Inman Middle School

It has been a terrible experience. My child hates this school. It is chaotic and tense. Kids are disrespectful. I feel sorry for the teachers. To make a bad year worse, my child was attacked by another kid without provocation. The behavior I expect from my child and what I think is fair for teachers to expect is not what they get from a fairly large contingency of the students. I am more than a little worried, and I am considering moving. The administration would like you to believe that they can blend the four schools, and everything is great. It is not! There is more shoving, harassing and intimidating than is officially reported. It feels like a powder keg.

Both my children have flourished at this school. Many 8th graders agree that they discovered who they were in their time at this school. Upon leaving, they felt prepared for high school.

We are very pleased with this middle school. This is our third year at this school. We have two children there. Both are testing the limits of public school. One is in gifted education program, accelerated math, advance science, playing in the four bands offered by the Fantastic music program at this school. The other is challenged by dyslexia issues (mild to moderate), has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), gets assistance in several of his classes + speech/language therapy twice a week at school, and sings in the Great chorus. In both cases, Inman Middle School has been able to adapt quite well to our children's needs. It took a bit of advocacy on the parents part. Get involved! We asked for and attended several school meetings for our kids. Teachers and administrators have been professional, personable and responsive. We can feel that they are interested in the well-being and good education of students. Great teachers overall, providing thoughtful education, rightfully challenging assignments, and the rich diversity that one would want from a public school. Teachers quality is on par with the best private schools, from what we could see. The one semester we had a questionable teacher, the principal of the school noticed it quickly, and took care of reassigning this teacher's students to a more appropriate teacher... Also very good parent involvement. Strong and attentive school leadership, both under the previous principal who is now at Grady High School and the current principal, who used to be Assistant Principal. Lots of great club programs offered, although i wish there would be better parent education on these programs, especially for the clubs that require registration one semester in advance (such as Beta Club and Outward Bound). The school is safe. We've only experienced small incidents, normal between kids. Counselors are on top of their jobs and willing to talk or meet when needed. They keep a keen eye on the students, and know where the trouble spots are. Too bad the kids do not get any recess time during the day. (I don't know how we would have survived middle school without recess, but our kids manage...) Athletics: we didn't have the best experience. Maybe because the school is so big (over 1000 students) and there can only be so many kids on one team.Overall, we highly recommend this school. Inman Eagles Rock!!!

Something a lot of parents whose kids benefit from white privlage and just have a higher standard of living don't want to talk about is the systematic segregation that occurs at Inman. The school's system is primarily set up to allow people with higher socioeconomic status to do better and achieve more throughout their middle school years. It is completely unacceptable and unfair. The administration has a noticeable difference in expectations, whether academic or behavioral, for people that either come from a lower income family or have a darker skin tone. I am a 8th grader at Inman and have met many different people that are borderline racist and to put it plainly ignorant. In conclusion, I would state that Inman middle is a school that has systems in place that allow only a kind of people to succeed and sort of push everyone else in the background. But maybe that is not just Inman and actually our county as a whole.