White flight from MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

True but people who love Bill O'Reilly or Tucker believe this stuff.

I think you might find plenty of ride or die Dems feel the same way.

You might not see this in your bubble.

But this forum is on mcps…and mcps is overwhelmingly blue. I’m a lifelong Dem. I’d never vote for a R.

So it’s rather silly to attribute any post you disagree with as written by a maga idiot. MoCo and mcps simply aren’t overrun with maga idiots.

Even people who call themselves a "lifelong Dem" on DCUM can be ignorant of history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Because I care about MCPS - it educates the vast majority of my neighbors and community members. I live near several schools and my taxes support MCPS. My kids were there for years, and some of their friends still are there. I want to know what is going on. I still donate to MCPS fundraisers too. I want to see it do better.

by posting on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Their posts are just fabrications to push their far-right agenda.

OMG. PP here; I campaigned for Marc Elrich, our county exec; do the same on every Democratic campaign. This is the problem - you think anyone who believes something is wrong is far right. You could not be further from the truth.

[Anonymous]

Most people we know have or will move is due to housing costs, which have nothing to do with MCPS. You can get a better value for your money if you move further out to another county. If you don't need to be near DC or your job is in MoCo, it makes much more sense now that other areas are more heavily built up with shopping (but most things can be purchased online) and restaurants. It's very hard to get a house under $500, except in a few select areas and most of those houses need a lot of work and are very small. So, for that same amount an hour or less away you can get a really nice house on some land. Sounds like a much better choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

This is such an uneducated reply by the MCPS administrators, and just serves to further stigmatise ADHD. ADHD often presents with other disorders - what you may be observing is oppositional defiance disorder or something else. There are many people with severe ADHD (myself and my family included) who are respectful, well educated, and positive members of the community.

That said, the “mainstreaming” of those with certain disorders is wreaking havoc (sorry wreakhavoc if you see this!) on our schools.

Parents also need to parent, and far too few do, especially in this area with so many people stressed to the max over unreasonable jobs and commutes.

Better "parenting" could help with the little stuff, but the most troublesome kids need far more significant interventions, which is hard even when the parent WANTS help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

You are wrong.

FTR, I’m not saying all immigrants are bad. I’m saying they aren’t assimilating at the same rates.

Why?

Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully pursuing an American way of life, we have huge numbers of new immigrants who are clinging to their native culture.

New immigrants are very religious: evangelical Christians (Africa and Central/South America) and Muslims. Instead of assimilating, both groups stick together and have their own agenda. They aren’t thrilled with American culture; they are here for economic reasons and safety.

Some new immigrants are gang-affiliated. That’s just a fact. We wouldn’t be pouring so much money into anti-gang efforts if it weren’t such a big issue. The problem is these guys wreak havoc in latino communities here…creating the same situation good people fled in the first place. And now it’s our county’s problem.

As a Latina it makes me really sad that you actually believe this and think so many Dems do as well. Did you know White people used to lynch Mexicans? Do.you know why the gangs formed (they started in the US)? Btw in the Latino community it's actually rare for a child who was born here to speak Spanish as well as we speak English. It's keeping the Spanish that is hard. There is plenty of assimilation but there is also plenty of oppression and exploitation.

Just. Wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

True but people who love Bill O'Reilly or Tucker believe this stuff.

I think you might find plenty of ride or die Dems feel the same way.

You might not see this in your bubble.

But this forum is on mcps…and mcps is overwhelmingly blue. I’m a lifelong Dem. I’d never vote for a R.

So it’s rather silly to attribute any post you disagree with as written by a maga idiot. MoCo and mcps simply aren’t overrun with maga idiots.

Even people who call themselves a "lifelong Dem" on DCUM can be ignorant of history.

Perhaps, but most who claim to be lifelong dems seem to espouse these extreme right views, so are dubious at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Their posts are just fabrications to push their far-right agenda.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

You are wrong.

FTR, I’m not saying all immigrants are bad. I’m saying they aren’t assimilating at the same rates.

Why?

Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully pursuing an American way of life, we have huge numbers of new immigrants who are clinging to their native culture.

New immigrants are very religious: evangelical Christians (Africa and Central/South America) and Muslims. Instead of assimilating, both groups stick together and have their own agenda. They aren’t thrilled with American culture; they are here for economic reasons and safety.

