As my daughter moves out of elementary school and onto middle school I have mixed feelings about things. On the one hand, I’m sad to be leaving — or have my daughter leave — this school we’ve become so devoted to over the years. On the other hand, I’m glad to be rid of some of the people I’ve had to deal with over the years. This, mind you, relates more to the parents than to the kids. Most of the kids are sweet and unknowing — many of the parents are petty, narcissistic and just plain mean.

In truth, I’ve poured probably way too much time into this school. I’ve done yearbooks, made potluck meals, cleaned, painted, stapled, sent out emails, managed the website – you name it, I’ve done it – although I never did scrub out a toilet so I suppose I should be grateful for that.

The school is small, very very small. Under 500 kids from kindergarten through fifth grade. It is divided into a “home school” and a “gifted magnet.” This is a totally bothersome and mysterious segregation designed, originally, to bring the smart kids from bad neighborhoods to the better good school. But over time, the parents in the neighborhood felt their kids should also be in the “gifted magnet.” And thus, an ongoing controversy was born. Can you imagine? A magnet school in one’s neighborhood that you must apply to in order to get in? So within the 400 and something population there are various degrees of social groups. There are the Koreans, who make up a big section of the smart kids — and bring the school’s test scores way up. They keep to themselves mostly because honestly, they are invisible to many of the non-Asians at the school. There are the hip and trendy white kids from parts of LA that are still kind of upper middle class but aren’t in this neighborhood. There are actual inner city kids and then there are the neighborhood kids – mostly upper middle class to wealthy, showbiz types, musicians, artists – half of them are the coolest people you’ll ever meet. And half of them are snotty, entitled bitches and pricks.

The bitches, mostly the bitches, let’s face it, have ruined what would otherwise have been a great education for my daughter. We were thrown into the neighborhood when my ex-boyfriend bought a house there and while he was renovating it we rented. Anyway, so the ex went off and married a 19 year-old or whatever and that was that. Once she was in the school I never wanted to take her out. And in the end I’m glad I didn’t, even though there have been so many dramas over the years and even though the lauded school, as it turns out, isn’t that much better from many of the other good schools in the districts.

Now that it’s all over with and we have one foot out the door I’m starting to make lines to the fuzzy pictures in my head and outlines are beginning to form. When the picture takes place fully I’m sure we will come out of this feeling like it was still worth it, but realizing that mean girls get that way for a reason; chances are they have mean mommies or daddies.

There is always some hubub about who was invited to so and so’s party and who wasn’t. In some cases, it can be understood and appreciated. If kids don’t like certain kids, how does one invite them to birthday parties? My daughter’s recent birthday party had me wondering whom to invite, how many to invite, how much could I afford to invite. And in the end, I had to settle on two school friends of hers. Any time I thought of inviting other people I thought about who would feel left out if I invited this person or that person. And yet, it was simply too costly to invite a whole bunch of people.

I still don’t feel right about it. I still feel like it was an awful thing to only invite two.

Either way, now that fifth grade is coming to an end, suddenly there is a need to bring together the very divided home school and magnet school and pretend they are “one school.” So they want one yearbook for all three classes and one graduation party.

This whole thing has brought out a really awful side of one magnet parent in particular and I’m finding it very difficult to keep my mouth shut about it, even though I probably should. Okay, so I’m not even going to go into details, just wanting to say that this parent is making me so relieved we won’t be attending this school anymore and hopefully, when Emma moves on to her new school, we will be around a better class of people. Mind you, there are many great people at this school. I’ve met and made many wonderful friends. But I’ve also come across some of the most ruthless mothers alive. They are vicious and will stop at nothing. If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes I’d never believe anyone could be so horrid.

These horrid parents may be doing everything they think is right – the right school (magnet), the best private school, the best friends, but they neglect to teach them the stuff that really matters: what it means to be a good person. Being Tracy Flick will only get you so far.