Silver Creek Incident with Edibles

[Anonymous]

I think what is happening at Silver Creek is similar to what is happening across MCPS middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what is happening at Silver Creek is similar to what is happening across MCPS middle schools.

So how do we help fix this? I'm not inclined to sit back and watch my kid go through middle school with fights swirling around them and drug use normalized at this age. More funding seems off the table from the PTB. Can parents volunteer to help maintain order in classes? Can the schools enact a tougher system of discipline? Can the SEL program be revamped to something actually useful for these kinds of issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what is happening at Silver Creek is similar to what is happening across MCPS middle schools.

So how do we help fix this? I'm not inclined to sit back and watch my kid go through middle school with fights swirling around them and drug use normalized at this age. More funding seems off the table from the PTB. Can parents volunteer to help maintain order in classes? Can the schools enact a tougher system of discipline? Can the SEL program be revamped to something actually useful for these kinds of issues?

While those are all grey suggestions, none of those things can happen because progressives control the BOE and central office. Progressives will do everything they can thing of to fix the problem except for anything that holds poor, black, or brown kids accountable. That would be racist. So we're more likely to see Anti-Racist Audit 2.0 than we are to see a tougher discipline program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SCMS sent home a note tonight that four kids consumed edibles at school today and had to be taken to the hospital. This is on top of numerous reports of multiple fights, some sounding serious (one girls hair being torn out after being pushed down the stairs, another involving kids hiding under desks to avoid a big fight in classroom).

Is this normal? Administrators really don't seem to have control over the student population. Administrators dismissed it as "roughhousing" at the last principal coffee but my kid comes home with regular reports of kids beating each other up, being really disruptive in class, and terrible bus behavior. We just don't know how much of this is "normal" for middle school and how much of this is a failure of the admin to get the resources needed to try to create some order.

SC parent. In my experience, the administration at SC is good, communicative, and on top of things. Posts on the school listserv or DCUM surmising what has happened are not helpful. It's as bad as the kids spreading rumors.

Set up a meeting with administration, as instructed. Get a sense directly for what is happening. Offer to work with staff on solutions.

And FWIW, I suspect we're going to see more kids consuming edibles given the change in laws. Easy to get them from parents.

This. Now that weed is legal, and edibles are SO easy to obtain, it's easy for kids to get a hold of them. We're definitely going to see more of this. We already see it in HS. Just a side effect of the change in laws that we all voted for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what is happening at Silver Creek is similar to what is happening across MCPS middle schools.

This. We are not at Silver Creek, but I have a 6th grader at another MCPS middle school. He has already reported multiple fights. Often at lunch, but even at other times of the day. Kids are vaping the hallways and on the bus and using other drugs.

It's really hard for admin to get a handle on this. Admin isn't really allowed to administer meaningful consequences, so the kids know they can get away with horrible behavior. My older kid is in HS and it just gets worse - multiple MCPS high schools have had issues with drug overdoses (fentanyl).

[Anonymous]

When kids do edibles at the mall, do you blame the mall? No. Stop blaming the school for these kids’ failure to teach their kids not to use drugs in public. The setting is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When kids do edibles at the mall, do you blame the mall? No. Stop blaming the school for these kids’ failure to teach their kids not to use drugs in public. The setting is irrelevant.

No but at least the mall would impose some consequences like curfews or bans on certain people. Schools don't do anything anymore.

[Anonymous]

I've had kids at Westland and SC. I had a very negative impression of Westland simply because my kid was one of the last classes to go through there before SC opened and it was wildly wildly overcrowded. With my younger kid, I was impressed with the SC principal and felt confident that the school was being well managed, even when there were issues.

It may be the difference in my kids, or the different time periods, or something else, but with my SC student, I did hear a lot more about divisions among students based on race/ethnicity. That seems to remain the case at BCC where my younger one is now - there was a note just yesterday about 2 incidents of racial slurs (one shouted, one written with footprints in the snow on the football field if you can believe that.)

MS is a tough time and that goes double for this generation that had their education disrupted by school closures for 1.5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had kids at Westland and SC. I had a very negative impression of Westland simply because my kid was one of the last classes to go through there before SC opened and it was wildly wildly overcrowded. With my younger kid, I was impressed with the SC principal and felt confident that the school was being well managed, even when there were issues.

It may be the difference in my kids, or the different time periods, or something else, but with my SC student, I did hear a lot more about divisions among students based on race/ethnicity. That seems to remain the case at BCC where my younger one is now - there was a note just yesterday about 2 incidents of racial slurs (one shouted, one written with footprints in the snow on the football field if you can believe that.)

MS is a tough time and that goes double for this generation that had their education disrupted by school closures for 1.5 years.

School has been open for 3 years and weren’t closed for 1.5 years but that’s besides the point. It’s time to take some accountability for what is happening right now rather than still trying to blame COVID. I’m tired of other parents refusing to parent their kids and instead use school closures and COVID as an excuse. It starts at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When kids do edibles at the mall, do you blame the mall? No. Stop blaming the school for these kids’ failure to teach their kids not to use drugs in public. The setting is irrelevant.

Not at all. Schools have a duty that malls do not.

[Anonymous]

Rich kids behaving badly...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When kids do edibles at the mall, do you blame the mall? No. Stop blaming the school for these kids’ failure to teach their kids not to use drugs in public. The setting is irrelevant.

No but at least the mall would impose some consequences like curfews or bans on certain people. Schools don't do anything anymore.

Ultimately it's on the parents but if it happened on school property, they are equally responsible. Parents are failing these kids. How aer these kids getting the drugs and bringing them to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had kids at Westland and SC. I had a very negative impression of Westland simply because my kid was one of the last classes to go through there before SC opened and it was wildly wildly overcrowded. With my younger kid, I was impressed with the SC principal and felt confident that the school was being well managed, even when there were issues.

It may be the difference in my kids, or the different time periods, or something else, but with my SC student, I did hear a lot more about divisions among students based on race/ethnicity. That seems to remain the case at BCC where my younger one is now - there was a note just yesterday about 2 incidents of racial slurs (one shouted, one written with footprints in the snow on the football field if you can believe that.)

MS is a tough time and that goes double for this generation that had their education disrupted by school closures for 1.5 years.

Schools were virtual, not closed and during that time it was on parents and parents failed these kids.

[Anonymous]

Sit in on your children's classes! I can not express this enough, as a teacher and a parent. As a parent, I sit in on my childrens classes. I want to know my childs teacher and how their teaching style. I want to know what engagement and participation looks like. I want to know what classroom management look likes. I want to know if there are disturbances in the class, beyond the teachers control, that would disrupt my childs learning process. I want to observe any other students behavior issues that could impact my childs education. As a teacher, I welcome parents in my classroom. Come see how your child interacts in my class, other classes, their transitions, how their social interactions with peers look, how engaged they are, their behavior, how I run the classroom, etc. Come see the fights that break out and how I have to protect the other kids. I welcome you to go complain because my complaints are not enough. Come see the behavior child that chucks pencils and scissors across the room and I am just told that I must remove those from the classroom. Come see the students that fill my classroom with the smell of weed and I can not do a thing but open the window. Stop relying on what the kids have to say when they go home. When you observe it, witness and document it, then will admin be forced to intervene.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When kids do edibles at the mall, do you blame the mall? No. Stop blaming the school for these kids’ failure to teach their kids not to use drugs in public. The setting is irrelevant.

Malls also don’t get in loco parentis status over our kids. This is a stupid comparison because the mall has no responsibility to our children other than allowing them to shop and hang out. Schools, on the other hand, are responsible for the education, safety and wellbeing of kids entrusted into their care.