Is your middle school a mess regarding behavior post-covid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend who works at Rocky Run MS said the same thing. Kids who act like 5th graders in 8th grade size bodies.

They had some kind of sexual assault situation this fall which is unheard of for them.

At Rocky Run?

Yes, and they addressed it quickly and got the kid out of there. That’s what good administrative teams do.

What happens on that situation? Where does fcps send a kid who has assaulted classmates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, it's been like that for decades...it's just more documented, shared on 24/7 social media, and overall parents being more sensitive about their snowflakes.

Grew up in FCPS - fights in the parking lot, weed in the bathrooms, jocks and jerks making fun of the nerds, class clowns and their school pranks, writings all over the bathroom stalls, and the list goes on.

It's nothing new...just a 21st century twist.

Parents and teachers are comparing extreme behavioral differences amongst same age peers at schools pre and post covid. If you don't have anything to add, move along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend who works at Rocky Run MS said the same thing. Kids who act like 5th graders in 8th grade size bodies.

They had some kind of sexual assault situation this fall which is unheard of for them.

At Rocky Run?

Yes, and they addressed it quickly and got the kid out of there. That’s what good administrative teams do.

What happens on that situation? Where does fcps send a kid who has assaulted classmates?

We toured an FCPS alternative middle school as FCPS suggested it an optipn for my child with ASD. My advocate was shocked and appalled that they place kids with ASD/immature social skills in with kids who committed serious crimes at their base school. They didn't want to admit it but the PSL finally confessed at a meeting that this was where FCPS dumped all their violent/sexually acting out middle schoolers. So my guess is there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older two dc went through the same ES program as my youngest. I never heard of the craziness in 6th grade for any of their years as I have had this year. Kids cannot work out their problems with each other. Physical fights every day at recess. Physical fights at lunch. Kids hitting each other in the classroom in 6th grade! And don't even get me started on the teachers who put the kids on laptops all day long and the principals who allow it. There need to be FCPS-wide limits on the use of laptops in ES. It is out of control.

Same at our school but for fourth grade. What my dd describes sounds like first grade behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend who works at Rocky Run MS said the same thing. Kids who act like 5th graders in 8th grade size bodies.

They had some kind of sexual assault situation this fall which is unheard of for them.

At Rocky Run?

Yes, and they addressed it quickly and got the kid out of there. That’s what good administrative teams do.

What happens on that situation? Where does fcps send a kid who has assaulted classmates?

There are usually three choices: homebound, a CSS or other alternative placement funded by FCPS, or the parents can pull their child out of FCPS and private pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend who works at Rocky Run MS said the same thing. Kids who act like 5th graders in 8th grade size bodies.

They had some kind of sexual assault situation this fall which is unheard of for them.

At Rocky Run?

Yes, and they addressed it quickly and got the kid out of there. That’s what good administrative teams do.

What happens on that situation? Where does fcps send a kid who has assaulted classmates?

There are usually three choices: homebound, a CSS or other alternative placement funded by FCPS, or the parents can pull their child out of FCPS and private pay.

So this kid is sent to a css class to be mixed in with kids with autism and adhd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend who works at Rocky Run MS said the same thing. Kids who act like 5th graders in 8th grade size bodies.

They had some kind of sexual assault situation this fall which is unheard of for them.

At Rocky Run?

Yes, and they addressed it quickly and got the kid out of there. That’s what good administrative teams do.

What happens on that situation? Where does fcps send a kid who has assaulted classmates?

There are usually three choices: homebound, a CSS or other alternative placement funded by FCPS, or the parents can pull their child out of FCPS and private pay.

So this kid is sent to a css class to be mixed in with kids with autism and adhd?

DP. I don't know that is the most common choice. Instead, students are transferred to other schools.

[Anonymous]

Where does FCPS dump the violent middle schoolers? Burke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our normally highly regarded middle school in terms of morale, safety, and positive environment has been a hot mess this year. Fights, bullying, vaping, misbehavior in the community after school, police getting called to the school for fighting, etc. From talking to my teacher friends and other parents, we are all really wondering if this is the age that was most deeply effective by covid isolation and virtual learning (kids that were 5th, 6th, 7th, graders during the height of the pandemic).

What are you all seeing? Is your local middle school having these issues? Any ideas of how to make it better? Or do we just coincidentally have a couple rough classes of kids that would have been this way anyway?

My dc's ms was a nightmare 5 years ago. I'm in the nice schools in the suburbs with few problems. Everything you described happened at this school including a kid breaking another kid's jaw during a fight. An administrator admitted to me they considered educating the kids secondary to keeping them alive. The deal with ALL the behavior problems in ms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everywhere is a hot mess. This isn't an FCPS thing or a middle school thing. It's not about rich kids or poor kids. It's all across the country.

Middle school was like this before covid. Add in the fact that neither the parents nor the kids care about grades at this point makes it a nightmare. The serious students constantly complained they weren't learning anything because of the kids disrupting the classes. The disrupters were not "bad" kids or sns kids. They were just kids who felt ms didn't matter. Skipping classes and hiding in the bathrooms or elsewhere was a constant problem.

[Anonymous]

How is phone use? I heard that’s an issue.

[Anonymous]

So how does a child survive unscathed? My nerdy and small DD is starting in the fall and you guys are scaring me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does FCPS dump the violent middle schoolers? Burke?

Yes, Burke is where they dump all the extremely problematic middle schoolers, along with seriously disabled dc. What could go wrong?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, it's been like that for decades...it's just more documented, shared on 24/7 social media, and overall parents being more sensitive about their snowflakes.

Grew up in FCPS - fights in the parking lot, weed in the bathrooms, jocks and jerks making fun of the nerds, class clowns and their school pranks, writings all over the bathroom stalls, and the list goes on.

It's nothing new...just a 21st century twist.

I totally disagree. I’m the Cooper parent from above and had two older children attend. There was a drug incident at Cooper a few years ago, but it was handled swiftly and the children were disciplined and counseled.

It feels now like ANYTHING goes. There are no clear expectations for behavior. One example - the kids are supposed to only get out of the cars in the carpool line at the official kiss and ride drop off. This was spelled out in several emails at the beginning of the year and is in place for obvious safety reasons. However, plenty of parents now drop their kids off on Balls Hill Road instead of waiting in the carpool line. The director of student services is out directing traffic in front of the schools and sees this going on every day. What does he do? He fist-bumps the kids who is he just saw brake the rules. This in and of itself is not terrible and maybe it helps develop student-administration relationships, but I think it likely contributes to the general culture of rules going unenforced. Sometimes the SRO officer is even there in the cross walk and it makes no difference.

NP here. I have a kid at Cooper and hear no terrible behavior stories at Cooper. And your carpool line story doesn’t sound like a very big deal. Are you seriously thinking the kid should be disciplined because the parent dropped off the kid in the wrong place? My kid normally rides the bus but he missed it recently and I drove him to school. He would have been late if I actually went in the carpool lane so I dropped him off at the church next door. It really was not that big of a deal.

At our old elementary school, there were always people dropping kids off on side streeets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:POST-Covid??? Who are you kidding? We're at numbers higher than in January. Covid is not over.

Covid is absolutely over. Stop with your nonsense