What happened at Kennedy today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A teenage trespasser gained access to the school building to fight a Kennedy student. He had a knife and attempted to stab security. He was apprehended by the police. The community letter is on Twitter.

Security staff was injured.

[Anonymous]

It's important for people to understand that a person with a weapon was able to gain access to the school for some unspecified amount of time. The fact that the weapon was "just a knife" is a coincidence and not the result of some security success.

It's also important for people to understand that a security team member (not clear to me if it was SRO or other role...but that's secondary) was injured by the intruder with the weapon. The fact that the message from leadership did not full lean-in on how lower-paid staff members make tremendous sacrifices is beyond me. Sure, there's a statement of appreciation. But committing to a system that aims to protect the school and it's entire staff and student body should have been the opening line. By how many inches did a MoCo employee almost lose their life at JFKHS today?

Are people supposed to be thankful that this was a targeted attack on a specific student (at first)?! Or, instead, are they to take some accountability if they have a student there and be sure to talk to them about how wrong they were to be in the area with a cell phone out?! These are the messages being sent. But accountability for something like this happening? Zero. And so disappointing.

ASIDE: Is duration of shelter-in-place a metric the county is tracking or somehow incentivized on? This is the 4th or 5th SIP (at least) at this school in this school year and the students reports of SIP duration are nowhere near what gets communicated on social media. This is far less important than the points above but it's now feeling fishy. Why is SIP duration so important and why is the reported duration so far removed from the experienced duration?

Sorry for the rant.

[Anonymous]

"Ohh but we desperately need in person schooling."

We don't. The pandemic changed kids. They do NOT want to be at school. They will do anything to get out of it. We need to fix education and how we deliver it. It's 2024-what worked in the 1900s isn't working now. Clearly.

[Anonymous]

"Ohh but we desperately need in person schooling."

We don't. The pandemic changed kids. They do NOT want to be at school. They will do anything to get out of it. We need to fix education and how we deliver it. It's 2024-what worked in the 1900s isn't working now. Clearly.

I think this should have been preceded by an "Off Topic" notice. This point may be true, but it's not directly related to the security incident at Kennedy or the leadership team's handling of communications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
"Ohh but we desperately need in person schooling."

We don't. The pandemic changed kids. They do NOT want to be at school. They will do anything to get out of it. We need to fix education and how we deliver it. It's 2024-what worked in the 1900s isn't working now. Clearly.

I think this should have been preceded by an "Off Topic" notice. This point may be true, but it's not directly related to the security incident at Kennedy or the leadership team's handling of communications.

NP. It is related. The "education" part can be accomplished without in-person schooling and incidents such as at Kennedy would not happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Ohh but we desperately need in person schooling."

We don't. The pandemic changed kids. They do NOT want to be at school. They will do anything to get out of it. We need to fix education and how we deliver it. It's 2024-what worked in the 1900s isn't working now. Clearly.

You are weirdly conflating things.

If anything the pandemic proved kids NEED to be in school because being out of school significantly harmed them mentally, emotionally and developmentally.

This kid who popped up with a knife at Kennedy is a troubled student, likely from a poor family background and likely a longtime problem child for the system who fell through the cracks. Also he is clearly greatly influenced by rap culture and social media. Those things, which exert incredible influence over kids, have nothing to do with schools.

I agree we need to fix our system, but most kids DO want to be in school and the data proves how harmful being away from school was for them. We also have a lot of societal failures to address, especially with regard to mental health services and efficacy of child wellbeing agencies like CPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Ohh but we desperately need in person schooling."

We don't. The pandemic changed kids. They do NOT want to be at school. They will do anything to get out of it. We need to fix education and how we deliver it. It's 2024-what worked in the 1900s isn't working now. Clearly.

You are weirdly conflating things.

If anything the pandemic proved kids NEED to be in school because being out of school significantly harmed them mentally, emotionally and developmentally.

This kid who popped up with a knife at Kennedy is a troubled student, likely from a poor family background and likely a longtime problem child for the system who fell through the cracks. Also he is clearly greatly influenced by rap culture and social media. Those things, which exert incredible influence over kids, have nothing to do with schools.

I agree we need to fix our system, but most kids DO want to be in school and the data proves how harmful being away from school was for them. We also have a lot of societal failures to address, especially with regard to mental health services and efficacy of child wellbeing agencies like CPS.

Nope. DP-work in schools all over the county. Most kids absolutely do not want to be in school and they can and will do anything to get out of class. Schools aren't any safer because of students like this. Education will definitely look different in the next ten years whether you agree with it or not.

[Anonymous]

Wow! I am not a teacher but what the heck is happening in public high schools these days?
No wonder there is a teacher shortage. Who wants to work in these dangerous environments for low pay when you can have a chill remote job dealing with adults

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MoCo Show picked it up: https://mocoshow.com/2024/04/19/knife-wielding-trespasser-prompts-shelter-in-place-at-kennedy-high-school-on-friday/

"If students are upset by this incident......" Students are becoming desensitized because stuff like this happens frequently in mcps high schools.

[Anonymous]

Glad we had an SRO to take care of it!

The kids open the doors to let other students, who were skipping, back into the building. (This happens several times a day) They probably thought this was a Kennedy kid & let him in. I love having SRO’s, but it was school security that dealt with this situation. They were amazing and handled the situation extremely well. SRO was there to cuff him and take him out.

[Anonymous]

If you want to attempt to make a difference, remember the BOE elections are coming up in a matter of weeks. Sure, it's only 3 of the 9 seats up for re-election currently, but if you want change, look at your options and vote accordingly.

Here's a chart from one candidate forum (note, not all candidates attended) about where they stand on various issues:

Evans, Harris, and Smondrowski are the incumbents on the ballot.

[Anonymous]

See thread on the 14 candidates running for Board of Education in the primary on May 14.

Incumbents: Evans, Harris, Smondrowski.
11 additional candidates to consider. Vote for 1 person in each: District 2, District 4, At-large.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1198868.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Glad we had an SRO to take care of it!

The kids open the doors to let other students, who were skipping, back into the building. (This happens several times a day) They probably thought this was a Kennedy kid & let him in. I love having SRO’s, but it was school security that dealt with this situation. They were amazing and handled the situation extremely well. SRO was there to cuff him and take him out.

According to an interview with moco360media, Evans - one of the incumbents BOE - said her one kid is at Kennedy. Let's ask her what she plans to do about the security and safety in MCPS schools!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Glad we had an SRO to take care of it!

The kids open the doors to let other students, who were skipping, back into the building. (This happens several times a day) They probably thought this was a Kennedy kid & let him in. I love having SRO’s, but it was school security that dealt with this situation. They were amazing and handled the situation extremely well. SRO was there to cuff him and take him out.

According to an interview with moco360media, Evans - one of the incumbents BOE - said her one kid is at Kennedy. Let's ask her what she plans to do about the security and safety in MCPS schools

[Anonymous]

* Don't know why it's posting as if the PP wrote it.

According to an interview with moco360media, Evans - one of the incumbents BOE - said her one kid is at Kennedy. Let's ask her what she plans to do about the security and safety in MCPS schools!