Some new immigrants are gang-affiliated. That’s just a fact. We wouldn’t be pouring so much money into anti-gang efforts if it weren’t such a big issue. The problem is these guys wreak havoc in latino communities here…creating the same situation good people fled in the first place. And now it’s our county’s problem.

As a Latina it makes me really sad that you actually believe this and think so many Dems do as well. Did you know White people used to lynch Mexicans? Do.you know why the gangs formed (they started in the US)? Btw in the Latino community it's actually rare for a child who was born here to speak Spanish as well as we speak English. It's keeping the Spanish that is hard. There is plenty of assimilation but there is also plenty of oppression and exploitation.

Just. Wow.

How many generations have you been here?

How long have you lived in MoCo?

When Salvadorans arrived in MoCo way back when they were a small minority. The groups arriving in the last 10+ years arrived to a robust and thriving Spanish speaking community where they are the majority in schools, neighborhoods, churches, and stores. And their reach is growing.

Some are voicing concerns that they are dealing with the criminal element and subcultural issues they thought they had left behind. They are posting here. They are moving out of majority-Latino areas to escape it.

The exploitation often comes from other Latinos. Google the employment law cases handled by Casa and legal aid and private attorneys where Latino employees screw over their Latino workers.

I hope we can all agree that the drug and gang violence is bad. We don’t want it. And there is a very real issue of unaccompanied Latino youth getting caught up in it. They are essentially trafficked here for work…again, by other Latinos. When that goes south, gangs are the plan B.

I’m knee deep in this stuff as part of my day job. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I do think the county needs to realize where we are and what we are likely to face.

Guess what? Baltimore used to be a thriving city before the white flight that happened in the 1960s. Thriving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

You are wrong.

FTR, I’m not saying all immigrants are bad. I’m saying they aren’t assimilating at the same rates.

Why?

Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully pursuing an American way of life, we have huge numbers of new immigrants who are clinging to their native culture.

New immigrants are very religious: evangelical Christians (Africa and Central/South America) and Muslims. Instead of assimilating, both groups stick together and have their own agenda. They aren’t thrilled with American culture; they are here for economic reasons and safety.

Some new immigrants are gang-affiliated. That’s just a fact. We wouldn’t be pouring so much money into anti-gang efforts if it weren’t such a big issue. The problem is these guys wreak havoc in latino communities here…creating the same situation good people fled in the first place. And now it’s our county’s problem.

That's just plain wrong. I don't know where you learned that, but it's wrong. Extremely wrong. It would hard for it to be wrong-er, unless you were making assertions that violate the physical laws of the universe, like "Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully creating and destroying matter..."

+1 This is absolutely a counterfactual narrative. I wonder if PP has ever been to a large Northeastern city. It they had, they might notice neighborhoods like "Little Italy," "Little Warsaw," and "Chinatown."

They might have noticed that different Catholic parishes served different ethnicities, or that organizations like the Knights of Columbus and the Polish National Alliance flourished during that time period.

For a period of time. But their numbers were smaller and they were organized by ethnicity. They weren’t from a select region with a shared language, and their goal was to blend in and assimilate.

Do you think Muslims are trying to assimilate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Their posts are just fabrications to push their far-right agenda.

OMG. PP here; I campaigned for Marc Elrich, our county exec; do the same on every Democratic campaign. This is the problem - you think anyone who believes something is wrong is far right. You could not be further from the truth.

Sure, of course, you are a lifelong dem diehard progressive who is just espousing far-right views.... Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Their posts are just fabrications to push their far-right agenda.

+100

Your dismissive attitude is part of the problem that got Trump elected, and may cause Biden to lose. Did you ever consider that people with whom you share policy goals may have different thoughts about how to achieve that success? You’re my way or the highway view of what a Democrat is or is not is deeply troubling to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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DP

I agree with you to a certain extent.

FTR: I have ancestors who arrived with the very earliest settlers on one side and ancestors who arrived right around 1900 on the other side.

