Student tasered at Montgomery Blair High School

[Anonymous]

So is it time to look for a new school zone? Dc is scheduled to go to Blair in the distant future...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is it time to look for a new school zone? Dc is scheduled to go to Blair in the distant future...

You are joking right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An unruly female student was tasered -- my kid tells me three times -- at Blair High School today before being subdued by police and school officials and taken to the hospital.

Admittedly I wasn't there and don't know all the details, which were in short supply in the letter emailed to parents by the principal about the incident.

But wouldn't you think various police and school security could subdue a teenaged girl without using a taser? And shouldn't that very key bit of information,
that a taser was used to subdue the kid, be part of the principal's communication? (It was omitted).

Are there similar occurrences at other county high schools? I'm really taken aback by this.

Very few people want a second round of a taser, unless they are high. I seriously doubt that a 16 year old would require three doses of a taser to comply.


One officer cannot taze someone three times. The barbs have to be reloaded and that cannot happen in such a short period of time. So chalk that up to a typical teenage rumor.

If it makes any difference the officer was a female who was punched in the face. In a situation like that the use of the tazer is justified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is it time to look for a new school zone? Dc is scheduled to go to Blair in the distant future...

You are joking right?

I'm not joking at all... If kids are at the point where the have to be tazed to comply I don't want my child around that or is this normal in 2013?

[Anonymous]

This can happen anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not joking at all... If kids are at the point where the have to be tazed to comply I don't want my child around that or is this normal in 2013?

Kids? One kid, as far as I know. Out of a total enrollment of 2,806. That's 0.04%.

[Anonymous]

You should call the community police in Silver Spring and ask how many police related incident happen at Blair and then ask them how many happen in the school you would move to. Ask them about other schools that have the same demographics like Blake or QO or Watkins Mill.

Also ask about incidents happening right outside the school after school is let out for the next hour or so.

You will be very surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not joking at all... If kids are at the point where the have to be tazed to comply I don't want my child around that or is this normal in 2013?

Kids? One kid, as far as I know. Out of a total enrollment of 2,806. That's 0.04%.

.04% get tasered. How many have police dealing without a taser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The girl is physically violent and you do not think that she should be tasered but instead, free to punch who ever she feels like it? OP, get real. The principal does not need to go into detail about the taser as well. That has nothing to do with you or any of the other students.

I agree. The details of the arrest do not affect the safety of the other students and do not need to be shared.

NP here. I understand your point. But as a former school administrator and having seen the communication that was distributed, I think that this principal could have communicated better. I am not saying that we need to know everything, but the principal needs to get out in front of the rumor mill and dispel a lot of the inaccurate information that is floating around. That is what effective crisis managers do. Also, seeing as how people have died from being tasered, it would be a good idea for the principal and MCPD to communicate what the county policy is on the use of non-lethal weapons on school grounds. They do not HAVE to, but it would help.

I have a high school freshman at Blair and completely agree with you. I received the principal's explanatory email about this incident, which said nothing about a taser - then my son, who witnessed the entire thing, came home and told us the details, all of which were news to us. We didn't need all the details but given that hundreds of students witnessed what happened, it would have been appropriate and useful to parents to have received a more detailed communication.

We have lots of experience with Mrs. J., both at TPMS and at Blair. I think she is a terrific principal and I disagree that she is a self-promoter and cares little about student safety.

Blair-zoned PP, fwiw we are very happy with the education our son is getting at Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not joking at all... If kids are at the point where the have to be tazed to comply I don't want my child around that or is this normal in 2013?

Kids? One kid, as far as I know. Out of a total enrollment of 2,806. That's 0.04%.

.04% get tasered. How many have police dealing without a taser.

Right! It's not the tasing it's the behavior that led to it. The fact that she's A) so out of control, that it leads to B) getting tased. But B does not have to happen it could be any punishment or none. But it's the behavior in A that's the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People have died being tasered. I would like to know what the exact protocol is/is supposed to be in this type of situation. Can't they give the girl space and time? Or use some deescalation protocol before approaching?

The people who have died being tasered are most always high on PCP or cocaine. People have also died after being hit over the head with a club, falling down the steps, or had heart attacks while being restrained. When a student is completely out of control it is nearly impossible for one person to control her. Anyone who has worked in a school will tell you that its not uncommon for three or four adults to have trouble restraining one kid.


The protocol is to protect yourself and others. Police officers have to make split second decisions. Unlike you who can ponder a situation for hours or days they have to act immediately.

[Anonymous]

Don't taze me boo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The girl is physically violent and you do not think that she should be tasered but instead, free to punch who ever she feels like it? OP, get real. The principal does not need to go into detail about the taser as well. That has nothing to do with you or any of the other students.

I agree. The details of the arrest do not affect the safety of the other students and do not need to be shared.

NP here. I understand your point. But as a former school administrator and having seen the communication that was distributed, I think that this principal could have communicated better. I am not saying that we need to know everything, but the principal needs to get out in front of the rumor mill and dispel a lot of the inaccurate information that is floating around. That is what effective crisis managers do. Also, seeing as how people have died from being tasered, it would be a good idea for the principal and MCPD to communicate what the county policy is on the use of non-lethal weapons on school grounds. They do not HAVE to, but it would help.

I have a high school freshman at Blair and completely agree with you. I received the principal's explanatory email about this incident, which said nothing about a taser - then my son, who witnessed the entire thing, came home and told us the details, all of which were news to us. We didn't need all the details but given that hundreds of students witnessed what happened, it would have been appropriate and useful to parents to have received a more detailed communication.

We have lots of experience with Mrs. J., both at TPMS and at Blair. I think she is a terrific principal and I disagree that she is a self-promoter and cares little about student safety.

Blair-zoned PP, fwiw we are very happy with the education our son is getting at Blair.

OP here: Is it your experience as an administrator that what the principal would say in such a communication would be entirely dictated by the county?

I can imagine that this is a very sensitive issue, including possible litigation, even if the student who was tased is found to have been misbehaving. Would MCPS have instructed the principal to say nothing about the tasing in her memo to parents?

Seems like a bad move to try to cover it up, with scores of student witnesses, including many who taped the incident with their cell phone cameras.

I'm just hoping that this is not some sort of new normal. School fights break out every day, and some high schoolers are big and rather imposing.

Yet in the past, unruly behavior at school was always managed without the use of stun guns. As I understood it, the kid in this case became aggressive after being compelled to return to class after the lunch break. Why would there not have been a way to defuse the situation short of inflicting violence on the kid?

Even the students at Blair are using the term "disproportionate use of force" -- something I'd best many of them hadn't heard of before.
The whole ugly episode doesn't seem to have helped bolster the school's authority or sense of trust with students -- just the opposite, in fact.

[Anonymous]

The whole thing shows the mismanagement of the new administration. They gave out awards to the security teams that does little to maintain security and the building services team that is nasty to students and doesn't do enough cleaning.

One gets the impression that the top wants to curry favor with the employees. Now, the tasing happened because the security office called the SRO. No counselor was called. No administrator tried to diffuse the situation.

The new administration is all about CONTROL and not about competent management.

[Anonymous]

What is an SRO?

A culture of CONTROL is bad news. It breeds anger and disrespect toward adults, the opposite of what they mean to achieve. I saw this in an elementary school. Everyone hated the principal and would get wild and loud when adults left the room because the only thing guiding their behavior was fear of adults. It's a shame their doing this at Blair instead of a collaborative problem solving approach between students and adults. (There is a great book on this called Lost at School--it's mainly about kids who seem defiant because they are not getting the proper support.)