Paint Branch High Fights

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I watched the videos and was expecting to be horrifed. I hate all types of violence but honestly this was no different than the fights that occured in my high school in the early 90's. It just looks like a regular fight. Yes, fights are bad. But they happen.

If you look at it in isolation, you might not see the big deal. But it's the nature, frequency and lack of disciplinary consequences that make these fights concerning.

Thankfully, the fight this time didn't involve weapons, but when these fights happen, often time the loser will up the ante in a payback session with a gun, knife or brass knuckles and that's where things turn really tragic.

That's precisely what happened with Magruder. It was a planned physical fight that escalated to a gun shooting because someone always ups the ante when they feel threatened or humiliated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter goes to paint branch and dreads it every single morning. she is the quiet, studious type and absolutely hates the environment at paint branch. I tried to get her a cosa to a school with a better reputation and was shot down despite presenting video evidence of fights and kids acting up in class. She tried to escape by taking AP classes hoping the kids would be better behaved, but since they allow almost anyone to register, nothing changed, except now she is paired up with kids who challenge her on race (she is white) and dont contribute to the projects. she comes home in tears frequently. Hate MCPS. Can afford private or to move to a better school area. Hate MCPS. I guarantee not a single BOE member or central office staff has done an unannounced visit to the schools on the east. They would be in shock but would brush it off. Some schools could use an SRO in every class.

That's awful. I'm sorry. I went to a rough HS where there were fights *everyday*, but at least I could escape it by taking AP classes that not just anyone could take.

I don't like that type of restriction for AP classes because I think if you want to be challenged, then you should be able to have that opportunity, but it's awful to then have to be partnered with someone who doesn't pull their weight on projects. And the whole race thing is awful, too. Some people make everything about race such that it's lost its meaning.

Your DD should demand the admin there do restorative justice with the the POC person because clearly that POC person has some issues with your white DD -- I say this a bit tongue in cheek, sort of. But isn't this what RJ is about? What would MCPS say to that, I wonder? I know.. if your DD brought it up, she'd probably get jumped. Sad situation.

Not an ideal situation but can you rent in a different area?

ITA about SROs.

I agree with you that there should be an open access policy for anyone to TRY AP classes, but I think it should be conditioned on you meeting certain standards. If you get a D two marking periods in an AP class, you should be moved back down to the honors or on-level version of the course.

I'm all for equal opportunity, but those opportunities have to be met with meaningful engagement and effort on the student's part as well.

Also, I don't think the real troublemakers in school are going to sign themselves up for AP anything. The honors classes unfortunately suffer from this since many schools are adopting an "honors-for-all" approach, but in my experience the kids are somewhat motivated to learn if they're registering for an AP class. They might not have the necessary work ethic and rigor, but they're not the worst of the bunch so that filtering effect somewhat still exists with AP/IB classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Assault isn't an MCPS matter. Sounds like they should involve the police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my daughter goes to paint branch and dreads it every single morning. she is the quiet, studious type and absolutely hates the environment at paint branch. I tried to get her a cosa to a school with a better reputation and was shot down despite presenting video evidence of fights and kids acting up in class. She tried to escape by taking AP classes hoping the kids would be better behaved, but since they allow almost anyone to register, nothing changed, except now she is paired up with kids who challenge her on race (she is white) and dont contribute to the projects. she comes home in tears frequently. Hate MCPS. Can afford private or to move to a better school area. Hate MCPS. I guarantee not a single BOE member or central office staff has done an unannounced visit to the schools on the east. They would be in shock but would brush it off. Some schools could use an SRO in every class.

That's awful. I'm sorry. I went to a rough HS where there were fights *everyday*, but at least I could escape it by taking AP classes that not just anyone could take.

I don't like that type of restriction for AP classes because I think if you want to be challenged, then you should be able to have that opportunity, but it's awful to then have to be partnered with someone who doesn't pull their weight on projects. And the whole race thing is awful, too. Some people make everything about race such that it's lost its meaning.

