St. Monica's Catholic High School - MORI Kathy Griffis MORI Mariner Ocean Research Institute Fake Institute - Very damaging to student's university admissions Santa Monica California

Read my full review and make up your own mind. I've included lots of details.

We are pulling out our child because there's so much drama, false promises and damages the chances for my child to get into a good university, for that matter, any university. Now that the teacher knows that we are not happy, she is mistreating our child. This is bullying and retaliation by the teacher.

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Your child's future should not be a gamble, specially when you spend $10k-$15k per year. That's $60k for just high school. Save the money.

We were befriended by the STEM Department Director Dr. Kathy Griffis. At first, we felt very fortunate to have a Department Director take a personal interest in our child's success. The more we reciprocated her interest with us asking about the Biology Honors class she teaches, she started deflecting by criticizing others.





Our initial questions were about when she will start teaching basics of human biology. She said coral Biology and human biology were the same. Repeated questions made her tell us that my child was in a Marine Biology class and not human biology. So we asked if my child can transfer to a human biology class since my child wants to become a doctor. She said it's too late to transfer since a whole quarter of the year has already passed. My child found some students from regular Biology class and realized that Griffis teaches the same things to both Biology and Biology Honors.

So we talked with other parents and our questions lead us to realize that Griffis doesn't know anything about Biology. She has found a niche to teach kids about coral, global warming and how Dr. Fauci is the smartest man/God alive. Now for 2.5 months, not one lesson on human biology. She spends more time during class checking on her coral in fish tanks than she does teaching. She calls her fish tanks of coral The Mariner Ocean Research Institute. It's all fake.



ONE student built a device to monitor the growth of coral using Arduino hardware and software platform. She now claims that she teaches using Arduino. It's all a lie. I can't tell if the school is being conned by Griffis or willing participants in a misinformation campaign to boost recruitment.

Anytime we ask questions about her syllabus and lesson plans, she complains about the school and gossips about someone else. She expressed how difficult it is to be a true progressive liberal at the school because the school has "closet conservatives". She said that the anti-progressive climate is very overt. The principal is so blatant that he proudly displays a FOX News hat in his office. She several times called him a Trumpian.

About two weeks ago, she started telling us about how the school supposedly hired a 23 year old anti-LGBTQ rich white kid to teach theology, an unqualified parent to teach engineering, a finance guy who just can't shut-up to teach conceptual physics, and how none of these people use a syllabus, instead do something called "project based" teaching. Physics teacher supposedly built a TP tent with spaghetti, a 3rd or 4th grade project. So called engineer couldn't even figure out how to unlock a bathroom door from the inside. School had to break the door. She showed us the video.

Teachers are quitting left and right because they aren't being paid well and those remaining are supposedly the unqualified.

There's so much infighting. Griffis says the Dean's are absolutely useless and are there just to fill the Black, Hispanic and Gay quota, but has no real value. Griffis supposedly creates all the STEM presentations because the principal has a learning disorder himself.

Griffis thinks we trust her, but she is the reason we are leaving. If she is just one person from within who bad mouths the school and the teachers, just imagine how many more there are that we don't know of. When a university recruiter hears of the drama, the paper that diploma is printed on will be worth more than the diploma. In other words, it will harm the students future.

We are actively looking to move our child but it's difficult because the school year first quarter is over. We are in dialogs with online and hybrid schools because those are the options now.

As full-time working parents, we don't have the time to figure out if what Griffis says is true or not. All we care about is that our child is learning well and getting into a good university. Even if only 10% of what she says is true, it's a huge problem.

What made us decide is when Griffis told us about her using her coral lab that she calls a Marine Institute as a way to apply at other achools for employment. It's all a front for Griffis to advance in her career. She called the Marine Institute her retirement plan.

If you sense that we are angry, we are. The school lied to us about Honors programs, no AP classes at all, and the school may not get their accreditation renewed. Who knows.

Find another school. This is a mediocre school at best. They strive to serve the lowest common denominator of students and is only tuition focused.