incidents at W schools disproportionately represented in media/DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, move to parts of the county where they're too busy dealing with students who are gang members and getting pregnant to worry about things like a racial epithet scrawled on a chalkboard...

Which W school has stopped teen pregnancy .. they should do a case study on that.

Oh you mean schools with girls that the majority don’t have abortions?

[Anonymous]

The media is hyper focused on the behavior of wealthy white students when it can because a lot of the time, the wealthy parents sweep their progeny's bad behavior under the rug. Society (including many W parents on dcum) seems to think that wealthy parents are "better" at parenting, so when you see a wealthy kid do bad stuff like this it's sort of magnified. When a poor kid does bad things, its "typical" and obviously bad parenting. When a rich kid does dumb things it's "out of the ordinary". These kids have a life of privilege so it's hard to understand why they would do these sh1tty things.

I am a parent in the RM cluster. JWMS Principal recently sent out an email about an incident similar to what happened at Whitman. A student put on the student's personal social media account themself in blackface. I fully expected to see this on this forum or in the media, but I haven't seen anything yet. So, yes, sh1tty things do happen in other schools, but the media is hyper focused on those who are privileged. But, I'm betting that more stuff goes on in those wealthy schools than we realize because again, many of the wealthy parents manage to sweep the bad behavior under the rug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Media loves to highlight it because story will sell. I am in RM cluster and attended one boundary analysis meeting in QO HS. I was disgusted to see an article in Bethesda beat depicting parents in that meeting as bunch of racist by cherrypicking quotes.

I started thinking why they did it. I think , media want to report something controversial to get more eyeballs. I don't have much clue about what's going on in Churchill or Whitman to be honest, but it won't surprise me if media is playing a similar role.

So the people at that meeting didn't say that what they were quoted (refusing to give their names) as saying? Everything said in that piece has been repeatedly posted on DCUM, and it's presumably not all Russian trolls.

I went to the Walter Johnson boundary analysis meeting, and while I didn't hear any open bigotry, I heard plenty of things that were bigotry-adjacent.

+1 After reading folks rail here about their property values, "FARMS kids," and "illegals," I totally believe that people said exactly what was reported at the boundary meeting. If PP doesn't like how that looks when it is put down in hard print, and if those saying it are aware enough not to be willing to be quoted by name, then I think we can all agree it is bigoted, and likely also racist.

But to answer the question in the OP, I have a middle-school aged child and a lot of contact with high schoolers, mostly from Blair. I have never heard about a racist incident being swept under the rug there, and I do believe those incidents are less common in integrated environments. Integration brings humanization of "the other" and compassion, but it also brings repercussions for racist behaviors. If some of these kids on the west side had faced a minor consequence for racism in their early years - something as simple as being excluded from a group of kids playing - then they would have learned their lesson before the stakes got quite so dire in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, move to parts of the county where they're too busy dealing with students who are gang members and getting pregnant to worry about things like a racial epithet scrawled on a chalkboard...

I’m an MCPS teacher and no, I do not think this is happening in other non-W schools and being swept under the rug. And comments like the one quoted above are what’s wrong here. Pray tell, PP, where do you live and where do your children attend school? How many kids do you personally know who attend these oh so terrible schools? How many teachers do you personally know at these schools?

Your comment reminds me of a mom from a FB group I’m in who came on to ask about Rockville HS and their “poor ratings.” She loved a house in a neighborhood that was slated for RHS but her parents, who lived in VA, warned her of all the “gang activity.” Initially, people came on to agree with her parents’ sentiments, and then I asked if any of them actually had kids attending the school. At that point another mom came on to comment that her daughter attends Rockville high school and has had a wonderful experience. A few other parents came on to chime in with the same sentiments. Coincidentally, my own kids are slated to go there for high school. When I see students from Rockville high school out working at our neighborhood grocery store or out and about around town, I ask them about their experience. Not once has any teenager told me that it was bad, and in fact many of them talk about how small the school is and how that makes everyone feel close to other students and to the teachers.

If we continue to promote the idea that “great” schools are those where kids wear blackface and use racial slurs and where students of color feel they are devalued, then we need to seriously rethink what a “great” school is. I damn sure don’t want my kids going there.

I couldn't have said it better. From the perspective of a teacher in the cluster, I think these schools are so impoverished for diversity that the kids don't have much of a chance to learn tolerance. There are no natural consequences when kids mess up early on because for the most part parents see themselves as the defender of their child instead of someone responsible for raising good human beings. So, when teachers see things, have frank conversations and try to assign consequences, parents begin asking for evidence, organizing a defense, and appealing to the principal before even talking to their kid about what they did. The few students of color in the school are indeed hassled in subtle and not so subtle ways and have to laugh it off because they are so far outnumbered and like all teens, just want to fit in. I'm not saying that other areas of the county don't have different problems, but for sure the issue of racism is much more severe in these majority white, highly privileged schools.

[Anonymous]

And can we talk about how the Whitman newspaper is called the Black and White?

[Anonymous]

These words are so in these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And can we talk about how the Whitman newspaper is called the Black and White?

Is it red all over?

I hope that post is a joke, by the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surely there are all kinds of things happening also at other MCPS high schools all throughout the county? Are the things happening at Whitman and Churchill (for example) being talked about in the media and DCUM because the parents and students are more likely to make a noise about it? I am considering leaving a W cluster so my kids won't be subject to a bunch of jerks, but wonder if similar stuff is happening in all schools, just not publicized as much, or if it's a different flavor.

Jealousy and political bias.

They are excellent schools, OP. We left the area (for unrelated reasons) a couple years ago but our kids still remember W very fondly.

[Anonymous]

What I find sad is my friend using that incident to gloat about how W schools are the terribly racist elitist areas he always claimed they were and that Bethesda in general is snobby and insufferable.

I live in Bethesda, and have lived in many different countries in the world as a partly non-white person.

People should know racism is everywhere, and that I have never lived in an area where there was LESS racism, which is why I deliberately chose Bethesda!
But it’s always going to be there.

[Anonymous]

Yes when a kid at Whitman uses the N word people react like when a public official says it, when a kid at Kennedy uses it people just roll their eyes and say that is what Kennedy kids do. We govern our schools with the same expectations we govern the classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes when a kid at Whitman uses the N word people react like when a public official says it, when a kid at Kennedy uses it people just roll their eyes and say that is what Kennedy kids do. We govern our schools with the same expectations we govern the classes

Always amazed that there are so many people who think it's so unfair that white kids don't get to say that word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes when a kid at Whitman uses the N word people react like when a public official says it, when a kid at Kennedy uses it people just roll their eyes and say that is what Kennedy kids do. We govern our schools with the same expectations we govern the classes

This.

Double standards galore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes when a kid at Whitman uses the N word people react like when a public official says it, when a kid at Kennedy uses it people just roll their eyes and say that is what Kennedy kids do. We govern our schools with the same expectations we govern the classes

This.

Double standards galore.

How are W parents do uneducated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, move to parts of the county where they're too busy dealing with students who are gang members and getting pregnant to worry about things like a racial epithet scrawled on a chalkboard...

Which W school has stopped teen pregnancy .. they should do a case study on that.

Oh you mean schools with girls that the majority don’t have abortions?

Nevermind them... That's just another fiction W parents like to tell to justify their progeny's racist behavior. There were 0 reported incidents of gang activity at any MCPS school last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes when a kid at Whitman uses the N word people react like when a public official says it, when a kid at Kennedy uses it people just roll their eyes and say that is what Kennedy kids do. We govern our schools with the same expectations we govern the classes

Who said this at Kennedy? Is this just something you assume because you're racist or do you base this on actual evidence?