What's going on at Churchill?

[Anonymous]

I don't have a strong opinion about SROs-- I tend to favor having them in schools but I know enough to realize that I don't have the full picture and information.

And anyone on this board who didn't realize that SROs were replaced with CEOs who stop by Churchill multiple times on a given schoolday needs to stop posting.

Everyone seems to have an opinion without looking at any data or hearing the arguments on both sides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They just rescheduled the Northwest vs Quince Orchard football game from Friday night to 4:30 in the afternoon. Many parents who want to watch their football players, cheerleaders, pom squad members, band members etc play now have to leave work early.

This is in direct response to the violence and illegal weapons brought to games - especially in Germantown.

If your teens used to spend their Friday nights at a football game with friends... that just got taken away from them, too.

The element in the county that allows and encourages lawlessness is winning. What's next?

Which element in the county allows and encourages lawlessness? And please show your work, not just innuendo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They just rescheduled the Northwest vs Quince Orchard football game from Friday night to 4:30 in the afternoon. Many parents who want to watch their football players, cheerleaders, pom squad members, band members etc play now have to leave work early.

This is in direct response to the violence and illegal weapons brought to games - especially in Germantown.

If your teens used to spend their Friday nights at a football game with friends... that just got taken away from them, too.

The element in the county that allows and encourages lawlessness is winning. What's next?

Which element in the county allows and encourages lawlessness? And please show your work, not just innuendo.

Sounds like a smart move to me. It never crossed my mind that there was an entitlement or tradition to go to a football game every friday night. I guess this is maybe when they have typically been scheduled but I honestly never even noticed the pattern. My kids have played different sports and those are regularly played in the afternoon-- if I want to attend I need to leave work early. It sounds like people are creating a false narrative that they are losing something of value when the school is doing its best to maintain order, which is something we all want.

Incidentally, police are always on hand at varsity football games, whether the SRO program exists or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

No one gets expelled from MCPS. They had a place for “problem students” and got rid of it. You can commit sexual assault and all that will happen is getting transferred to another school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

All of the secondary schools have security. Just like big box stores and movie theaters have security. Those places do not have a police officer station there although they see more theft and assaults than schools do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

All of the secondary schools have security. Just like big box stores and movie theaters have security. Those places do not have a police officer station there although they see more theft and assaults than schools do.

These posters for the fraternal order of police are laughable. Schools don't n eed bouncers. I'm sorry this is such a waste of tax dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

All of the secondary schools have security. Just like big box stores and movie theaters have security. Those places do not have a police officer station there although they see more theft and assaults than schools do.

No one is suggesting there should not be security. Churchill has 5-6 full time (unarmed) security officers. Hoover has 2 or 3 also. The question is whether an actual police officer, who is armed, and whose reporting line is to the police and county and not the principal should have an office and full time engagement in the schools (that's what an SRO is). There is not an SRO in Churchill this year but there is instead a CEO (community engagement officer) that is a FT police officer who is now assigned to the neighborhoods around the schools (Churchill, hoover, etc) and is the go-to person if the school has an issue and also stops by multiple times a day. It seems like the CEO has a good relationship with Churchill staff/principal but doesn't walk the halls between classes/at lunch, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a Principal is worried that there might be weapons at a school event, they can call the servicing Police Station to arrange for officers for that event. It happens all the time.

As an example, the County had problems at the Germantown Outdoor pool pre-covid, so the police arranged for officers to have a desk passing out "free handouts" such as bicycle lights and bags. Much friendlier and low-key. The public response was positive and the issue diffused without confrontation. Dedicated "pool SRO's" were not required.

Years ago the County was divided into "red zone" and "green zone" schools. Red zone schools received extra Title I funding, counselors, etc. because they had gang and drug issues on school grounds. A HANDFUL of HIGH schools could benefit from a dedicated SRO to collect gang intelligence (basically collecting rumors and dirt on minors, and yes, this will result in a direct HS-to-jail pipeline), but certainly no ES or MS should have dedicated police.

Clearly, the poster implying Churchill is such a school has never done time at Gaithersburg, Watkins Mill, Einstein, etc.

Again, I feel that the Principal of Churchill HS and the security staff should have been praised and thanked for doing such a great job handling the incident.

To the dirtbags on using this incident to lobby for SRO's - truly, and I mean this with all sincerity - shame on you.

Agree! No school needs an SRO. This isn't prison Honestly if some kid is out of control expel them or create a place for problem kids .

There is a very high standard for expelling or one of the special needs schools. Yes, they do need security. Call it what you want but this month alone shows it.

All of the secondary schools have security. Just like big box stores and movie theaters have security. Those places do not have a police officer station there although they see more theft and assaults than schools do.

No one is suggesting there should not be security. Churchill has 5-6 full time (unarmed) security officers. Hoover has 2 or 3 also. The question is whether an actual police officer, who is armed, and whose reporting line is to the police and county and not the principal should have an office and full time engagement in the schools (that's what an SRO is). There is not an SRO in Churchill this year but there is instead a CEO (community engagement officer) that is a FT police officer who is now assigned to the neighborhoods around the schools (Churchill, hoover, etc) and is the go-to person if the school has an issue and also stops by multiple times a day. It seems like the CEO has a good relationship with Churchill staff/principal but doesn't walk the halls between classes/at lunch, etc.

