Why aren’t the local authorities more involved in school violence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS can do this because victims report incidents to the school system. Victims need to make a complaint to the police, either by calling 911 or by filing a police report.

MCPS and MCPD cover for each other sadly. If you report it to the police, they'll take the report and then hand it over to the school saying it's out of their jurisdiction. This is particularly true for incidents at the elementary level which involve young children where MCPD is very much powerless to intervene. At the high school level you will have more luck, but again, if the principal or director has sway, they can behind the scenes get the police to back off or back down.

The system is corrupt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS doesn't want any of the issues to be leaked. Once law enforcement is involved, MCPS can no longer cover anything up.

Our high school principal downplays all the violence at our school. When kids circulated a video of him trying to break up a pretty bad fight, his focus was on disciplining those kids who took the video.

One of the downsides of banning phones (other than kids not being able to get help during school shootings or communicate with parents) is that violent attacks are not documented. Without evidence, victims will never get any kind of justice and the crime stats will plummet. These principals do not want to deal with the issues and MCPS provides few, if any, resources anyway.

The principals know there is no help for them so they just downplay it all at this point.

YUP! This is the answer.

I think that's an exaggeration. Do you have any evidence that supports this? It sounds more like a conspiracy theory being pushed by someone who is bitter.

Yes, I have first hand experience of principals suppressing bad incidents from being reported. No conspiracy theory here.

Just anecdotes no evidence then? My first hand experience is the opposite so I can't help but think this is an exaggeration without proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS and police have signed an agreement to keep police out of schools. MCPS is their own kingdom. The Board of Education doesn’t want the bad publicity and the County Council agrees. Bad news impacts property values.

Can you provide a link to this agreement or is it super secret (imaginary)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile last year after a bomb threat was called in and MCPD showed up in tactical gear with guns, MCPS and MCPD got flak for traumatizing the kids with the response. Yet you are advocating MCPS have police show up for every fight in HS.

DP. Did anyone say anything about showing up for every fight in tactical gear and long guns? When is MCPS going to pay those students and staff for the trauma they caused? When??

They aren’t because the response wasn’t necessarily inappropriate. The point was to show why MCPS would want to determine when to call in police and/or have a close working relationship with the police. Because how the police operate vs what you at parents would want to occur are not necessarily one and the same.

For example if students engage in a fight, when it’s determined who instigated the fight or threw the first push there could be grounds for assault which police could then arrest a student for. They may decide not to, but they also may decide to do so. Whereas the school system is working from the perspective that while kids need discipline and consequences they also can learn from their conflict and learn to have more appropriate response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS doesn't want any of the issues to be leaked. Once law enforcement is involved, MCPS can no longer cover anything up.

Our high school principal downplays all the violence at our school. When kids circulated a video of him trying to break up a pretty bad fight, his focus was on disciplining those kids who took the video.

One of the downsides of banning phones (other than kids not being able to get help during school shootings or communicate with parents) is that violent attacks are not documented. Without evidence, victims will never get any kind of justice and the crime stats will plummet. These principals do not want to deal with the issues and MCPS provides few, if any, resources anyway.

The principals know there is no help for them so they just downplay it all at this point.

YUP! This is the answer.

I think that's an exaggeration. Do you have any evidence that supports this? It sounds more like a conspiracy theory being pushed by someone who is bitter.

Yes, I have first hand experience of principals suppressing bad incidents from being reported. No conspiracy theory here.

Just anecdotes no evidence then? My first hand experience is the opposite so I can't help but think this is an exaggeration without proof.

Ok. That's good for you.