Yikes I knew the area was rough but this is crazy. The area is so bad that it is hard to keep Kindergarteners under control to learn. Second grade and up is pretty much impossible to teach. It was so bad when I taught there that I threw up evryday before work because I did not want to go.

Pontiac teacher recovering from student attack - NewsFlash - mlive.com

That is awful.

Wow. I cannot imagine being a child or teacher in that environment.

yep - that's my school district. My subdivision sued to get out of the district 2 years ago - they have repeatedly tried to get out for 30 years. In the entire 300+ home area, only one child goes to Pontiac schools - all the others go to private schools or go thru school of choice to another nearby school district. Ridiculous thing is, I live in Bloomfield, and Bloomfield has one of the best school districts in the state. But I live at the very edge of Bloomfield, in a tiny section that got dumped into Pontiac schools. I don't have kids, and neither do most people in my neighborhood, but it's very sad. I volunteered in the 1st grade once through my work. A 6 week project. There were 5 languages in that class - the teacher had a doctorate. You couldn't pay me enough to do her job. Half the kids had parents in prison, were being raised by grandparents. Very sad. Lots of poverty.

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Oh God! We're moving to Michigan! I sorta felt sick when I saw that was an mlive link

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mrs. t - you're moving to the Grand Rapids area, correct? That's about 2.5 hours west of me. It's a very pretty area - lots of nice beaches there on the west side of the state. It is an extremely conservative/religious area. One of my closest friends moved out to a suburb of Grand Rapids - Alto, MI. I think her kids are in Caledonia schools & she's very happy there. Michigan is a beautiful state but, like any state, we have our "inner city" areas. Pontiac is called "the hole in the doughnut of Oakland County." Sort of a pit right in the middle of our most prosperous area.

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Yes, you remembered correctly calimari I was holding my breath clicking the link. I was very glad it wasn't GR... but it's HORRIBLE that these things happen ANYWHERE. I'm a teacher and have a girl that will be starting kindergarten this year. I worry so much more for her than I did even for my older kids. Seems everywhere you turn terrible things are happening more frequently.

I simply can't imagine being in a place where things are that dangerous. I remember when I taught in an inner city school in Las Vegas, having a kindergartener 'bow up to me' which was BEYOND believable for me, but seems that was 'easy' compared to what so many teacher have to deal with

I've actually been VERY excited about our move until just the last couple days when I've heard so much 'bad' about Michigan and their schools

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.

btw,, Caldonia is where I spotted our 'dream house' while browsing online real estate ads lol

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.

We have plenty of good districts too! My niece is in college at Hope College, in Hope, MI, not far from Grand Rapids. Will you be moving to Grand Rapids proper or just the GR area? Alto has lovely homes and it is still quite rural but not too far of a drive for shopping and such. Be prepared for LOTS of snow.

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Initially, we believe that only my youngest and I will be going out. We will be staying with my hubby's brother and his family,, their address is actually Grand Rapids, MI. I don't know exactly what 'part' of GR it is, but apparently they're 'sorta countryish' but about 2 miles from shopping. I am looking forward to civilization being that close! lol

My youngest DOES love what snow we get here, so for her, lots of snow should be good,, mama is a bit more 'skeeeered' of how cold it gets and how long it stays cold!

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.