For over 10 years I have been observing and writing about the Success Academy charter network. Every time I think that there’s no way that I can learn anything more scandalous about these schools, I’m proven wrong. The latest news comes from a bombshell whistleblower post by a recently fired Success Academy middle school teacher.

I’ve lost count, but I’d say I’ve written over 35 posts about Success Academy over the years. Some of these posts have analyzed attrition data, some have highlighted stories from families who have suffered there, there was even some analysis of training videos that Success Academy removed after I wrote about them. There was my thorough review of the book about Success Academy ‘How The Other Half Learns.’ If you put them altogether the posts add up to the size of a book. Someone who follows me might wonder why have I pursued this school with Captain Ahab like persistence over the years. The reason I do it is that I believe that the school is abusive to children and to families and that pretty much all the employees there are complicit in this abuse. Such a scandal cannot be kept secret forever and I’ve always felt that eventually the full story of Success Academy will be out and people would eventually look back and say “Can you believe that this was able to happen and so many people allowed it to?” but when they see my archived posts they’ll see that I did not just sit back and let it happen, I did what I could with my laptop and my limited free time.

The brave blog post by teacher Livia Camperi was titled ‘The Cruel Dystopia of Success Academy’ and I highly recommend you stop reading my analysis and read the actual source for yourself and then come back here, assuming you’re not already sick to your stomach.

Of all the atrocities Camperi reports, the one that stuck me as the most worthy of a formal investigation was this one:

If this description is accurate, this, in terms of education, is a crime. To have students do mainly test prep for three months at the expense of all else is a type of cheating. Remember that these middle school students have been part of Success Academy since they were in Kindergarten. So if these middle schoolers need that much test prep in order to get 3s on the state test, then the ‘success’ of Success Academy is the mirage that I always have claimed.

In the comments of the blog post, this teacher has gotten a lot of support from her former students. If students are willing to corroborate her claim about the test prep for three months, this could be a very big story.

Perhaps Camperi’s bravery will inspire other former Success Academy teachers and maybe even some current Success Academy teachers to speak out. If the things described in the post are accurate, all staff members who have witnessed this educational neglect are accomplices in this scheme. I don’t have great confidence that many of the teachers who were oblivious about what was going on are going to take the opportunity to reflect on their role in the scheme. But if students start speaking out, a lot can happen.

Some of my most important blog posts I’ve ever done have been the ones where I have enabled Success Academy families to speak out. There was the mother who was not permitted to attend her son’s graduation. There was also the father whose daughter was forced out of the school because they made her repeat a grade when she failed one summer school class by one point. But these are just the tips of the iceberg. If anyone wants to have their story told on this blog, whether it is parents, students, former teachers, or current teachers, I will be happy to help and just like those other families, I will give you final say in what gets published. Just reach out to me in the comments or message me on Twitter @garyrubinstein.