East Silver Spring Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That kid had a history of violence in the school. Of course media will not report it. The mother even stopped responding to the school's phone calls as she got so many of them.

This is a lie. Creepy that someone would anonymously slander an already victimized family. Get some help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Administrators at ESS sat idly by while police harassed and tormented a five-year-old student in their care. I wouldn’t send my child there.

That's an unfortunate event, but before this I'd heard nothing but good things about that school from its community.

Criminal incident; not “unfortunate event”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outside of school, are you aware of the significant expansion into the neighborhoods served by ESS Elementary and Sligo Creek Elementary of the zoning plan for Downtown Silver Spring? The idea is to allow greater density -- not huge buildings, but triplexes and quadriplexes -- where there are currently single family homes.

I live in ESS, and I’m thrilled by this. I can’t tell you how many wonderful neighbors we’ve lost because home prices forced them out of the neighborhood when they were ready to buy. I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Administrators at ESS sat idly by while police harassed and tormented a five-year-old student in their care. I wouldn’t send my child there.

That's an unfortunate event, but before this I'd heard nothing but good things about that school from its community.

Criminal incident; not “unfortunate event”.

I guess it is criminal that a cop was bullying a 5-year-old but I'd describe it as unfortunate that the administration didn't intervene. However, the video I saw was outside of the school so likely it happened before they even knew what was going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Administrators at ESS sat idly by while police harassed and tormented a five-year-old student in their care. I wouldn’t send my child there.

That's an unfortunate event, but before this I'd heard nothing but good things about that school from its community.

Criminal incident; not “unfortunate event”.

I guess it is criminal that a cop was bullying a 5-year-old but I'd describe it as unfortunate that the administration didn't intervene. However, the video I saw was outside of the school so likely it happened before they even knew what was going on.

I'm an ESS parent and I absolutely think the AP should have intervened (the principal was not on site). A lot of parents in the community agree, and have publicly and privately pushed MCPS and MPCD to take action against the folks responsible, including the two police officers, the AP, and others who were in the room as this child was abused by the cops.

If one watches the whole video, a ton of the cops yelling at this child is happening in the school building. Some of it happens in front of the AP and the (now retired) reading specialist. Some happens in front of and with the consent of the child's mother.

But here's the thing I'd caution folks about - this could happen in your school just as easily as it happened at ESS. This was the result of the police not taking action against abusive cops, of MCPS putting two inexperienced white administrators at a school that is predominantly Black, and of MCPS never teaching staff and administrators the limits of police authority inside a school building. I've talked to probably 15 teachers from around the county, and none of them had any idea of whether they could just tell the cops to....leave. They have not been trained to deescalate situations when the escalated party is law enforcement.

As the seniormost person in the building, the AP had a responsibilty to act, but she had no training on how to do so. I think that's probably why MCPS has reassigned her rather than terminating her. White people are, in general, overly deferential to police and she was new to administration. Basically, she had none of the tools in terms of identity, exposure, or experience, to handle this appropriately. That's on MCPS for not training administrators, and, again, for not ensuring that schools have administrators who look like and share some experiences with their student body.

Honestly, the only administrator I've ever run across who I think would have done the right thing in this situation is the previous ESS principal. She would hever have stood for this, but she had a lot going for her in terms of experience and exposure to law enforcement that this AP did not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside of school, are you aware of the significant expansion into the neighborhoods served by ESS Elementary and Sligo Creek Elementary of the zoning plan for Downtown Silver Spring? The idea is to allow greater density -- not huge buildings, but triplexes and quadriplexes -- where there are currently single family homes.

I live in ESS, and I’m thrilled by this. I can’t tell you how many wonderful neighbors we’ve lost because home prices forced them out of the neighborhood when they were ready to buy. I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

There seems to be a dedicated group of people on here who are incapable of talking about anything but zoning or come on here purposefully to convert every thread into a discussion on zoning. It's honestly tiresome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside of school, are you aware of the significant expansion into the neighborhoods served by ESS Elementary and Sligo Creek Elementary of the zoning plan for Downtown Silver Spring? The idea is to allow greater density -- not huge buildings, but triplexes and quadriplexes -- where there are currently single family homes.

