Lucille M. Brown Middle School

This school is disappointing. The I.B program is great, but it is is housed in a horrible school. The none I.B kids get in to fights and should get suspended daily! They wear booty shorts and belly shirts and get in to fights and scream cuss words at the teachers and skip class and the teachers and principal and the vice principals don't care! But of the I.B kids wear shorts that are down to their knees they get yelled at! Also the teachers do not care about their kids at all! I.B is sopposed to be challenging and hard but it is very easy! The school is also obviously segregated. The non I.B population is almost all Africain American and the I.B population is almost all White. The non I.B kids think that the I.B kids are stuck up and rich and they scream cuss words at us and try to fight us. This school is so unsatisfactory its unbelievable. I.B needs to have it's own school!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My two kids both got into the IB program at Brown- after much hard work and a rigorous application process. They were so excited. Well, the whole thing has been a huge disappointment. Why are people complaining about the workload?? My kids are not being challenged AT ALL. I've spoken to most of their teachers, and am not impressed. There's no passion for learning, no striving for excellence, no innovative projects, no mentoring. This is NOT what my kids signed up for. IB has turned into a joke. I really do believe that it was a very good program, but at this particular school, has fallen off course. Poor administration and substandard teachers are primarily to blame. These kids worked hard to get here. They are the best of the best, and it should be a privilege to help prepare them for high school and college, but that is not the mindset here. I have found motivated teachers few and far between, and the administration is pretty much sticking their heads in the ground like ostriches. And yes, I do agree with the other reviews about the fights, segregation that is clearly going on, and lack of discipline. Really, really sad and disappointing.
—Submitted by a parent

This review is very hard to write. I am a student in the IB program at this school. Right now, the work is very rigorious and challanging... so thats a plus. There are some great teachers that are very passionate, some that can't control their class, some that respect us, some that don't, and some that bore us to tears. So, the academics are worth about three stars. Now, on to the atmosphere.... that is not so good. One of the school's biggest problems is discipline. Students don't respect the adults and don't care if they get suspended. Most administrators don't take discipline seriously and in result the kids don't either. Fights break out all the time, even though the school has tried to correct bullying. The language is so bad, yet most of the kids who use saltly language don't know it is wrong because no one seems to care (bad language is thoughout the whole school, even IB). The school is very segregated, and people who are white or are in IB are usually predjudiced against. Sometimes I just deal with it, because I think, "This is how it is at all middle schools." But now, looking at the way some other schools are, I wonder if it is time to move on to greener pastures.

This school is horrible. My daughter is in the IB program at brown and when she got excepted we were so excited..Now, not so much. I am concerned for her well being as she tells me horror stories about school all the time. How the kids act out. the fights,the swearing and disrespect. Why would such a great program be held at such a horrible school.? Can't we at some point seperate those who can and do from those who don't and won't......No discipline NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?? Let's for once look out for the exceptional kids. Sure everyone deserve a chance, but how many tries will it take? Maybe we should start by pulling up their pants. My daughter wore a skirt with a pair of leggings once and was told the skirt was to short but when I go into the school I see at least two or three butts falling out of there pants. It really is ashame that a handful of students can bring a entire school down.
—Submitted by a parent

Over weight teachers should not be in our schools.There is an over weight teaher at the school who has the worse attitude and i hate having my child attend her class. She does not obviously care about herself so how can i expect her to care about my child. She treats the children horribly. Instead of arriving at school with her class planner in hand.., she pulls up and sqeeze out of her car with a chic-fil-a bg and thats it. Stop coming just to get a pay check so you can eat. Our kids actually want to learn.
—Submitted by a parent

Well i transferred to brown in the middle of the year, And personally i felt its one of the worst middle schools iv'e attend. There's always fights, Kids disrespect teachers and walk out of classrooms, And it would be nice to walk in the hallway without hearing such explicit Language. I use to dread eating lunch, Some times they served us frozen food. And most of the teachers don't even care. I for one, dont know how students can survive this school for 3 years, i barely made it 5 months.

I was in the IB program here and the work itself is normal, but the work load is ridiculous. I have seen dozens of fights over the three years here, walked into "dealings" in the bathrooms, read extremely inappropriate graffiti in the bathrooms, and has the same air as a state prison. The school is extremely segregated although people won't like to admit it. The cafeteria is always disgusting and I wouldn't even serve the food to pigs What they say about test scores is all smoke and mirrors. If it wasn't for the I.B. students, this school would have a completely different look to itself. Although we have security guards, they never appear to be around when the serious fights happen. One example in 2009- 2010 school year was between two non-IB kids who fought for at least a solid ten minutes before anyone was alerted after the staff had left the cafeteria unguarded. This school is a disgrace to Richmond Public Schools and I feel that everyone should be brought to light.

I am in the IB program here and the work is hard, the teachers make us work hard and we don't see a lot of the other students. I have seen three fights between the other students though. Some teachers are not favorable in my opinion but the classes are okay. I am not sure about the non-IB students though. I am in the 6th grade.
—Submitted by a student

Because it is offering a great IB program and working to build a strong PTA
—Submitted by a parent