Shooting at Blake

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

This is a nonsensical post. The kids that are doing robotics club and engineering club and feed-the-homeless club at lunch are NOT the same kids that are robbing CVS and breaking into vacant houses t to record fight videos. Basically, some of you are in favor of making school much harder and more depressing for the "good" kids in order to crack down on bad behavior by other kids (who will likely ignore those rules anyway). The violence in schools is not great, and my kids don't love it, but the truth is that they are very unlikely to be the victim of violence because they are not dealing/buying drugs, and are not fighting with anyone in the hallways, bathrooms, or parking lots. I would like them to be able to buy a burrito at lunch, and do their clubs at lunch, and meet with teachers at lunch....I feel like this is one of the few things at MCPS that works well for the kids who are trying to do the right thing. So let's NOT get rid of it. Instead, let's deal with the kids who are the problem.

There is nothing nonsensical about the post.

You have merely decided that you value and prioritize open lunch and clubs meeting during lunch over the alternative.

You do this even though research shows teens benefit from and need afterschool activities to thrive, grow and stay out of trouble.

You do this even though you know that clubs meeting during lunch is wildly dependent on the number of teachers in any given school being willing to give up their lunch period to host such meetings.

You do this even though clubs in general lack strong support and teacher engagement in clubs is low overall due to burnout and unrealistic workloads by MCPS.

And lastly you do this, even though your kid likely already gets their afterschool or extracurricular needs met outside of the school day through sports or activities that you pay for and supplement.

You have merely decided to center your comfort and preferences and needs over the needs of the vast majority of children. And that's fine. But just say that and stop calling people who point out the reality of the situation "nonsensical."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

This is a nonsensical post. The kids that are doing robotics club and engineering club and feed-the-homeless club at lunch are NOT the same kids that are robbing CVS and breaking into vacant houses t to record fight videos. Basically, some of you are in favor of making school much harder and more depressing for the "good" kids in order to crack down on bad behavior by other kids (who will likely ignore those rules anyway). The violence in schools is not great, and my kids don't love it, but the truth is that they are very unlikely to be the victim of violence because they are not dealing/buying drugs, and are not fighting with anyone in the hallways, bathrooms, or parking lots. I would like them to be able to buy a burrito at lunch, and do their clubs at lunch, and meet with teachers at lunch....I feel like this is one of the few things at MCPS that works well for the kids who are trying to do the right thing. So let's NOT get rid of it. Instead, let's deal with the kids who are the problem.

There is nothing nonsensical about the post.

You have merely decided that you value and prioritize open lunch and clubs meeting during lunch over the alternative.

You do this even though research shows teens benefit from and need afterschool activities to thrive, grow and stay out of trouble.

You do this even though you know that clubs meeting during lunch is wildly dependent on the number of teachers in any given school being willing to give up their lunch period to host such meetings.

You do this even though clubs in general lack strong support and teacher engagement in clubs is low overall due to burnout and unrealistic workloads by MCPS.

And lastly you do this, even though your kid likely already gets their afterschool or extracurricular needs met outside of the school day through sports or activities that you pay for and supplement.

You have merely decided to center your comfort and preferences and needs over the needs of the vast majority of children. And that's fine. But just say that and stop calling people who point out the reality of the situation "nonsensical."

County rec department, city of Rockville, city of Gaithersburg and many other places have affordable activities. They have low income waivers and scholarships too.

[Anonymous]

At my school there's over 60 clubs that meet at lunch and the teachers love hosting them. The issue is that most of the clubs aren't really anything of substance. They are not like FCA, 4H, Key Club, etc. Instead it's Comic Book Club, Karaoke Club, Pokemon Card club and stuff of that nature.

There's very few civic minded clubs that actually do things and really just a lot that are rooms in the building to hang out in during lunch and maybe do a collective activity. Teachers love hosting those because all that's required is to sit in the room and make sure kids aren't left alone.

[Anonymous]

Retaliation on teachers for making reports on crime is real. We are not allowed to do our job and our union will never help us unless is a racial or discrimination issue. Crime and violence coverups are real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

This is a nonsensical post. The kids that are doing robotics club and engineering club and feed-the-homeless club at lunch are NOT the same kids that are robbing CVS and breaking into vacant houses t to record fight videos. Basically, some of you are in favor of making school much harder and more depressing for the "good" kids in order to crack down on bad behavior by other kids (who will likely ignore those rules anyway). The violence in schools is not great, and my kids don't love it, but the truth is that they are very unlikely to be the victim of violence because they are not dealing/buying drugs, and are not fighting with anyone in the hallways, bathrooms, or parking lots. I would like them to be able to buy a burrito at lunch, and do their clubs at lunch, and meet with teachers at lunch....I feel like this is one of the few things at MCPS that works well for the kids who are trying to do the right thing. So let's NOT get rid of it. Instead, let's deal with the kids who are the problem.

There is nothing nonsensical about the post.

You have merely decided that you value and prioritize open lunch and clubs meeting during lunch over the alternative.

You do this even though research shows teens benefit from and need afterschool activities to thrive, grow and stay out of trouble.

You do this even though you know that clubs meeting during lunch is wildly dependent on the number of teachers in any given school being willing to give up their lunch period to host such meetings.

You do this even though clubs in general lack strong support and teacher engagement in clubs is low overall due to burnout and unrealistic workloads by MCPS.

And lastly you do this, even though your kid likely already gets their afterschool or extracurricular needs met outside of the school day through sports or activities that you pay for and supplement.

