makes it more difficult for the teachers.
--Submitted by a teacher

I attend River Oaks Middle School. Yes, this school has bullies, but what school doesn't? My experience has been beyond great. All the teachers are very intentive to their students intrests and needs. The Administrators do their best to get the kids who are trying to take away from others' learning out, but not every single kid can be delt with. The principal could be more cordial, but she trys her best to stay with it at ROMS.
--Submitted by a student

We have the greatest students, faculty and administrative staff
--Submitted by a parent

I have a son who is the kind of kid who gets lost in the crowd. I attended 'Meet the Teacher' night, introduced myself to every one of his teachers, and explained to them that we had just moved to Charleston. I gave them each my e-mail adress and cell phone, and asked them to look out for my son a little bit, understanding that he is just one of many students. My son came from the gifted program at his elementary school, but we chose to enroll him in regular classes at River Oaks. Imagine my surprise when my husband found out, two weeks before the end of the school year, that our son was about to fail one of his classes, and get Cs and Ds in others! We had no warning, no contact, and no explanations. According to our son, throughout the school year, everything was great.
--Submitted by a parent

ive went to river oaks for two years and im now attending fort dorchester high school. but my experiences at river oaks were astounding i absolutely loved it there.. i dont understand why parents are complaining about this school they dont go there and learn they have no idea with what really goes on. of course your child is going to say there are bullies thats there excuse for not doing their work. but every school has bullies its natural. if you took every person that has ever bullied someone out of school then you would only have about 5 people in school.. everybody bullies somebody at least once in their life. and another thing is the teachers are great. they do pay attentiopn to everything that goes on. and trust me they do their best to teach us imagine if you were one person trying to teach 25 children.
--Submitted by a student

Each time I have visited my 7th grader at River Oaks, I have encountered a different experience. Front counter receptionists can be friendly or distant, administrators and teachers often appear overwhelmed, tired and unhappy; special education staff has been friendly and supportive to my child; principals/counselors are no-where to be found; lunch and support staff have been helpful, my child reports daily class interruptions because of loud and aggressive behaviors (behavior/reward system (lack-of) is a frequent joke among students); school tolerates far-far too much poor behavior, instead of removing aggressive students from school they appear to give-in to them, this is particulary troubling as our child reports being scared at school; our experiences with dances, athletic events and academic contests has been positive. As is probably the case everywhere these days classes seem to focus only on very-simple preparation for state testing nothing more...we have been disappointed thus far.
--Submitted by a parent

This school is a far cry from what I expect from Dorchester District Two schools. My children have attended private schools and other DD2 schools -- Oakbrook Elem, Ft. Dorchester Elem -- that were 150% greater at communication and parent involvement. This is my first involvement with middle school so maybe I'm still not acclimated to middle school culture/independence -- if the child doesn't get it then woe is him/her. The principal is not very friendly nor people-oriented -- she never smiles. I was really disappointed when my 5th grader asked 'Can I go back to private school? I do not want to go to River Oaks. There are too many bullies'. I questioned my other child that attends ROMS, the response was Yes, there are bullies. The teachers just tell you to deal with it---speak up. Come on DD2..let's improve this school.
--Submitted by a parent