Southside Middle School

This has been the worst school my son has been in. Teachers and staff do mot take responsibility in the students safety. There is a lot of bullying and fights and the school staff doesn’t take ownership. Just ask around about this school and you’ll find out. Do yourself a favor. If you love your kids, do not take them to this school.

They don't give homework. I go to school here. I'm transferring next year because this school is a bad school. It don't have the education that I need. And on top of that when I first got there someone already wants to fight me. DONT GO HERE! Also there fights EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I'm leaving this school. Don't make the same mistake my parents took.

We transferred my daughter to this school because transportation had became an issue for us & this was the middle school our neighborhood was zoned for. HUGE MISTAKE !!! If you are thinking of taking your child to this school RUNNNNNNN don't walk RUNNNN from this school with your child. My daughter was in this school for 4 days. That's right only 4 DAYS when this scenario happened: 3rd day of school an obese child was being bullied by a couple of students after class. My daughter had the courage to speak up & defend the girl being bullied. The next day the one doing the bullying gets one of her friends to jump my daughter after class while more of their 'circle of friends' watched to see if they needed to step up & join in the fight. I get a text from my daughter "Mom I just got beat up". I didn't see the text for 45 minutes. I NEVER GOT A CALL FROM THE SCHOOL. REALLY !!! I rushed to the school & it took them some time to find my daughter because they were "briefing all involved or who were eye witnesses to get a full picture of what occurred". A student intervened & picked my daughter up off the ground & took her to the office. No staff intervened at all. Yet supposedly the dean assured me & my child "If anything like this happens again tell a staff member we have cameras all over the school for the safety of the student's." Really??? That's interesting because no staff intervened when this event happened.My daughter sustained enough fist blows to her face that I could barely see one of her eyes. I pulled up her hair to look at the top of her scalp & almost lost my mind to see how many purple, raised, fist sized lumps there were. I took my daughter to the hospital & they took 2 CT's of her skull & face to make sure there were no fracture's. She had a lot of soft tissue damage but thank God no fractures. I was told to sleep next to her that night & make sure I was able to wake her every 2 hours as it was possible she might have a concussion. I do not care what the Duval policy is on how staff shouldn't inform the parents right away after a school fight. If my daughter had sustained a fracture & had a brain bleed going on while they were talking ... just imagine what the consequences could have been. There would have been a lot of people being sued but that could not have brought back my daughter. RUN!!! DO NOT WALK RUN with your child away from this school.

I absolutely love this school. My daughter has done absolutely amazing in this school. The sports, her grades, the principal and teachers have put in alot of effort to make this school what it is now. Keep up the good work Southside knights!