Lighthouse School

"I attended this school from September 2016 until October 2017. Some background for me: I’m autistic and have ADHD. Those, along with some trauma and agoraphobia and other mental health things I don’t want to detail in a public review, lead to me having poor attendance in high school and this is what my district thought would be the best choice in order to improve my attendance. Also worth noting for later context, I’m transgender. I came out in 2013 and was already out for several years by this point. My experiences here were a very mixed bag. For every good thing about this school, there were two bad things. I had relatively good experiences with the majority of the teachers I worked with. I’ll get to exceptions later. Two teachers in particular stuck out to me, I’d even go as far to say as they were life changing. A science teacher (who unfortunately passed away a few months after I left) and a music therapist who as far as I know no longer works there. The small class sizes worked well for my needs, and their tokens/points system did encourage me to attend more. “If I go to school, I can get that Rush record” not only worked well, but hilariously most of those pressings are now insanely expensive. Their off-site job training program also helped me a lot. There is so much wrong, where do I even begin. This was not a good choice for someone with school trauma already. -I could highly sense favoritism towards me as I was “higher functioning”. Almost a sense of relief talking to a “higher functioning” student from the teachers is not a good sign looking back. -The methods of restraint and isolation that were used during my time attending this school were honestly really traumatic to witness, I can’t even imagine being the person being restrained. They revamped things a bit, turned the padded blue rooms into god knows what. Didn’t see those again after my initial tour. -I got TWO entirely different concussions while a student here. One was another student in a blind rage throwing a desk and being in front of her it hit me on the back of the head, the other was getting hit on the same spot in the back of the head with a basketball not even 3 months later. I’m not at all upset with the other student, she and I became close after that actually. What really made this bad was that the school called my parents 6 HOURS AFTER IT HAPPENED. I don’t think they even got a call for the second one. -I must have been the first transgender student to attend the school, because wow did they not know how to handle it. First few months I had to go to the nurse to use the bathroom. But only one particular bathroom in the nurse’s office. After being forced to wait a half hour to pee one day, I finally had enough and asked my parents to do something. Apparently they had no clue I was even being forced to use the nurse’s bathroom, they thought I was just being allowed to use the men’s room. After a talk with my parents, I ended up being allowed to use the men’s restroom. However, it had to be empty. This made no sense, I was growing facial hair at that point and I hadn’t even started HRT yet. -Doing one of the “jobs”, I had to run to younger grade classrooms to drop things off. One of my busmates happened to be in that class. The teacher kept referring to me as “she” but this sweet little kid in his adorable loud voice spoke up and said “Uh Mrs. Name? Alex isn’t a girl, he’s a boy.” and she was about to get UPSET WITH HIM FOR THAT but I stepped in and said thanks for standing up for me and the teacher shut up real fast. -Regarding that 1st concussion, I was on the soccer team and that happened during soccer season. So of course I’m going to sit it out, it’s a brain injury. The coach (who is/was a teacher at the school) was very clearly frustrated with me for listening to my body and saying I can’t play if I’m dizzy. I go to sign up next season and he pulls me aside. He asks if I actually want to do this since my attendance for soccer wasn’t great last year. I looked at him dumbfounded. Unshockingly, I got my GED."

"A little background here: I’m autistic, and I was a student from early 2018 to June 2021. I was sent here after I got suspended from a public high school on my first day for punching a teacher. This school did not help my anger issues at all. Early in my time here, I got put in a restraint and dislocated my knee. There was nowhere to go but that same time-out room if I needed a break. Just one of two rows of windowless cells painted beige, a staff member standing guard at the transparent door. It was that or the room next door, two rows of heavy chairs at long desks facing the walls. We weren’t even allowed to talk in there. Seeing the students with more support needs than I had getting put in restraints all the time was an affront to my humanity through theirs. When I started, there was a five-level system based on our behavior, and higher levels had access to certain privileges like extracurricular activities and field trips. We started at Level 2, and Level 1 was the lowest of the low. Hardly anyone was Level 5, much less Level 4. In 2020(?) the level terminology was replaced with ranks, and the rank of “Trust” (and that was only one over the default rank, mind you) was held over my head, even when I had proven to be an excellent role model. A staff member scolded me for picking at my scalp when I didn’t have any stim things. And I’m one of the autistic people with less support needs, mind you. I had a classmate J who I think was schizophrenic, and the staff did not treat her well. The way they treated a non-speaking blind student M whose parents clearly didn’t have enough money to accommodate his disability was even worse. I think he got sent to the time-out center every day. The education was quite below grade level, and I, lacking many of the support needs most of the student body had, was not challenged adequately. As I said before, the extracurricular activities were limited to higher levels/ranks. I was beloved for my wit, but I think there was a bit of favoritism towards me since I had less support needs than most. When I graduated, I painted my cap gold and put an iridescent gold infinity symbol on it, and the text “Self-Advocate” in red."

"My name is Irina Safner. This was a school I went to for 5 years. When I first started, I thought that it was a prison that hurt kids. Then I realized that it WAS a school that was there to help me, and it will help you too. I want to thank all of the staff who helped me to express my feelings from when I first started. You ARE the the real home for me, and even though I left, I will always love you, and will always be a part of your school family. To all the students who are there, it will be hard at first, but when you leave, all you will want is to be back at Lighthouse. It is just that kind of school."

"Hey it's your favorite student Serina Brashears. This school has changed me completely and I wanted to say thank you so much for giving me that awesome opportunity for making me what I have become. Missed you guys alot! Dr. Scott Bartis? You were the best principal ever! You and the staff means so much to me. I am now almost 33 years old and I am still struggling with my life but I getting there."