Are private schools safer than public schools?

[Anonymous]

Your daughter is definitely a lot safer in a private school if you send her to an all-girls private school.

Boys shoot up schools when they feel left out, whereas the worst thing a girl will usually do is spread a rumor that one of the popular girls had lipo over winter break.

[Anonymous]

The Sandy Hook shooter was not even a student, so having fewer high risk students at the school is not a guarantee of safety.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for an all girls private school. The risk is about a low as it can be.

[Anonymous]

Why not put your kid in an urban school that isn't majority middle and upper middle class and white? Not only would your child get a more real world education than they'd get at a private school -- you don't see many mass shootings in those environments either. And for the college obsessed among you (which, I dare say, is probably all of you), a student with involved parents who excels in an urban school can expect his or her pick of top colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not put your kid in an urban school that isn't majority middle and upper middle class and white? Not only would your child get a more real world education than they'd get at a private school -- you don't see many mass shootings in those environments either. And for the college obsessed among you (which, I dare say, is probably all of you), a student with involved parents who excels in an urban school can expect his or her pick of top colleges.

Can you name for me a high quality urban public school that isn't majority middle and UMC white? Honest question.

And a note: Magnet schools don't count because, by virtue of the fact that they are selective, they don't have the cross-section of the population you are implying is necessary for a real world education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not put your kid in an urban school that isn't majority middle and upper middle class and white? Not only would your child get a more real world education than they'd get at a private school -- you don't see many mass shootings in those environments either. And for the college obsessed among you (which, I dare say, is probably all of you), a student with involved parents who excels in an urban school can expect his or her pick of top colleges.

Can you name for me a high quality urban public school that isn't majority middle and UMC white? Honest question.

And a note: Magnet schools don't count because, by virtue of the fact that they are selective, they don't have the cross-section of the population you are implying is necessary for a real world education.

Wilson in DC, as well as several public high schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Montgomery counties. Top students at any one of them can get as good if not better an education than virtually any private school can offer. I realize, of course, that posting this on the private school discussion thread is heresy.

[Anonymous]

I actually have found myself relieved that my kids go to a school that is majority nonwhite. Most school shooters are disaffected rural/suburban white males and we don't have many. Also, schools that are predominantly white do tend to have more divisions by popularity, sports, cliques, etc. so teen boys can become outcasts pretty easily. Very diverse schools have their own divisions but they tend to be ethnic and class-related and within those divisions they tend to keep to themselves. In other words, the Hispanic kids aren't mocking the black kids. But in a very white school, the popular white kids may in fact be mocking the white kid in the trenchcoat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually have found myself relieved that my kids go to a school that is majority nonwhite. Most school shooters are disaffected rural/suburban white males and we don't have many. Also, schools that are predominantly white do tend to have more divisions by popularity, sports, cliques, etc. so teen boys can become outcasts pretty easily. Very diverse schools have their own divisions but they tend to be ethnic and class-related and within those divisions they tend to keep to themselves. In other words, the Hispanic kids aren't mocking the black kids. But in a very white school, the popular white kids may in fact be mocking the white kid in the trenchcoat.

This.

[Anonymous]

The public school bullying is much worse. Less likely to have an intensely angry bullying victim in private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The public school bullying is much worse. Less likely to have an intensely angry bullying victim in private.

Generalize much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools probably have discreet ways of asking families as part of the interviewing process if there are guns in their homes, and weed out those families.

No, that’s absurd. They do not do that at all

Our former headmaster and asst headmaster were big hunters!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your daughter is definitely a lot safer in a private school if you send her to an all-girls private school.

Boys shoot up schools when they feel left out, whereas the worst thing a girl will usually do is spread a rumor that one of the popular girls had lipo over winter break.

Agreed that girls don’t shoot the place up, but they occasionally do more than cruel rumors. I was the poor kid at an all girls prep in the 80s. A classmate routinely destroyed my belongings and sabotaged my project. I was allowed as a junior to use the senior lounge bathroom to get some respite from her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your daughter is definitely a lot safer in a private school if you send her to an all-girls private school.

Boys shoot up schools when they feel left out, whereas the worst thing a girl will usually do is spread a rumor that one of the popular girls had lipo over winter break.

Girls can be worst than boys. They spread toxic rumors about the target boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not put your kid in an urban school that isn't majority middle and upper middle class and white? Not only would your child get a more real world education than they'd get at a private school -- you don't see many mass shootings in those environments either. And for the college obsessed among you (which, I dare say, is probably all of you), a student with involved parents who excels in an urban school can expect his or her pick of top colleges.

Can you name for me a high quality urban public school that isn't majority middle and UMC white? Honest question.

And a note: Magnet schools don't count because, by virtue of the fact that they are selective, they don't have the cross-section of the population you are implying is necessary for a real world education.

Wilson in DC, as well as several public high schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Montgomery counties. Top students at any one of them can get as good if not better an education than virtually any private school can offer. I realize, of course, that posting this on the private school discussion thread is heresy.

At least in MCPS, the best high schools are neither urban, nor are they majority non-MC and UMC white. You sound like you have an axe to grind against private schools.

[Anonymous]

By asking this question in the private school forum you are getting a biased answer...but I would agree that since private schools can select their students and counsel them out, it is probably safer.