I live in ESS, and I’m thrilled by this. I can’t tell you how many wonderful neighbors we’ve lost because home prices forced them out of the neighborhood when they were ready to buy. I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

I also live here and welcome it for the same reason. We need housing options in between $1600/mo 2 bdrm apartments and $800k 2 bdrm SFH. As a life long city girl, I’d be happy to see duplexes and triplexes here. This is an amazing community and it will benefit from not pricing out long time working-class to middle income renters who want to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside of school, are you aware of the significant expansion into the neighborhoods served by ESS Elementary and Sligo Creek Elementary of the zoning plan for Downtown Silver Spring? The idea is to allow greater density -- not huge buildings, but triplexes and quadriplexes -- where there are currently single family homes.

I live in ESS, and I’m thrilled by this. I can’t tell you how many wonderful neighbors we’ve lost because home prices forced them out of the neighborhood when they were ready to buy. I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

I also live here and welcome it for the same reason. We need housing options in between $1600/mo 2 bdrm apartments and $800k 2 bdrm SFH. As a life long city girl, I’d be happy to see duplexes and triplexes here. This is an amazing community and it will benefit from not pricing out long time working-class to middle income renters who want to stay.

Agreed, and it is also in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. I live in a SFH in East Silver Spring. One block over, there is a small apartment complex with maybe 12 units. There are also a bunch of storefronts with apartments on top.

Similarly, new multi-family housing replaced the previously derelict police station. That's GOOD for the community. There's a proposal to shorten the abandoned bank building at the corner of Fenton and Sligo and put more multi-family housing there. That's better for the neighborhood than an abandoned building, by a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside of school, are you aware of the significant expansion into the neighborhoods served by ESS Elementary and Sligo Creek Elementary of the zoning plan for Downtown Silver Spring? The idea is to allow greater density -- not huge buildings, but triplexes and quadriplexes -- where there are currently single family homes.

I live in ESS, and I’m thrilled by this. I can’t tell you how many wonderful neighbors we’ve lost because home prices forced them out of the neighborhood when they were ready to buy. I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

I also live here and welcome it for the same reason. We need housing options in between $1600/mo 2 bdrm apartments and $800k 2 bdrm SFH. As a life long city girl, I’d be happy to see duplexes and triplexes here. This is an amazing community and it will benefit from not pricing out long time working-class to middle income renters who want to stay.

Agreed, and it is also in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. I live in a SFH in East Silver Spring. One block over, there is a small apartment complex with maybe 12 units. There are also a bunch of storefronts with apartments on top.

Similarly, new multi-family housing replaced the previously derelict police station. That's GOOD for the community. There's a proposal to shorten the abandoned bank building at the corner of Fenton and Sligo and put more multi-family housing there. That's better for the neighborhood than an abandoned building, by a lot.

And what does this have to do with the OPs questions about the school? If you want to talk about land use and zoning in Silver Spring, go start your own thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Administrators at ESS sat idly by while police harassed and tormented a five-year-old student in their care. I wouldn’t send my child there.

That's an unfortunate event, but before this I'd heard nothing but good things about that school from its community.

Criminal incident; not “unfortunate event”.

I guess it is criminal that a cop was bullying a 5-year-old but I'd describe it as unfortunate that the administration didn't intervene. However, the video I saw was outside of the school so likely it happened before they even knew what was going on.

I'm an ESS parent and I absolutely think the AP should have intervened (the principal was not on site). A lot of parents in the community agree, and have publicly and privately pushed MCPS and MPCD to take action against the folks responsible, including the two police officers, the AP, and others who were in the room as this child was abused by the cops.

If one watches the whole video, a ton of the cops yelling at this child is happening in the school building. Some of it happens in front of the AP and the (now retired) reading specialist. Some happens in front of and with the consent of the child's mother.

But here's the thing I'd caution folks about - this could happen in your school just as easily as it happened at ESS. This was the result of the police not taking action against abusive cops, of MCPS putting two inexperienced white administrators at a school that is predominantly Black, and of MCPS never teaching staff and administrators the limits of police authority inside a school building. I've talked to probably 15 teachers from around the county, and none of them had any idea of whether they could just tell the cops to....leave. They have not been trained to deescalate situations when the escalated party is law enforcement.

