The Mysterious Disappearance of Two Advisors
“Teachers now should be aware of how much of an impact they have on students going to school, and all the staff at CSH should fully acknowledge that and make sure to put their best foot forward.”
Comp Sci High is known for lots of things and one of the biggest things is their community with both students and parents. Deeper inside that community are friendships between teachers and students. Sometimes, though, a teacher leaves, and, sadly,a question that is usually asked is “Where did this teacher go?” This kind of question can result in students creating speculations about that teacher, but the real point is: Why don’t we know?
As a senior in Comp Sci High I can say that I have seen many teachers come and go, some leaving to continue to make the world better and some leaving without a word.
This is why I bring up two of the biggest mysteries in Comp Sci High – the disappearance of both Mr. Kimm and Ms. Samuels. To give some context to who they are, they were my advisors back when I was in 9th grade (2021), and at first they were great people to be around, they had a nice vibe, and seemed perfect for the role as advisors (for at least a week), but as the months passed, things seemed to be different. Looking back at it now, we, as 9th graders, were treated badly by them. But to have one of my first advisors leave during the time of Thanksgiving without a word left us all confused, and then to have the second one leave without a specific reason was also odd.
To get some background and context, I asked some friends from my advisory, who were also there during the time Kimm and Samuels were here, two questions:
1. What were your thoughts on Ms. Samuels and Mr. Kimm before and after they left?
2. How did you feel when you knew that they left?
Anaelah Scot:
“When I was first given the opportunity to have Mr. Kimm and Ms. Samuels as my advisors, I felt okay with that, but overtime I started to notice a growing difference between Mr. Kimm and Ms. Samuels. Ms. Samuels would treat me offensively. She wouldn’t show any care to me; she would always ignore me and pay little to no mind on what I had to say or what I wanted to do. As for Mr. Kimm, he would make me feel uncomfortable, making weird remarks about how I’m his sweetheart and how he loved me. It was kind of awkward and confusing to me because I was only in the ninth grade, but I didn’t understand and it only really hit me when Mr. Kimm left. Before Thanksgiving break I got into an altercation with another student and I had to apologize to my whole advisory. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t any easier because Mr. Kimm made me feel uncomfortable after I was done giving my speech. After we came back from Thanksgiving break. Mr. Kimm was no longer there. I kind of wondered what happened, but then Miss Samuel started to behave out of line as well. It got to the point where she called me disgusting and I lashed out on her, and I’m glad they left because if they were still here, I probably wouldn’t have gotten as far as I’ve gotten now.”
“Knowing that they left lifted a heavy burden off my shoulders. I was given an opportunity to have two new advisors, Mr. C and Ms. Rebitzer, who treat me with the utmost respect and care and attention”
Alyma Sylla:
“Ms. Samuels was cool at first, but my opinion changed when she called me weird. I barely knew her, and I don’t like when people try to define me, especially in a way I didn’t ask for. I felt like her relationship with us as an advisor was mostly based on the rules CSH gave her, not on her personal interest in connecting with us.”
“As for Mr.Kimm, I felt like he was too enthusiastic for our advisory to work out. He didn’t seem to consider that we were just freshmen with a variety of personalities and attitudes, so his approach didn’t really fit our group.”
Kristine Stackhouse:
“Before ninth grade even started, my mother and I went to the old school location just to get acquainted with the building and some of my teachers, but while I was there I had met Ms. Samuels.”
“At first Ms.Samuels was really nice and she was very helpful when it came to getting me acclimated to being in high school. I think as time went on she distanced herself from me and the advisory in general, especially after Mr. Kim left. I remember that there would be many times she wasn't at school and then show up for two days and leave again.”
“About Mr. Kimm – I can barely remember him. He was very hyper and I still remember the time when he got so angry with us that he grabbed a poster. I think it was a poster about rules to have in advisory or something like that and threw it in the trash. I thought it was hilarious at the time, but looking back on it, he was acting like a child.”
“I’m not trying to sound mean or harsh, but when they left I didn’t even care. I was happy when I found out Mr. C and Ms.Rebitzer were our new advisors. I don’t break a sweat thinking about both of them; they never treated me any kind of way, which I’m thankful for.”
Toure Parker:
“My thoughts on Ms. Samuels and Mr.Kimm was they were chill at first and didn’t seem bad, but as advisory went on and the class grew, Mr.Kimm in particular became more enraged and couldn’t seem to handle himself. He got so upset the class was talking one day he ripped the posters we made dedicated to advisory. Ms.Samuels wasn’t for Comp Sci High. She had low patience and just didn’t have the passion and loving and caring motive Mr. C and Ms. Rebitzer gave to us. Mr. Kimm was cool as a person, but when he became angry he just wasn’t himself, and he couldn’t be in an environment with teenagers at the time.”
“I felt good after they left. We deserved some type of change, and Mr. C and Ms. Rebitzer are not the famous teachers or whatever, but to me I really care about them, and they made me personally feel good and like I meant something. I realized our old advisors just didn’t care enough to put in the effort our current advisors put in now. I think as an advisory we love our advisors and we may not see it now, but we’ll miss them being on our backs because we won’t have this in the world we will enter after 12th grade. We will only have ourselves.”
Danasia Hostos:
“In the beginning my personal thoughts on Mr. Kimm and Ms. Samuels were neutral, I saw them as simple people trying to do their jobs. Ms. Samuels was more of the quiet one, who contributed from here and there, but it was a very little contribution. Mr. Kimm was more of the leader out of the two, he told us what we needed to do, and how to do it. But he, in my eyes, simply didn’t have the patience or understanding of how us freshmen were still learning. He would just rage before understanding where we were coming from as well and it made it hard for us to talk to him about things going on in school. Again Ms. Samuels was mostly on the side of being quiet, but she didn’t have patience either. Neither of them were honestly good at doing their jobs as advisors, they didn’t build that environment for us to feel comfortable or have comfortable conversations.”
