(PCM) Parents whose children are about to attend the soon-to-open Innovation Park Middle School in Florida have created an online petition to have the school’s initials “IPMS” changed to avoid potential embarrassment for students.
The new school is set to open up in August and a concerned parent by the name of Christal Feldman, along with several others, decided to start the petition to urge the community and the school board to consider changing the schools name. They feel that the “IPMS” abbreviation would lead the children to be made-fun of with menstrual-related jokes and commentary.
Feldman spoke with Orlando-area news station WKMG-TV and explained the need for the change saying, “What the parents are concerned about is that the acronym for Innovation Park Middle School is IPMS and it was suggested our colors be red, white and black. They don’t want to go to a school and wear a red shirt with the letters IPMS across the shirt for athletics, for academic competitions. They just don’t want to be ridiculed or be made fun of from other students from other schools”.
It definitely makes sense and kids nowadays can be so cruel when it comes to anything they could possible poke fun at, so we could certainly see the schools initials posing a potential risk for that kind of bullying behavior. Middle school is already such a tough and transitional time for children at that age, so alleviating the risk for any type of bullying is always a good idea. We also think parents don’t really want “IPMS” bumper stickers on their vehicles!
The school board has responded to the parents petition and says that they will investigate the issue, but have not yet revealed whether or not a change will be made.
