[JavaBrewer]

Nearly 5 years ago we made the move to a neighboring city in North County San Diego. My son was in his sophomore year and my daughter an in-going freshman. Our move was primarily triggered by finances, and the desire to downsize and reduce my work commute, but we also had some major issues with the high school and it's administration. My son handled the transition easily - he landed a spot on the varsity baseball team and filled his time in JROTC eventually becoming a leader his Junior/Senior years. Things were horrible for our daughter who struggled to find a group for the first year. As others have already said, girls can be especially cruel at that age, and a couple incidents our daughter shared with us still bothers me. She found early acceptance from kids who were leading troubled lives (drugs/abuse/neglect/crime) which we had to redirect. Things smoothed out her final 2 years, she joined dance and various clubs, but she never developed a close bond with any of the girls and has mostly negative things to say about the her time there.

Both my wife (in MN) and I (in CA) had sub par high school experiences and have never gone to any reunion events. I guess that had an effect on our own kids - but it was never our intention.