WJ - Senior Prank Gone Bad?

[Anonymous]

I am at a poorer high school. I hear the n-word all the time. Mostly from black students who have grown up in generational poverty. But a lot of Hispanic boys use it as well if they are lower SES. It has been confusing to me to hear a Hispanic boy call an Asian boy the N-word. The kids say it is all about context. I tell them that if they use that word around people that don’t know them they are making a big mistake and will be judged harshly by most people.

[Anonymous]

What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them.

1000% agreed. Moreover, PPs are using a thread about bad behaviour at a mostly-white school to crap on predominantly BIPOC schools. It's like no conversation can be allowed to focus on the bad behavior of white children and must always be redirected to be about some imagined behavior by Black or Hispanic kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

If you don't see the difference between a privileged white kid using the N-word as a racial slur and lower-income Black kids using it to refer to their friends and acquaintances, I don't know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

Aside from the crux of the point, the difference is that the kid that is probably using the N-word at the W school is, well, White, and at "poorer" schools, it's not used as much as people think. Even if it is used, it's with a different, more harmful intent in mind. Common sense says that the people affected by the word get to use it in whatever way they want. Certain groups of people can't under ANY circumstance, and for good reason. So let's not use this as a time to excuse the n-word or try to bash on lower-income schools, because whether they use it or not doesn't automatically predict their academic and overall achievement at all. Please and thanks.

"...because any excuse to bash [on] those schools" these racist incidents there aren't odd or "systemically blown out of proportion" - it's what's done every day at those schools and people are calling it out, not bashing. It deservedly gets attention because of the historical context and reputation of those schools. What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them. It's constant on this forum and it's quite frustrating, not to mention sickening, as adults set the tone and kids pick up on it. This comes from someone who went to East County schools from K-8th and a W for HS, so I've seen both sides. Again, this isn't the main point, but wanted to call it out.

I'm the poster you are calling out. I understand feelings may be hurt when facts are baldly stated like this, but there is value in telling the truth. W schools are ripped apart on DCUM anytime there is the least incident, racial or otherwise, not because people actually care about the incidents, but because wealthy districts are popular targets for criticism. Posters are happy to virtue signal if higher-income white and asian families can be blamed in the process.

I also understand your point about how self-reinforcing certain facts can impact student/staff motivation and initiative, but that's called life. You can't pretend some schools are higher-performing than they actually are, just to protect certain people's self-esteem. On the contrary, you challenge them to do better - that's how you build resilience. One of my children has special needs and needs to work 10 times as hard as the average student to get the same grade, so we know all about resilience in this family.

There is no coded language in what I'm saying, BTW. We are a mixed-race family who moved from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for a better education. I know what I'm talking about, and my experience appears to be more recent than yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

Aside from the crux of the point, the difference is that the kid that is probably using the N-word at the W school is, well, White, and at "poorer" schools, it's not used as much as people think. Even if it is used, it's with a different, more harmful intent in mind. Common sense says that the people affected by the word get to use it in whatever way they want. Certain groups of people can't under ANY circumstance, and for good reason. So let's not use this as a time to excuse the n-word or try to bash on lower-income schools, because whether they use it or not doesn't automatically predict their academic and overall achievement at all. Please and thanks.

"...because any excuse to bash [on] those schools" these racist incidents there aren't odd or "systemically blown out of proportion" - it's what's done every day at those schools and people are calling it out, not bashing. It deservedly gets attention because of the historical context and reputation of those schools. What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them. It's constant on this forum and it's quite frustrating, not to mention sickening, as adults set the tone and kids pick up on it. This comes from someone who went to East County schools from K-8th and a W for HS, so I've seen both sides. Again, this isn't the main point, but wanted to call it out.

I'm the poster you are calling out. I understand feelings may be hurt when facts are baldly stated like this, but there is value in telling the truth. W schools are ripped apart on DCUM anytime there is the least incident, racial or otherwise, not because people actually care about the incidents, but because wealthy districts are popular targets for criticism. Posters are happy to virtue signal if higher-income white and asian families can be blamed in the process.

I also understand your point about how self-reinforcing certain facts can impact student/staff motivation and initiative, but that's called life. You can't pretend some schools are higher-performing than they actually are, just to protect certain people's self-esteem. On the contrary, you challenge them to do better - that's how you build resilience. One of my children has special needs and needs to work 10 times as hard as the average student to get the same grade, so we know all about resilience in this family.

There is no coded language in what I'm saying, BTW. We are a mixed-race family who moved from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for a better education. I know what I'm talking about, and my experience appears to be more recent than yours.

Oh, yes. Folks with anti-Black rhetoric always love inserting in a later post that they are "not white" or "in a mixed race relationship." It's so common that we should put it on the DCUM bingo card.