Not saying this is false but, if it was true, how did it take 15-20 minutes for police to respond to the knife incident?

[Anonymous]

It would be nice after all of the “debriefing” Mr. Taylor has with staff, students, and parents that he sends out an update as to what improvements will be made in the future. Some students were terrified during shutdown because there wasn’t a clear message that the school was in shutdown out of an abundance of caution and there was no immediate threat in the building. Parents had to wait 3 hours for the email from Mr. Taylor sent when our immediate concern by 12pm was whether our children were safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice after all of the “debriefing” Mr. Taylor has with staff, students, and parents that he sends out an update as to what improvements will be made in the future. Some students were terrified during shutdown because there wasn’t a clear message that the school was in shutdown out of an abundance of caution and there was no immediate threat in the building. Parents had to wait 3 hours for the email from Mr. Taylor sent when our immediate concern by 12pm was whether our children were safe.

Did you attend the virtual PTSA meeting where Mr Taylor discussed what happened and addressed questions from parents about this? Several emails went out from the school that he would be attending the PTSA meeting and answering questions. He explained why the email didn’t go out, and answered many other questions from parents and some students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice after all of the “debriefing” Mr. Taylor has with staff, students, and parents that he sends out an update as to what improvements will be made in the future. Some students were terrified during shutdown because there wasn’t a clear message that the school was in shutdown out of an abundance of caution and there was no immediate threat in the building. Parents had to wait 3 hours for the email from Mr. Taylor sent when our immediate concern by 12pm was whether our children were safe.

Did you attend the virtual PTSA meeting where Mr Taylor discussed what happened and addressed questions from parents about this? Several emails went out from the school that he would be attending the PTSA meeting and answering questions. He explained why the email didn’t go out, and answered many other questions from parents and some students.

DP. I did not as I had work. Can someone give us a synopsis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice after all of the “debriefing” Mr. Taylor has with staff, students, and parents that he sends out an update as to what improvements will be made in the future. Some students were terrified during shutdown because there wasn’t a clear message that the school was in shutdown out of an abundance of caution and there was no immediate threat in the building. Parents had to wait 3 hours for the email from Mr. Taylor sent when our immediate concern by 12pm was whether our children were safe.

Did you attend the virtual PTSA meeting where Mr Taylor discussed what happened and addressed questions from parents about this? Several emails went out from the school that he would be attending the PTSA meeting and answering questions. He explained why the email didn’t go out, and answered many other questions from parents and some students.

DP. I did not as I had work. Can someone give us a synopsis?

Sorry-- it was a very long meeting entirely devoted to this subject. I came away appreciating that they had done the best they could and actually really had the situation under control, but had a couple of places they were improving (he mentioned they had the tech people out the next day increasing the volume of the PA system so teachers and students could better understand the messages being sent out and changing the security configuration in outside on half-days since the kids are dropped off at different times than they had anticipated). But there was just too much detail to remember and synthesize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice after all of the “debriefing” Mr. Taylor has with staff, students, and parents that he sends out an update as to what improvements will be made in the future. Some students were terrified during shutdown because there wasn’t a clear message that the school was in shutdown out of an abundance of caution and there was no immediate threat in the building. Parents had to wait 3 hours for the email from Mr. Taylor sent when our immediate concern by 12pm was whether our children were safe.

Did you attend the virtual PTSA meeting where Mr Taylor discussed what happened and addressed questions from parents about this? Several emails went out from the school that he would be attending the PTSA meeting and answering questions. He explained why the email didn’t go out, and answered many other questions from parents and some students.

DP. I did not as I had work. Can someone give us a synopsis?

Sorry-- it was a very long meeting entirely devoted to this subject. I came away appreciating that they had done the best they could and actually really had the situation under control, but had a couple of places they were improving (he mentioned they had the tech people out the next day increasing the volume of the PA system so teachers and students could better understand the messages being sent out and changing the security configuration in outside on half-days since the kids are dropped off at different times than they had anticipated). But there was just too much detail to remember and synthesize.

Multiple parents advocated for the return of SROs. Mr. Taylor said that he and the majority of MCPS principals support having SROs in schools but parents needed to advocate to the County Council and Board of Education for the return of SROs.

Parents want a text, phone, and email alert system when the school is in shutdown or lockdown. The long Central Office crafted letter with details can come after the fact since it took 3 hours for the official letter to be approved, but basic directions and a message that there was no internal threat in the school would have gone a long way in relieving parent and student anxiety during the shutdown. Mr. Taylor agreed that 3 hours was too long to wait and next time he should send out a message and ask for forgiveness from Central Office later. A more proactive approach is for MCPS to have planed communication notices for shutdowns and lockdowns as a template for what information can be sent during an emergency.

The emotional needs of students were raised by two parents. One raised the lack of trauma care for the students directly involved with the incident. The other pointed to the trauma of students who were scared and not given clear information that they were safe during the lockdown. There is follow up needed to address the emotional well-being of students after such a serious incident.

Follow up is needed by Mr. Taylor and I hope he clearly communicates how student, staff, and parental concerns will be addressed. As pp pointed out, the PTA meeting was only attended by a small fraction of the school community.