Westfield HS-Student murdered

[Anonymous]

The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Press release

https://fcpdnews.wordpress.com/2024/03/21/detectives-identify-suspect-in-fatal-shooting/

It sounds like this was drug deal from the description.

+1 and the shooter wasn’t even an FCPS student, so there was no gun at school or on the bus. This wasn’t even near the school. It was a freaking hotel.

Are you the person who was complaining about disliking the punctuation in the thread title? Get over it. Jesus H. The kid who died went to Westfield. Of course there were tons of rumors because no information was shared with the community and everyone was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

No, I didn’t complain about the punctuation of the thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

What are they going to do, send an email out to all the parents telling them a 14 yo kid was gunned down by a former student, the police can't find the killer, but don't worry, everything's cool and your kid is welcome to chat with their counselor tomorrow? People would freak out. They are hoping the guy is caught before they have to send info out.

[Anonymous]

How does the warrant thing work? Like there's an open warrant for your arrest, are they supposed to be looking for you or what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised that area is zoned to Westfield, its pretty far away.

Right? Why don't those poor kids go to Herndon HS?

Westfield is in an odd location -not really close to a lot of dense neighborhoods--and I believe when they rezoned that area they were trying to balance out the FARMS kids percentages.

Its basically in Loudoun and surrounded by car lots and Cox Farm. There is nothing out there. I guess that's why the land was still open.

Westfield was opened in 2000. It’s 24 years old at this point. There are definitely dense subdivisions fielding into Westfield. There are lots of single family and townhomes, but not many apartments. Of course that is changing some with the development of the area.

[Anonymous]

Leave it to DCUM to prioritize grammar and pyramid boundaries (the suspect couldn’t possibly be from this zone 😮, must be from that high school we trash). A child is dead. I’m sure we’ll start hearing about the flight out of the zone here soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

It's not surprising that things are brushed over at schools the size of Westfield where each grade has nearly 700 kids. On top of that every HS has a significant division between English Learners enrolled in ESOL versions of classes versus everyone else in regular/college-credit. Unfortunately these cases tend to be concentrated in the EL community, as was the fentanyl overdose, meaning most of our kids are socially removed. If this involved some UMC kids that everybody knew it would be a very different situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

It's not surprising that things are brushed over at schools the size of Westfield where each grade has nearly 700 kids. On top of that every HS has a significant division between English Learners enrolled in ESOL versions of classes versus everyone else in regular/college-credit. Unfortunately these cases tend to be concentrated in the EL community, as was the fentanyl overdose, meaning most of our kids are socially removed. If this involved some UMC kids that everybody knew it would be a very different situation.

These kids are known at other nearby schools. The day it happened the RIP notices started filling both of my kids story feeds. My kids thought the victim had gone to their school because of those pages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Leave it to DCUM to prioritize grammar and pyramid boundaries (the suspect couldn’t possibly be from this zone 😮, must be from that high school we trash). A child is dead. I’m sure we’ll start hearing about the flight out of the zone here soon.

Westfield is not one of the sought after FCPS high schools to begin with. Way more kids transfer out of it. It has a pretty big percentage of poor kids from Herndon and the Stone area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised that area is zoned to Westfield, its pretty far away.

Right? Why don't those poor kids go to Herndon HS?

Westfield is in an odd location -not really close to a lot of dense neighborhoods--and I believe when they rezoned that area they were trying to balance out the FARMS kids percentages.

Its basically in Loudoun and surrounded by car lots and Cox Farm. There is nothing out there. I guess that's why the land was still open.

Westfield was opened in 2000. It’s 24 years old at this point. There are definitely dense subdivisions fielding into Westfield. There are lots of single family and townhomes, but not many apartments. Of course that is changing some with the development of the area.

Yes, but those neighborhoods are really not near Westfield. Look at a map. The school is in an industrial area. The only neighborhood walkable to Westfield is the trailer park off Route 50. That's why its boundary is really strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

It's not surprising that things are brushed over at schools the size of Westfield where each grade has nearly 700 kids. On top of that every HS has a significant division between English Learners enrolled in ESOL versions of classes versus everyone else in regular/college-credit. Unfortunately these cases tend to be concentrated in the EL community, as was the fentanyl overdose, meaning most of our kids are socially removed. If this involved some UMC kids that everybody knew it would be a very different situation.

My Westfield freshman still doesn't know who died, and neither do her friends. It is very strange. She says kids were getting pulled out of her classes yesterday to talk to police and they just sat around all day doing nothing.

If people don't read the paper and put 2 + 2 together, they would have no idea that a student was murdered by a former student. I am not an FCPS basher, but really, more information should be shared with families especially since the killer is still on the loose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

It's not surprising that things are brushed over at schools the size of Westfield where each grade has nearly 700 kids. On top of that every HS has a significant division between English Learners enrolled in ESOL versions of classes versus everyone else in regular/college-credit. Unfortunately these cases tend to be concentrated in the EL community, as was the fentanyl overdose, meaning most of our kids are socially removed. If this involved some UMC kids that everybody knew it would be a very different situation.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s simple. Simply explain to your child, that if they are not involved in the same behaviors as other high school students where they end up at a hotel and get shot up, they don’t need to be worried.

Stop you sound ignorant.

Why do you think a 14-year-old was with an 18-year-old non-student with a gun?

Its so typical for people to try and find some aspect of a tragic event that Their Kid Would Never Do in order to assure themselves that such a tragedy would never befall their 'raised right' child.

The kid was hanging out in basically his own front yard. Would your kid never do that?

Yeah which was an extended stay hotel and there was a drug dealer with him. Not at all comparable to many kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has not shared ANY information, it is surprising.

My Westfield kid showed up today and there were police and school security everywhere this morning. He thought they were there to investigate yesterday's trashcan fire (IYKYK). The morning announcements said something like, "Sadly, a student has passed away. If you want to talk to a counselor..." that's it, that's all they were told.

This is the problem. WHS and many other FCPS schools handle things poorly. Everything seems brushed over and hidden. Parents care about their kids and yes crazy as it may seem they want to know their child is safe. They want to know what is being put in place when their kids go to school. WE have no answers and a lot of questions. It's not a political statement it's a parent feeling and natural instinct to protect their kids.

Curious. What information do you think should have been shared? What if the victim was your child -- do you think the school should disclose their identity, manner of death without your permission to the entire student body and their families?