Finally, a happy ending to the absurd spectacle of watching Montgomery County Public School officials refuse to allow academically precocious Caitlyn Singam to enter sixth grade at Cabin John Middle School in Bethesda, even though she was clearly qualified and had already been welcomed to the school earlier in the summer.
Caitlyn’s father, Dr. Kumar Singam, just sent me this email:
“After a week during which MCPS informed us that our daughter would fit into a Highly Gifted Center, and acknowledged that she was more than qualified for sixth grade, last night at 10:31 PM, [Cabin John principal] Dr. [Paulette] Smith took matters into her own hands and invited my child to her school. In doing so, I believe, she …showed immense courage and fortitude.
“My child was met by a principal who cried, and the chief of the guidance group, who cried as well. I can say with absolute conviction, now supported by events, that my child being kept out of school for two days was never about her academics. Her academic achievement was measured by MCPS with its own yardstick.
“[Community superintendent] Dr. [Sherry] Liebes had the gall to look me in the eyes and tell me she didn’t have the MCPS testing results. (I had it, and proved to a group of officials that MCPS had it, too). My child was accepted after a social worker from MCPS stood up and said she could, and Dr. Smith insisted she could [attend middle school]. Her academic instruction was never a bona fide issue.”
Kudos to the Singams for not backing down and insisting that MCPS follow its own rules for a change, and to Dr. Smith for stepping up and doing the right thing, however belatedly.
Dunce caps to Liebes, GT coordinator Marty Creel, and any other overpaid MCPS administrators who used a nine-year-old child to get back at her parents for speaking out, and compounding their calumny by lying about it. You people are a disgrace.
