She painted her hands green. She was three. Saw some silly cartoon character with glowing green fists and wanted to match. A spark of imagination. A burst of curiosity. So she covered her little palms in marker ink and smiled.
But her teacher didn’t smile. She snapped.
Frustrated, overwhelmed, the teacher struck her — hit a three-year-old — and sent her to the principal’s office like she was a problem. Told admin, “She got into the markers.”
Admin told the teacher to wash the kid’s hands, brushed off the part where she laid hands on a child.
And no one told the parents.
Three months passed. The child’s language improved. One day, she brought it up: “My new teacher is nice.”
The parents froze. “Was your other teacher not nice?”
“No. She hit me because I painted my hands.”
What? When? How?
Oh. The green hands. But that was three months ago.
Why weren’t they told?
Were they lied to? Was this covered up? The teacher was gone now. Replaced quietly. No meeting. No follow-up. Just gone. And suddenly, the weight of it all fell on the parents — because now there’s no proof. Just the word of a child. A child who’d been treated like a problem instead of a person.
They asked the admin: Why weren’t we told? What happened? But the admin shrugged. Claimed they “didn’t know.” Said the teacher resigned for personal reasons. Something vague. Then, hesitantly, they offered to call the cops.
Three months after the fact.
What good would that do now? Put a three-year-old through a police interview? A court case? Put the story in the news? Force a child to relive trauma because the school admin didn’t handle it when they should’ve?
This is why parents are frustrated with the system.
Because when things go wrong — and they do — schools don’t always step up. They cover. They deflect. They hide behind certifications, buzzwords, and banners that say “accredited.” As if that’s supposed to comfort a parent whose child was hurt and silenced.
They brag about test scores.
They post polished pictures.
They market themselves like a perfect little place.
But when a child cries out, they brush it off.
And when a parent raises their hand and says, “Something’s not right,” they get gas lit and labeled: angry, difficult, dramatic, disruptive.
We’ve seen it. We’ve lived it.
That’s another reason why we built Nerd Academy.
We are the school that listens.
Not the kind of listening where they nod and move on.
Real listening. The kind that hears a parent say, “Something’s wrong,” and actually does something about it.
Too many families have been ignored.
Brushed off when they raised concerns.
Told their kid would “grow out of it.”
Or worse – watched their child get labeled:
“Disruptive.”
“Sensitive.”
“Defiant.”
“Behind.”
“Lazy.”
“Brat.”
We don’t believe in labels like that.
We believe in listening early – and teaching like it matters.
Because when schools stop listening, kids stop thriving.
And we’re not okay with that.
We don’t care how many awards a school has. We care how many kids feel safe there.
We don’t care about being called “highly certified.” We care about being fully present.
We don’t chase prestige. We chase progress.
And if your child’s ever been overlooked, misunderstood, or quietly erased – we hear you.
More importantly: we hear them.