The woe is me language about how hard it is to attend a W school is just icing on the cake of this post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

Aside from the crux of the point, the difference is that the kid that is probably using the N-word at the W school is, well, White, and at "poorer" schools, it's not used as much as people think. Even if it is used, it's with a different, more harmful intent in mind. Common sense says that the people affected by the word get to use it in whatever way they want. Certain groups of people can't under ANY circumstance, and for good reason. So let's not use this as a time to excuse the n-word or try to bash on lower-income schools, because whether they use it or not doesn't automatically predict their academic and overall achievement at all. Please and thanks.

"...because any excuse to bash [on] those schools" these racist incidents there aren't odd or "systemically blown out of proportion" - it's what's done every day at those schools and people are calling it out, not bashing. It deservedly gets attention because of the historical context and reputation of those schools. What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them. It's constant on this forum and it's quite frustrating, not to mention sickening, as adults set the tone and kids pick up on it. This comes from someone who went to East County schools from K-8th and a W for HS, so I've seen both sides. Again, this isn't the main point, but wanted to call it out.

I'm the poster you are calling out. I understand feelings may be hurt when facts are baldly stated like this, but there is value in telling the truth. W schools are ripped apart on DCUM anytime there is the least incident, racial or otherwise, not because people actually care about the incidents, but because wealthy districts are popular targets for criticism. Posters are happy to virtue signal if higher-income white and asian families can be blamed in the process.

I also understand your point about how self-reinforcing certain facts can impact student/staff motivation and initiative, but that's called life. You can't pretend some schools are higher-performing than they actually are, just to protect certain people's self-esteem. On the contrary, you challenge them to do better - that's how you build resilience. One of my children has special needs and needs to work 10 times as hard as the average student to get the same grade, so we know all about resilience in this family.

There is no coded language in what I'm saying, BTW. We are a mixed-race family who moved from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for a better education. I know what I'm talking about, and my experience appears to be more recent than yours.

Reading comprehension is critical. You're "ripped apart" for those incidents because it's the culture of your school, not because it's popular to do so. When your school is criticized, it'll still be fine because parents and families will still be clamoring to go there. Whenever a little thing happens at a mostly minority-school everyone will quickly jump to arms and say "I KNEW that would happen at xyz place!" or "That's why I'd never send my kids there". This forum "virtue-signals" more in terms of denigrating BIPOC. Multiple subsequent replies have agreed with me: once an impression is made of a school, it's hard to shake, which is why we as a county have consistently struggled with redlining, consortias, etc.

I'm not trying to protect certain ppl's self-esteem, and I am sorry about your child's special needs. As someone who, again, moved from the East side to the West side, there were people who would avoid me when I mentioned what neighborhood I came from or would express how "unsafe" it is. I'd really appreciate not being spoken to with such an insulting tone on your end just because we disagree and I went through what I endured from the lens of a person of color, because I graduated from that W school 3 years ago. I firmly stand by my comment, whether it makes you feel defensive or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

Aside from the crux of the point, the difference is that the kid that is probably using the N-word at the W school is, well, White, and at "poorer" schools, it's not used as much as people think. Even if it is used, it's with a different, more harmful intent in mind. Common sense says that the people affected by the word get to use it in whatever way they want. Certain groups of people can't under ANY circumstance, and for good reason. So let's not use this as a time to excuse the n-word or try to bash on lower-income schools, because whether they use it or not doesn't automatically predict their academic and overall achievement at all. Please and thanks.

"...because any excuse to bash [on] those schools" these racist incidents there aren't odd or "systemically blown out of proportion" - it's what's done every day at those schools and people are calling it out, not bashing. It deservedly gets attention because of the historical context and reputation of those schools. What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them. It's constant on this forum and it's quite frustrating, not to mention sickening, as adults set the tone and kids pick up on it. This comes from someone who went to East County schools from K-8th and a W for HS, so I've seen both sides. Again, this isn't the main point, but wanted to call it out.

I'm the poster you are calling out. I understand feelings may be hurt when facts are baldly stated like this, but there is value in telling the truth. W schools are ripped apart on DCUM anytime there is the least incident, racial or otherwise, not because people actually care about the incidents, but because wealthy districts are popular targets for criticism. Posters are happy to virtue signal if higher-income white and asian families can be blamed in the process.

I also understand your point about how self-reinforcing certain facts can impact student/staff motivation and initiative, but that's called life. You can't pretend some schools are higher-performing than they actually are, just to protect certain people's self-esteem. On the contrary, you challenge them to do better - that's how you build resilience. One of my children has special needs and needs to work 10 times as hard as the average student to get the same grade, so we know all about resilience in this family.

There is no coded language in what I'm saying, BTW. We are a mixed-race family who moved from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for a better education. I know what I'm talking about, and my experience appears to be more recent than yours.

Why are you sabotaging the thread. People are trying to learn about one WJ incident, that is all.
Start your own thread if you feel the W schools are unfairly bashed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fecal matter and urine in the hallways

WOW! This is absolutely NOT true!!! Don't believe everything you hear.