As the seniormost person in the building, the AP had a responsibilty to act, but she had no training on how to do so. I think that's probably why MCPS has reassigned her rather than terminating her. White people are, in general, overly deferential to police and she was new to administration. Basically, she had none of the tools in terms of identity, exposure, or experience, to handle this appropriately. That's on MCPS for not training administrators, and, again, for not ensuring that schools have administrators who look like and share some experiences with their student body.

Honestly, the only administrator I've ever run across who I think would have done the right thing in this situation is the previous ESS principal. She would hever have stood for this, but she had a lot going for her in terms of experience and exposure to law enforcement that this AP did not.

I agree, what happened to that child at ESS could happen at any MCPS school. That it happened reflects a systemic problem that won’t be remedied by few retirements and/or transfers. It’s unclear what training and experience the police and MCPS lacked in this case. The idea that is a seasoned MCPS educator would allow the police to do what they did without objection because they lacked appropriate training is hard to accept. I’m more troubled that MCPS did nothing about this incident until the public saw the video more than a year later.

Neither the school system or the police department have publicly addressed the issue of whether the two agencies can assure parents (especially those of us who are parents to children of color) that what happened to child at ESS will not happen to another child. According to Bethesda Beat, the officers are back in the street and the AP is at another school. In light of those facts, it’s more than reasonable to conclude that can and likely will happen again to another MCPS student.

[Anonymous]

I agree, what happened to that child at ESS could happen at any MCPS school. That it happened reflects a systemic problem that won’t be remedied by few retirements and/or transfers. It’s unclear what training and experience the police and MCPS lacked in this case. The idea that is a seasoned MCPS educator would allow the police to do what they did without objection because they lacked appropriate training is hard to accept. I’m more troubled that MCPS did nothing about this incident until the public saw the video more than a year later.

Neither the school system or the police department have publicly addressed the issue of whether the two agencies can assure parents (especially those of us who are parents to children of color) that what happened to child at ESS will not happen to another child. According to Bethesda Beat, the officers are back in the street and the AP is at another school. In light of those facts, it’s more than reasonable to conclude that can and likely will happen again to another MCPS student

The police need to be off the street. There's no "training" that can address that level of absolute rage at a small child. The officers are not fit to serve, and the fact that they are still in our community should concern every single parent and every single resident.

As for MCPS staff, they need training on de-escalation, on what they can and cannot ask police to do inside the school building, on what they can and cannot share with law enforcement regarding a child's disciplinary history, and some cultural competency support to figure out how to handle the situation when the parent, the cops, and the child are all Black and all seem to be on the same page regarding discipline but are still wrong.

The AP failed here. She failed as an educator and as a human being. But she failed inside a system that set her up to fail and if we want to make sure that all of our children are safe inside MCPS schools we need to demand systemic changes, not just changes to which person is which position.

[Anonymous]

My child attended ESS for 4 years, until he left to go to the CES program. We had a good experience with the school, although it was under a different principal. Small classes and involved parents. The MS and HS are good, too.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why anyone hasnt addressed the fact that the mom also was abhorrent. That child should have been placed in CPS immediately. But now, mom is suing the district, the police department, etc. and will likely get rich from this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That kid had a history of violence in the school. Of course media will not report it. The mother even stopped responding to the school's phone calls as she got so many of them.

This is a lie. Creepy that someone would anonymously slander an already victimized family. Get some help.

"Victimized family"-did you watch the same video the rest of us did? The mom openly wanted to beat her kid but was too scared of retribution. That is not a safe home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure why anyone hasnt addressed the fact that the mom also was abhorrent. That child should have been placed in CPS immediately. But now, mom is suing the district, the police department, etc. and will likely get rich from this.

I think most ESS families have the good sense to avoid punching down. Yes, the family needs support. No, I don't condone the mother's behavior, nor what appears to be a failure to get interventions that the child needs.

But in this case we have people (the police, the school district, and the individual AP) entrusted with the safety of a child, funded by the taxpayers, and in positions of authority. We aim our attention at them because they violated that trust.