We had a horrible experience at this school.
We had a horrible experience at this school.
I don’t normally write reviews, let alone negative ones. This establishment warrants a very negative one.
I’ll start by saying, I understand the appeal to enroll your child in a private Catholic school. They’ll admittedly have a better education, in most instances. However, this “higher education” may come at a price, and I don’t mean the cost of tuition.
If you’re a minority, or if your child has a disability, or you are enrolling in the school on scholarships (if you are not wealthy), or if you/your child are LGBTQ, or if your family is not Catholic, or you don’t drive a big fancy black Escalade, or your child is not “gifted” in sports or academics , or you’re deemed as just plain “unpopular”… Your child (and you) will have a very rough time here. The atmosphere is extremely catty, to put it nicely. The amount of bullying among the parents towards each other, and of course within the school (the kids) is on another level. It can get miserable, real fast. I am only scraping the surface with the problems listed in this review. I have witnessed (and been the victim of) both physical and sexual assaults, that in turn were covered up by the faculty and staff. I’ve seen teachers join in on the bullying of a parent or another child, because they’re “different” in some way. I’ve seen students being punished for an altercation, instigated by another student, who comes from a family of “influence” (money, prestige etc.) and minimal, sometimes even no disciplinary action would be administered to the offending student. Families of “influence” would riot if they did not get their way, and GTACS has repeatedly catered to these families (and will continue to do so) because their funding is dependent on the families with a lot of coin or prestige.
Let’s not forget that there have been SEVERAL sexual assault cases uncovered recently within their connected Catholic Church “ST FRANCIS”. Don’t believe me? Check the Michigan.gov report that came out in 2023. Their current pastor is one of the many offenders within the report, and he is still running ST FRANCIS! How messed up is that? Like I said, this school system has a tendency to cover up whatever they believe will tarnish their reputation. The school is CLOSELY connected to St Francis Catholic Church, and the students are made to attend masses there at least once a week, if not more, for a given “holy day” etc etc. The students also have very close exposure/contact with the priest, through means of confession (a one on one activity) and let me make sure you know… this priest has sexually assaulted people during CONFESSION. Throughout the Diocese of Gaylord, there are many many many cases of clergy members/priests who have engaged in the sexual assaults of minors, women and young boys. How is this okay? How do they STILL allow these disgusting humans to be part of this church? Do you want your children being continuously exposed to a sexual predator/offender in conjunction to the many pedophiles that have standing within this church? Their old youth group pastor was having an inappropriate relationship (he committed statutory r*pe) with a minor for years before they found out about it, and quietly dismissed him from that position. He is still allowed to attend masses at any of the churches associated with the GTACS school system. If that’s not enough to dissuade you from enrolling your child here, I don’t know what would be.
The amount of utter disgust I have for this school system is immeasurable. It’s shocking how far they will go, to maintain their “image” and rake in the cash. It’s despicable.
This school system personally effected my sibling and I, in several ways.
GTACS was a major factor in the diagnosis of CPTSD, we received later in life.
Gross negligence is an understatement. GTACS continued to look the other way as my sibling and I were repeatedly abused by our parent. There were obvious signs of abuse noticed by the staff, and yet, nothing was done. Major obvious indicators such as: food insecurities, homelessness, lack of maintaining basic hygiene, sleep deprivation, disheveled appearances, difficulty focusing during lessons, obvious bruises and scratches etc, were blatantly ignored. We were homless for several years of our enrollment at GTACS. We were sleeping in cars, occasionally couch surfing, hopping from one hotel room to another, being evicted from several rentals etc for years. At one point we lived in a hotel room above a shake and bake meth lab. We made many attempts to ask for help from teachers, our principals and the counselors. We were turned away and belittled each time. Maybe it was too much of a “chore” for them to report it.
GTACS violated Michigans Child Protection Law (act 238 of 1975) which states in section 3 that the school administration, teachers and counselors are REQUIRED to report suspected child negligence and abuse. Not a single person on their staff ,at that time, helped us. Our abuse was finally detected at the public school system we transferred to, after being intensely bullied at Saint Francis for our appearance and our very obvious lack of money. We were placed into foster care, and finally felt seen and heard. It’s incredibly sad to say, but we were grateful to have CPS involved.