You have merely decided to center your comfort and preferences and needs over the needs of the vast majority of children. And that's fine. But just say that and stop calling people who point out the reality of the situation "nonsensical."

FWIW, I don't actually pay for my kids to do afterschool activities. They either go to their MCPS sports practice, or they come home and do their homework and chores.

At any rate, I think this is something that is decided school by school and club by club, right? That seems to make sense to me. If there's a community that is absolutely crying out for more clubs after school, they can do that, assuming there are teachers willing to stay to host them. I think that already clubs have the ability to meet after school, if that works for the club members schedules and they can find a teacher sponsor that agrees to that. One of my kids ran a HS club that often had meetings after school because they needed longer blocks of time to prepare for competitions and it was REALLY HARD to find teachers willing and able to stay. A couple of times I had to take off work to go and sit in the classroom as an adult presence because their teacher sponsor couldn't stay due to her own childcare issues, but said they could meet if they had an MCPS-background-checked adult that would stay. If you are so obsessed with clubs meeting after school, maybe you could volunteer to host a club after school. Are you a scout leader, or do you engage in other volunteer activities that provide a safe space for kids to engage after school? There are lots and lots of such possibilities, but they need adults that are willing to step up and give their time. I do that -- do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my school there's over 60 clubs that meet at lunch and the teachers love hosting them. The issue is that most of the clubs aren't really anything of substance. They are not like FCA, 4H, Key Club, etc. Instead it's Comic Book Club, Karaoke Club, Pokemon Card club and stuff of that nature.

There's very few civic minded clubs that actually do things and really just a lot that are rooms in the building to hang out in during lunch and maybe do a collective activity. Teachers love hosting those because all that's required is to sit in the room and make sure kids aren't left alone.

And there you have it. The "club lunch meetings" that people are fighting for really don't do much of substance. They are in fact clubs in name only and really just a space and excuse for kids to hang out during lunch.

Which is fine. But that's not what clubs are supposed to do, especially since kids put their club experience on their college applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

This is a nonsensical post. The kids that are doing robotics club and engineering club and feed-the-homeless club at lunch are NOT the same kids that are robbing CVS and breaking into vacant houses t to record fight videos. Basically, some of you are in favor of making school much harder and more depressing for the "good" kids in order to crack down on bad behavior by other kids (who will likely ignore those rules anyway). The violence in schools is not great, and my kids don't love it, but the truth is that they are very unlikely to be the victim of violence because they are not dealing/buying drugs, and are not fighting with anyone in the hallways, bathrooms, or parking lots. I would like them to be able to buy a burrito at lunch, and do their clubs at lunch, and meet with teachers at lunch....I feel like this is one of the few things at MCPS that works well for the kids who are trying to do the right thing. So let's NOT get rid of it. Instead, let's deal with the kids who are the problem.

There is nothing nonsensical about the post.

You have merely decided that you value and prioritize open lunch and clubs meeting during lunch over the alternative.

You do this even though research shows teens benefit from and need afterschool activities to thrive, grow and stay out of trouble.

You do this even though you know that clubs meeting during lunch is wildly dependent on the number of teachers in any given school being willing to give up their lunch period to host such meetings.

You do this even though clubs in general lack strong support and teacher engagement in clubs is low overall due to burnout and unrealistic workloads by MCPS.

And lastly you do this, even though your kid likely already gets their afterschool or extracurricular needs met outside of the school day through sports or activities that you pay for and supplement.

You have merely decided to center your comfort and preferences and needs over the needs of the vast majority of children. And that's fine. But just say that and stop calling people who point out the reality of the situation "nonsensical."

FWIW, I don't actually pay for my kids to do afterschool activities. They either go to their MCPS sports practice, or they come home and do their homework and chores.

At any rate, I think this is something that is decided school by school and club by club, right? That seems to make sense to me. If there's a community that is absolutely crying out for more clubs after school, they can do that, assuming there are teachers willing to stay to host them. I think that already clubs have the ability to meet after school, if that works for the club members schedules and they can find a teacher sponsor that agrees to that. One of my kids ran a HS club that often had meetings after school because they needed longer blocks of time to prepare for competitions and it was REALLY HARD to find teachers willing and able to stay. A couple of times I had to take off work to go and sit in the classroom as an adult presence because their teacher sponsor couldn't stay due to her own childcare issues, but said they could meet if they had an MCPS-background-checked adult that would stay. If you are so obsessed with clubs meeting after school, maybe you could volunteer to host a club after school. Are you a scout leader, or do you engage in other volunteer activities that provide a safe space for kids to engage after school? There are lots and lots of such possibilities, but they need adults that are willing to step up and give their time. I do that -- do you?

Yes, I do give lots of my time to youth.

But furthermore, given the fact that teachers can't or don't want to stay afterschool for clubs, I propose we get rid of school-based clubs altogether and recoup that money to either the department of recreation or another community-based nonprofit that will do that work with our kids.

Teachers, understandably, don't have the capacity. So we have to stop pretending like that's going to change anytime soon because it won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Retaliation on teachers for making reports on crime is real. We are not allowed to do our job and our union will never help us unless is a racial or discrimination issue. Crime and violence coverups are real.

This is a staple of the Moran Mismanagement Mafia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retaliation on teachers for making reports on crime is real. We are not allowed to do our job and our union will never help us unless is a racial or discrimination issue. Crime and violence coverups are real.

This is a staple of the Moran Mismanagement Mafia.

Eh. Peter is just implementing the will of Taylor. He’s a tool, not the source of the toxicity.