“After they left, I was genuinely happy a bit. I felt like we would have a better chance with new advisors than ones who didn’t even have patience. Which is where our new advisors step in, Mr. C and Ms. Reb. I think they do a wonderful job of making us have a space to be ourselves and allow us to talk about our struggles and things we even worry about. They worried hard to build that space for us and so did I. We did it together, and I think we won’t meet anyone like them in our lives again and that makes them so much more than special. They may not be anyone’s favorite but that doesn’t matter. They to me are truly the best two people at Comp Sci High, and I appreciate them much more than they even know.”
After I talked to my fellow advisees, I wanted to talk to the man himself, Mr. Noah, looking for any answers. However, the same day I was going to talk to him, I was tipped off about something I had no idea about: a lawsuit. Yes. A lawsuit. This lawsuit, between my former advisor, Ms. Samuels, and the school, is a public-facing document.
According to my assessment of events, Ms. Samuels pursued this lawsuit because, one day during advisory, the classroom was a little bit hectic, but not to the point where someone could get seriously injured. During this time two students were playing catch with a Nerf ball, and by accident the student who threw the ball hit Ms. Samuels in the face, causing her to get infuriated and bad-mouth the students.
Then, after yelling at some students, she exited the classroom and was not seen. As dismissal was happening and I left the building, there was an ambulance parked outside meant for her (one should remember that what was thrown was a simple Nerf ball, which, at the force it was thrown, can’t cause any major injuries). At the time all I knew was that the ambulance was for her and that was it. However, her lawsuit shows that she wanted to blame the school (and its students) for what happened to her.
The questions I asked Mr. Noah during this interview are:
1. What are we allowed to talk about?
2. What did Ms.Samuels and Mr.Kimm do?
3. Are there policies to how teachers talk to students when adults mess up?
4. How does it feel to be responsible for letting someone go, and then having to inform others about it?
According to Mr. Noah, “The reasons that someone loses their job or is let go is a typically confidential matter. It's a best practice not to go into all the details of why someone lost their job, because it might be seen as defamatory or libelous.” In regards to Ms. Samuels, Mr. Noah said the following: “In the lawsuit she alleges that she was discriminated against as a person with a disability because, at least as I understand it, she had a concussion and she wasn’t coming to work because of that concussion and according to her, we discriminated against her as a person with a concussion.. She also claimed she was discriminated against for having a concussion and was retaliated against for calling law enforcement, but the fact is that she called the police because she got hit in the head with a foam dodgeball. She subsequently called the police on that student. Charges were eventually dropped.”
According to Mr. Noah, Ms. Samuels was let go because she didn’t end up coming back to work, and she didn’t send the school any proper documentation. Mr. Noah could not comment beyond that.
Mr. Noah was less open about Mr. Kimm, saying that he could not comment because the information “isn’t in the public record.” However, he did say that “we decided that his employment at Comp Sci High would end.” He could not go into detail about why.I asked Mr. Noah for more thoughts about firing teachers and teacher misconduct. He said the following:
“For example, if a teacher curses at a student not in front of a student, or calls a student something really rude or inappropriate, parents will call asking about it, or students will talk about it and ask that teacher to apologize, and often it stops at that. But there are other kinds of misconduct – like physically grabbing a student or being violent with a student, or any sexual commentary or even anything that approaches that – that could potentially result in that person being fired. Part of my job is, if there are allegations of misconduct that’s not illegal behavior but is inappropriate in the workplace, to investigate and make a judgement whether it happened or not. Fortunately I haven’t really had too many of those in 7 years, but there certainly have been 1 or 2 times where an employee has done something inappropriate and we had to either formally discipline them or let them go. So are their policies? Yes. General sexual harassment, physical violence polices that apply whether it’s a student or a co-worker. Then there’s also state regulations about corporal punishment and how teachers are supposed to act with students. But most of it is common sense.”
I asked him why he might fire a teacher, and he said:
“To make the decision whether someone keeps their job or not is my least favorite part about my job because I don’t want to be in the position of taking bread out of someone’s mouth, but the reality is it’s an important part of the job, so how does it feel? It feels crappy and not fun but that’s besides the point. It’s a part of the job. I think it’s a decision I don’t take lightly, but i’m glad I have legal training as an employment lawyer because i think that really helps me think about these decisions in a disciplined way. But it feels exactly how you think it feels: not fun.”
Finally, I asked Mr. Noah if I thought he made the right choice in letting go of both Mr. Kimm and Ms. Samuels. He said the following:
“I stand by whatever decisions were made in both cases. In the end my job is to make a judgement on what’s best for the students, and I think I did that in both of those cases.”
Ever since the leave of these two advisors and teachers, Comp Sci High continues to build its community between students and teachers I’ve been here the full four years, so to go from 9th grade to 12th grade, I can say that, though our communication as a community when it comes to any serious situations has grown, it needs to continue to grow even more.
Teachers now should be aware of how much of an impact they have on students going to school, and all the staff at CSH should fully acknowledge that and make sure to put their best foot forward. So what I can say is that the way that staff is communicating with students in serious situations should continue, but also improve. Teachers and students alike should be communicative about when an adult is doing something wrong. But as for the two advisors that I previously had, I am glad that we were given the two different advisors we have now: Mr.C and Ms. Rebitzer. Without them Success Squad wouldn’t be as successful as it is now.