If you are a disadvantaged student without the means to “contribute” to this school system, good luck. No one will give you a second thought. Not the school officials, the teachers, the parents and especially not the students. For the amount of torment we experienced, you would actually think that the teachers ENCOURAGED students to bully disadvantaged kids. They certainly looked the other way, every single time.
GTACS even went as far as to cover up the Sexual Coercion and Criminal Sexual Assault (statutory rape) incidents (which happened on school property) by not telling my parent ANYTHING. GTACS, a mandated reporter under Act 238 which encompasses Sexual Assault, violated laws involving Michigans age of consent policy by not reporting the incidents to authorities and deciding not to report it to my parent. They quietly swept the whole thing under the rug, and turned their backs as rumors spread, and the bullying went from tolerable to downright hellish. GTACS teaches students that sex is a sin, even when someone has been assaulted. The “slut shaming” that commenced was unrelenting. Students were vandalizing property in our lockers, throwing things at us, spreading horrible rumors to groups of kids from OTHER SCHOOLS, tampering with our FOOD, making songs about us, shunning, gossiping and even physically assaulting us. One lovely girl even hit me over the head with a stack of textbooks and a binder, in front of a TEACHER. Nothing was done. Noticing a trend here? My sister had her fingers smashed when an evil little twit stomped on her hand while they were on the playground. Were they punished? No.
GTACS is a tiny school system. If you don’t like the ‘everyone knows everything about everyone’ thing, this place is not for you. Especially if you are a private person, and prefer to keep your family matters to yourself. Rumors spread like wildfire, and people are very quick to make judgements not based on facts.
My aim is to encourage anyone who had a negative experience at GTACS to come forward and share their story. If it helps to prevent one more person from being traumatized for life, it is worth it. And I know that there are others, who have been hurt by this organization. I was in school with them, and witnessed the absolute horrors that they went through at the hands of their “peers” and the incompetent and sometimes sadistic teachers.
As a side note, some of the lesser issues that I experienced or witnessed as a result of the incompetence of GTACS staff include the following:
I developed a severe eating disorder during my middle school and teen years that was fueled by the torment of the other students, who daily called me a fat pig etc, etc.
People were bullied for being minorities, or for their sexual orientation or for their “poor” financial status. There was intense body shaming, resulting in several girls in my grade developing depression and eating disorders. There were many students who made fun of others for having physical and mental disabilities.
I witnessed someone beat a boy with a musical instrument case, in front of other peers, because he was accused of being gay. Nothing was done by the staff.
I witnessed boys tormenting and mocking another student for having a physical disability that was the result of a horrible uncontrollable illness. Their lack of compassion for this student was astounding. This same student was also made fun of for being a minority. Several other girls had so many rumors spread about them, that they had to transfer schools to avoid daily torment.
When I was in elementary school at Immaculate Conception, a much larger girl sat on top of me while we were playing in the snow hills, by the playground. She covered my nose and mouth with her mitten. I was being suffocated. I kicked and screamed until she reluctantly released me. This incident was reported, and once again, nothing was done. This girl came from a VERY influential family, who was heavily involved in Michigan politics.
As many have already said, GTACS does not handle bullying correctly, at all. They seem to handle nothing correctly, as far as my experience has lead me to believe. I am traumatized, angry and grieving for myself and the others who were utterly destroyed by this school. There aren’t enough words to describe how much I loathe this organization. And with good reason. For over a decade, I held my silence about the atrocities committed at GTACS. This was in fear of not being believed, being labeled as a “troubled” child and worrying that members of the school system would succeed in dismissing our experiences. Now that I am older and wiser, and have achieved many professional milestones, I have decided to speak up. I especially wanted to write this review because of the recent sexual assault scandals uncovered by the state. It has motivated me to share my experience, in hopes that I will be listened to. I hope that perspective families considering enrollment with GTACS will factor these experiences in, before making a decision that could ruin their child’s developmental years, or even their life.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading this review.