Your DD should demand the admin there do restorative justice with the the POC person because clearly that POC person has some issues with your white DD -- I say this a bit tongue in cheek, sort of. But isn't this what RJ is about? What would MCPS say to that, I wonder? I know.. if your DD brought it up, she'd probably get jumped. Sad situation.

Not an ideal situation but can you rent in a different area?

ITA about SROs.

I agree with you that there should be an open access policy for anyone to TRY AP classes, but I think it should be conditioned on you meeting certain standards. If you get a D two marking periods in an AP class, you should be moved back down to the honors or on-level version of the course.

I'm all for equal opportunity, but those opportunities have to be met with meaningful engagement and effort on the student's part as well.

Also, I don't think the real troublemakers in school are going to sign themselves up for AP anything. The honors classes unfortunately suffer from this since many schools are adopting an "honors-for-all" approach, but in my experience the kids are somewhat motivated to learn if they're registering for an AP class. They might not have the necessary work ethic and rigor, but they're not the worst of the bunch so that filtering effect somewhat still exists with AP/IB classes.

If kids are assaulting others, there already is a special place for them. We have laws that cover this already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Assault isn't an MCPS matter. Sounds like they should involve the police.

Assault on school grounds is an MCPS matter. Things get gray because a fight on the school bus is MCPS jurisdiction but the bus stop isn't necessarily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched the videos and was expecting to be horrifed. I hate all types of violence but honestly this was no different than the fights that occured in my high school in the early 90's. It just looks like a regular fight. Yes, fights are bad. But they happen.

If you look at it in isolation, you might not see the big deal. But it's the nature, frequency and lack of disciplinary consequences that make these fights concerning.

Thankfully, the fight this time didn't involve weapons, but when these fights happen, often time the loser will up the ante in a payback session with a gun, knife or brass knuckles and that's where things turn really tragic.

That's precisely what happened with Magruder. It was a planned physical fight that escalated to a gun shooting because someone always ups the ante when they feel threatened or humiliated.

There have always been fights, just now it's easier for kids to get guns. Just like there have always been drugs, just now there's fentanyl. Guns and fentanyl are not MCPS issues, they are issues for general society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

Not much education is occurring for average students in schools where fighting is the norm. Very sad to see such poorly run schools. The kids who want to learn a paying a huge price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

Mark Twain should be brought back but not in its previous form. Think of it more as a detox and recovery center, that kids who need therapy, support, love and attention. They should be able, with a track record of good behavior.

So Mark Twain should have double or triple the counselors and social workers as the traditional school, with a focus on repairing, healing and restoring these students so they can return to their home school. This is similar to how substance users have to be isolated and treated before you dump them back into society. They can't do that work in their normal everyday environment for their safety and everyone else's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

Mark Twain should be brought back but not in its previous form. Think of it more as a detox and recovery center, that kids who need therapy, support, love and attention. They should be able, with a track record of good behavior.

So Mark Twain should have double or triple the counselors and social workers as the traditional school, with a focus on repairing, healing and restoring these students so they can return to their home school. This is similar to how substance users have to be isolated and treated before you dump them back into society. They can't do that work in their normal everyday environment for their safety and everyone else's.

Yeah MCPS has that, it is called Alternative Programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

MCPS has taken on the equity approach of "applying rules inequitably so as to to make things more equitable".

If they apply the rules without thought to race, you'd see a lot more POC kids get suspended. The social justice warriors wouldn't like that. So, they turn a blind eye to these horrible behaviors to give the appearance of "equity". These social justice warriors don't give a sh1t about your kids as individuals.

Stop voting for progressives. Certain pockets of MoCo seem to only vote for progressives, and that includes the east county but we all suffer these fools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched the videos and was expecting to be horrifed. I hate all types of violence but honestly this was no different than the fights that occured in my high school in the early 90's. It just looks like a regular fight. Yes, fights are bad. But they happen.

