Gun recovered at Northwood High school??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids involved in the Magruder shooting were not in the Enhanced-SESES program. I am not absolutely sure, but I work in the high school.

Something to keep in mind is alternative schools deal with repeat offenders. By that, I mean the kids getting in conflicts every day, often cussing out teachers daily. When I worked in an alternative school it took at least 25 referrals and at least of a year of organized home school intervention attempts. The alternative program was not a dumping grounds for dangerous kids doing one time offenses. That is for the courts to deal with.

Here's a throwback of the Magruder shooter Steven Alston Jr.'s family leaving a Rockville court house after he was arrested and tried for the shooting: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=904806940233112

Whether the Magruder shooter had special needs or an IEP or not, given the kind of family environment he came from, he had no shot at turning out differently.

[Anonymous]

There's a big difference between a kid who cusses out teachers and a kid *who has already* brought a gun to school. To me a kid who has brought a gun into a school building shouldn't be allowed back into a school building. They forfeited that privilege when they carried the firearm.

[Anonymous]

I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

Thx for posting. Would love more updates when you are able to do it

[Anonymous]

They are talking about all the things they do and aspire to do to build community.

[Anonymous]

They went through the timeline in detail. It does sound like the response was handled well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Silver Spring goin silver spring. Not that it couldn’t happen anywhere but 19 out 20 times is a pattern. Sad thing is that kid has been a neg presence to his peers for years, this is the solution to the problem but there are many of him left inside the schools 1% smarter who will not be removed. East county parents arguing about the rights of a few stem kid’s (they have never met) ability to take a hard Chem class while the general pop is a mess. Get what you pay for in life

It is not just Silver Spring. It's where there's concentrated pockets of poverty within the county. These patterns are consistent in Silver Spring, Germantown and Montgomery Village/Gaithersburg.

We have poor people who are struggling with poverty, instability, family disruption, and they turn to crime, such as drug dealing or gangs, to cope with those adversities.

This is not new and MCPS and the county supposedly have an onslaught of social services to support and stabilize those families, but clearly they're failing.

The hard streets of Montgomery County have driven many to crime.

This would have been funny up until about 1989. MoCo isn't all peaches, cream and Potomac

Seriously. MoCo is not Baltimore or Southeast but it’s also not what it used to be. There is serious crime, death and violence happening in the county in ways that weren’t happening in the past.

For example: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/10/01/two-suspects-north-bethesda-homicide-kidnapping-2/

You can thank our elected officials for that - and the gangs in Montgomery Village.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.

What kinds of things do you think would prevent this from happening? I’ve heard a lot of comments like this, but it’s not like they’re “letting” kids bring guns to school. I would love to help advocate for stronger prevention but I’m trying to understand what that looks like. What should we be asking for? Are there models out there MCPS could be following better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.

What kinds of things do you think would prevent this from happening? I’ve heard a lot of comments like this, but it’s not like they’re “letting” kids bring guns to school. I would love to help advocate for stronger prevention but I’m trying to understand what that looks like. What should we be asking for? Are there models out there MCPS could be following better?

+100

What is MCPS’s role in this? And the answer is not refusing to service trouble kids. Legally, that isn’t an option.

[Anonymous]

Clear backpacks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clear backpacks?

Possibly but I think they also carry weapons on their person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clear backpacks?

Possibly but I think they also carry weapons on their person.

Clear clothing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.

What kinds of things do you think would prevent this from happening? I’ve heard a lot of comments like this, but it’s not like they’re “letting” kids bring guns to school. I would love to help advocate for stronger prevention but I’m trying to understand what that looks like. What should we be asking for? Are there models out there MCPS could be following better?

+100

What is MCPS’s role in this? And the answer is not refusing to service trouble kids. Legally, that isn’t an option.

So here's the thing, the answer to this question structurally already exists on paper. The problem is MCPS refuses to follow through on what it already should be doing.

Those things include:

- Working collaboratively with MCPD to detect, investigate and root out crime in communities that spills into schools, in accordance to their existing MOU
- Furthermore, updating their MOU to strengthen investigative and community collaboration is another option
- Bringing to bear all of the community resources they're already supposed to be deploying (Bridge to Wellness, Linkages to Learning, Wellness Centers, PPWs, Street Outreach Network, Social Workers) and seeing why despite this wide safety net, so many kids, like the boy arrested at Northwood, keep falling through the cracks
- Holding principals accountable for leadership and training failures
- Being more honest and transparent with the public about what is happening in the schools, as opposed to suppressing information in the hopes of preservation the illusion of a reputation MCPS doesn't deserve

That's just for starters.

The National Education Association has a whole host of recommendations MCPS can also follow too: https://www.nea.org/resource-library/gun-violence-prevention-response-guide/gun-violence-prevention

One of the most effective things that prevents gun violence in school according to the NEA, is a Safe and Supportive School Climate. MCPS's school climate surveys show that they've done a horrible job for years of meeting that critical expectation.

So there's plenty that MCPS can and should be doing, but they aren't. Instead of assuming MCPS is helpless and should be held blameless, let's hold them accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, but how about preventing?

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.

What kinds of things do you think would prevent this from happening? I’ve heard a lot of comments like this, but it’s not like they’re “letting” kids bring guns to school. I would love to help advocate for stronger prevention but I’m trying to understand what that looks like. What should we be asking for? Are there models out there MCPS could be following better?

+100

What is MCPS’s role in this? And the answer is not refusing to service trouble kids. Legally, that isn’t an option.

So here's the thing, the answer to this question structurally already exists on paper. The problem is MCPS refuses to follow through on what it already should be doing.

Those things include:

- Working collaboratively with MCPD to detect, investigate and root out crime in communities that spills into schools, in accordance to their existing MOU
- Furthermore, updating their MOU to strengthen investigative and community collaboration is another option
- Bringing to bear all of the community resources they're already supposed to be deploying (Bridge to Wellness, Linkages to Learning, Wellness Centers, PPWs, Street Outreach Network, Social Workers) and seeing why despite this wide safety net, so many kids, like the boy arrested at Northwood, keep falling through the cracks
- Holding principals accountable for leadership and training failures
- Being more honest and transparent with the public about what is happening in the schools, as opposed to suppressing information in the hopes of preservation the illusion of a reputation MCPS doesn't deserve

That's just for starters.

The National Education Association has a whole host of recommendations MCPS can also follow too: https://www.nea.org/resource-library/gun-violence-prevention-response-guide/gun-violence-prevention

One of the most effective things that prevents gun violence in school according to the NEA, is a Safe and Supportive School Climate. MCPS's school climate surveys show that they've done a horrible job for years of meeting that critical expectation.

So there's plenty that MCPS can and should be doing, but they aren't. Instead of assuming MCPS is helpless and should be held blameless, let's hold them accountable.

There’s a lot of space between asking what MCPS could be doing better and assuming they’re helpless or not holding MCPS accountable. This list of aspirational goals sounds great on paper. I’m curious how ideals like this can be actually implemented or measured.

Like “holding principals accountable for leadership and training failures.” Did you list that because you have some information that was a contributing factor here? Because if not, then that example isn’t very useful in this conversation. What about deploying community resources? How do we on the outside know if that was happening here? Is there a reason we should assume it wasn’t?

I’m not an MCPS apologist. But I do appreciate Dr. Garrick and the staff at Northwood, who no more want a gun in the school than we do. And who probably tried very hard to implement these ideals and to support this student. It’s unfair to assume they weren’t doing all those things you outlined above.