[Anonymous]

^^ this. Those who know, know the truth, and those who don't continue with unnecessary and u true gossip. People will make any excuse to bash a W school, even if what they are saying is an outright LIE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fecal matter and urine in the hallways

WOW! This is absolutely NOT true!!! Don't believe everything you hear.

What actually happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fecal matter and urine in the hallways

WOW! This is absolutely NOT true!!! Don't believe everything you hear.

What actually happened?

What happens in Ws stays in Ws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Walter Johnson is a wonderful school, as has been explained in multiple threads on this forum if you bother to look. The only issue is that lots of other people think so too, and it's terribly overcrowded, but most core subject teachers are great and the administration is excellent. The kids are mostly all normal, decent, kids. They don't all throw their poo

I haven't heard of this prank, and I really don't think it's important enough to weigh in your decision to let your kids attend. Academics and daily crowds are what affect students the most. Also consider that in 2025 there will be another high school nearby, which is in construction today - Charles Woodward. The boundaries will have to be tweaked. I'm sure both school will be equally good, but I just want to let you know that your kids might not end up at WJ.

They have had their fair share and more of issues this year.

Hmm... I keep track of these things, and the multiple knife and guns found on MCPS high school students this year have been evenly distributed among a lot of schools. WJ has been pretty quiet in that area.
Sure, there's always the odd racist incident that is systematically blown out of proportion in wealthy white suburbs (because any excuse to bash on those schools), and completely ignored and swept under the rug in lower-income schools (because they're dealing with enough teen absenteeism and getting everyone to graduate that they don't even count racist slurs).
The sex scandal '22 was at Walt Whitman crew.
As for academic issues, frankly, WJ is doing better than most.

this is so true, One kid uses the N word at a W school and it makes the news. It gets used 1000 times a day at the poorer schools and it is just kids being kids.

Aside from the crux of the point, the difference is that the kid that is probably using the N-word at the W school is, well, White, and at "poorer" schools, it's not used as much as people think. Even if it is used, it's with a different, more harmful intent in mind. Common sense says that the people affected by the word get to use it in whatever way they want. Certain groups of people can't under ANY circumstance, and for good reason. So let's not use this as a time to excuse the n-word or try to bash on lower-income schools, because whether they use it or not doesn't automatically predict their academic and overall achievement at all. Please and thanks.

"...because any excuse to bash [on] those schools" these racist incidents there aren't odd or "systemically blown out of proportion" - it's what's done every day at those schools and people are calling it out, not bashing. It deservedly gets attention because of the historical context and reputation of those schools. What the poster is trying to do is obviously use coded language such as "teen absenteeism" and "getting everyone to graduate" as though their standards are lower and talented students are not there, so excuses should be made for them. It's constant on this forum and it's quite frustrating, not to mention sickening, as adults set the tone and kids pick up on it. This comes from someone who went to East County schools from K-8th and a W for HS, so I've seen both sides. Again, this isn't the main point, but wanted to call it out.

I'm the poster you are calling out. I understand feelings may be hurt when facts are baldly stated like this, but there is value in telling the truth. W schools are ripped apart on DCUM anytime there is the least incident, racial or otherwise, not because people actually care about the incidents, but because wealthy districts are popular targets for criticism. Posters are happy to virtue signal if higher-income white and asian families can be blamed in the process.

I also understand your point about how self-reinforcing certain facts can impact student/staff motivation and initiative, but that's called life. You can't pretend some schools are higher-performing than they actually are, just to protect certain people's self-esteem. On the contrary, you challenge them to do better - that's how you build resilience. One of my children has special needs and needs to work 10 times as hard as the average student to get the same grade, so we know all about resilience in this family.

There is no coded language in what I'm saying, BTW. We are a mixed-race family who moved from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for a better education. I know what I'm talking about, and my experience appears to be more recent than yours.

Oh, yes. Folks with anti-Black rhetoric always love inserting in a later post that they are "not white" or "in a mixed race relationship." It's so common that we should put it on the DCUM bingo card.

The woe is me language about how hard it is to attend a W school is just icing on the cake of this post.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ this. Those who know, know the truth, and those who don't continue with unnecessary and u true gossip. People will make any excuse to bash a W school, even if what they are saying is an outright LIE

I didn't post the "Fecal matter and urine in the hallways", but to be fair there was cat feces put in a sink of one of the girl's bathrooms. Not sure why anyone would find that funny, I'm sure the custodial staff didn't.

[Anonymous]

The school paper has an article about what happened, for those interested.

[Anonymous]

I believe a large group of students entered the building one evening when the building was open for other activities - I also heard a version where a door was propped open. The students then proceeded to vandalize the building, including hallways and many classrooms. This apparently included general vandalism, throwing stuff around and generally messing up the place, as well as distributing various "substances" on doorknobs and in bathroom sinks. I've heard that that substances included hot dogs, chili, urine, and feces. I also heard that one person working in the building at the time was shoved and injured.