If you look at it in isolation, you might not see the big deal. But it's the nature, frequency and lack of disciplinary consequences that make these fights concerning.

Thankfully, the fight this time didn't involve weapons, but when these fights happen, often time the loser will up the ante in a payback session with a gun, knife or brass knuckles and that's where things turn really tragic.

That's precisely what happened with Magruder. It was a planned physical fight that escalated to a gun shooting because someone always ups the ante when they feel threatened or humiliated.

There have always been fights, just now it's easier for kids to get guns. Just like there have always been drugs, just now there's fentanyl. Guns and fentanyl are not MCPS issues, they are issues for general society.

It's not just guns. Knifes and brass knuckles are weapons showing up more and more in MCPS high school fights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

This will never happen here. Then all you'll have is a school that is filled with kids who misbehave and do crime. MCPS is not interested in making schools like prison.
What they need to do is start clarifying what types of behavior are accepted and won't be accepted, holding kids accountable without regard to who did it and why, and bringing up SROs to support the already overwhelmed staff who are stuck dealing with these fights.

MCPS has taken on the equity approach of "applying rules inequitably so as to to make things more equitable".

If they apply the rules without thought to race, you'd see a lot more POC kids get suspended. The social justice warriors wouldn't like that. So, they turn a blind eye to these horrible behaviors to give the appearance of "equity". These social justice warriors don't give a sh1t about your kids as individuals.

Stop voting for progressives. Certain pockets of MoCo seem to only vote for progressives, and that includes the east county but we all suffer these fools.

Yes, this too. The irony is that most victims of the violent behaviors we're seeing are BIPOC so they're actually doing them a disservice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are not okay. SMH.

Schools need to be smaller. 500 for MS. 1000 for HS. Classroom sizes need to be much smaller. 15 for MS. 20 for HS. Stagger the school day and make school year round so there is an AM shift and a PM shift. Cramming adolescents together in packed hallways and classroom increases their stress and helps leads to stupid disputes. But smaller populations cost money so MCPS just adds additional security.

The stupid disputes 9/10 have nothing to do with school. They tend to be about:

1) Perceived slights of disrespect (sometimes influenced by older gang affiliated teens who egg the fights on for their entertainment and/or to initiate them into the gang). These slights are sometimes amplified by social media and group chats that spread the humiliation.
2) Fights over girlfriends/boyfriends
3) Trash talking that goes too far either in games or sports. This trash talking can be amplified by group chats and social media as well.

I'm not saying there's not some merit to smaller schools, but that isn't why these kids are fighting.

What do you expect when the county has built multiple low income housing communities in that area? Of course sending all the poor section 8 kids to the 2 high schools in that area would cause problems. what do you expect from communities that lack strong parents and are raised to get upset and take offense at every little comment. I live in that area and it's scary as shit.

Before I respond in further detail, I want to preface that low-income housing communities are definitely correlated with crime, violence, instability, etc. But we have to be fair and clear that there are also plenty of hard-working, honest, low-income families too. We can't paint everyone with a broad brush, but yes, the instances of those negative things are definitely much higher in those communities.

Honestly, I don't know what MCPS or MoCo can do. They're providing those families with housing and food and education, but it's not the government's job to teach values, ethics and morals. That's society's, the community's and the family's.

This is where I feel for MCPS because they can't fix dysfunctional families. The best they can do is isolate, contain and refer them for treatment and services, but no government entity can make anyone become a better person. So the situation seems like one with no solution.

I do agree with a PP that we need Mark Twain back. You can't have broken and dysfunctional kids bleeding all over everyone else emotionally and spreading their trauma and chaos with no safety net. It's not fair and it's not safe.

And do you know who suffers the most? Black and Brown lower-income kids who actually DO attend schools to learn and WANT to graduate high school. The wealthy White families leave for private or move to other high school clusters.