I am SO glad that admin involved the police. But, this is still Montgomery County and kids are able to get away with crimes because they are minors. This is well-known. So we’ll be lucky if the kid gets a slap on the wrist. And yes, the kids ‘deserves a free education’ so the kid will just get transferred to a different HS to do the same thing again elsewhere. We see this happen over and over in MCPS. |
School safety (drugs, fights, etc) are in issue in ALL schools. Regardless of race or FARMS rates. Wealthy kids do drugs and lower-income kids do drugs. And sometimes there are fights. We should try to improve safety at all schools. Hopefully our new Super is willing to take on that challenge. |
I find it interesting that every time there is an incident in MoCo schools, people like to jump immediately to being mad at what they THINK the school consequences MIGHT be. We skip right by discussion of what went wrong in the kids' lives and society that led to it. We skip right by concern for the victim and witnesses. We skip right by the school SAYING that the police are involved and that the kid "will receive discipline". Instead, we get pre-mad about what we assume. |
Interesting, but regardless, pulling a knife on someone and threatening them is a criminal act, and we have laws to remedy this. |
W school people call it ganglandia. |
What exactly do you want people to do? We have no idea what went wrong with this kid and we will never get that information. I’m a teacher and even I am rarely able to get much background information on my students either from them or their parents or counselors. And even if something is terribly wrong, how do you fix it? Ultimately we need to keep the other students and staff safe. This country is not set up to provide much help to people who are struggling. It is unfortunate but we have to try and work within the system we have |
PP here. I'm with you. And of course this is an online message board and not the optimal place to design solutions. My point was just that it would be great if the conversation were along the lines of what you raise. Rather, we preemptively rad at MCPS for what may occur AFTER the event. It would be great if the conversation could be more balanced and more productive. |
PP here. I agree? That is my point. |
Cool. So what do you think would be an appropriate legal consequence for a kid that brings a knife to school and attacks another student? |
As parents who have been with MCPS for a long time, many of us have seen patterns before where a student behaves inappropriately (fighting, drugs, weapons) and does not seem to receive any meaningful discipline. So it is reasonable for posters to guess that the same thing will happen again. Look back at the Rockville sex case, or the Damascus rape case, or the other cases where students have brought weapons to school. |
I believe that almost all criminal consequences should be based on the same goals: 1. Achieve public safety 2. Achieve rehabilitation Achieving public safety requires isolating the criminal from society until the second goal can be achieved. Achieving rehabilitation requires the criminal demonstrating an understanding of what they did wrong, as well as feeling remorse. It further requires the criminal have an achievable action plan with contingencies, milestones, and checkpoints to ensure that they can remain free of any further serious violations. Basically, the first goal remains in place forever until the second goal is achieved. |
It's cute that W school people think their kids are immune. |
Correct. Those of us who have seen this dog and pony show know what the end result will be. |
We know they're not because a kid at Walter Johnson was arrested this school year for bringing a gun to school: https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2023/10/montgomery-county-police-encouraging-more-students-to-if-they-see-something-say-something-following-student-bringing-gun-to-walter-johnson-high-school/ |
There needs to be a public transfer database-like the sex offender registers. Since the transfer student would be a minor, a name could not be published. But publish sending school, recovering school, grade, and reason for transfer. |