The part I think you might not appreciate is this: prior generations of immigrants embraced the American culture and quickly assimilated. Within one generation they were fully literate and either bilingual or were abandoning their native language; while they initially settled in ethnic enclaves, their goal was to move on to greener pastures to live among the more affluent and established; they took pride in being American. This isn’t the case at the moment. I think we are headed for a culture war on two fronts with Latinos and Muslims who will become the dominant culture. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This is factually wrong. It's false "history." It's a story anti-immigration people in the US have been telling themselves for over a century. Previous immigrants were good, but THESE immigrants NOW are different and bad! It's also a story rooted in bigotry and racism.

You are wrong.

FTR, I’m not saying all immigrants are bad. I’m saying they aren’t assimilating at the same rates.

Why?

Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully pursuing an American way of life, we have huge numbers of new immigrants who are clinging to their native culture.

New immigrants are very religious: evangelical Christians (Africa and Central/South America) and Muslims. Instead of assimilating, both groups stick together and have their own agenda. They aren’t thrilled with American culture; they are here for economic reasons and safety.

Some new immigrants are gang-affiliated. That’s just a fact. We wouldn’t be pouring so much money into anti-gang efforts if it weren’t such a big issue. The problem is these guys wreak havoc in latino communities here…creating the same situation good people fled in the first place. And now it’s our county’s problem.

That's just plain wrong. I don't know where you learned that, but it's wrong. Extremely wrong. It would hard for it to be wrong-er, unless you were making assertions that violate the physical laws of the universe, like "Instead of Europeans who arrived in droves in the early 1900s who were gleefully creating and destroying matter..."

+1 This is absolutely a counterfactual narrative. I wonder if PP has ever been to a large Northeastern city. It they had, they might notice neighborhoods like "Little Italy," "Little Warsaw," and "Chinatown."

They might have noticed that different Catholic parishes served different ethnicities, or that organizations like the Knights of Columbus and the Polish National Alliance flourished during that time period.

For a period of time. But their numbers were smaller and they were organized by ethnicity. They weren’t from a select region with a shared language, and their goal was to blend in and assimilate.

Do you think Muslims are trying to assimilate?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Aaron Needle and Samuel Sheinbein. Kennedy High School

There was a crazy group of kids in the Kennedy area at that time. This wasn’t gang related. There were a bunch of weird guys on drugs and some had obvious mental health issues.

My younger sibling knew this crowd back in the day. Sheinbein went nuts.

Here’s the thing, though, gang violence in MCPS is always personal and involves gang members or affiliates. A bunch of weird guys with drug abuse and mental health issues could attack anyone. I’d rather deal with a gang at my school. The last three years, the most disruptive and scariest MS students I’ve had were middle class white boys with obvious anger issues, but no ED code. When a boy ripped up his paper and stomped on a book until the spine broke, I was told this is his ADHD. When another boy muttered curses (not profanity, but spells) and said a group of girls were “just dead cows”, I was told this is his ADHD. This year, I have one with no code at all and, although he walks around grunting loudly, simply takes anything he wants, then makes bull horns and pretends to charge by scraping his feet like hooves if you ask him to stop, I was told that we were not to bother his family. Dad is a lawyer.

I get what you are saying. But Sheinbein wasn’t a menace to the community or school. He ended up murdering a friend.

And I’ve heard similar sentiments from MoCo staffers from various agencies along the lines of, “No need to worry about the Latino gang violence because they only kill each other…it’s not like the black gang violence in the 90s that spilled out into public spaces in CA/NY or what happens in Baltimore.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset because it accepts the low level crime already happening in terms of break-ins/theft and car accidents (oof, the drunk driving is really bad among Latinos) and doesn’t anticipate the more serious crime that is sure to come. It’s a numbers thing coupled with escalation when subcultural norms that drove countless people to leave danger and poor ways in Central America are suddenly the dominant culture in entire schools and neighborhoods.

Heck, just focus on what the county has already documented: chronic absenteeism (which they are now aggressively using as a tool to unenroll these problematic kids) and the dramatic decline of our tax base (aging affluent white population being replaced by Latinos and other immigrants (including Asians) who operate cash businesses and aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Both are negatively impacting our schools which are obviously in decline.

If you have kids in mcps in Bethesda, CC, Kensington or Potomac, please don’t poo poo the critics. You aren’t dealing with this in any meaningful way. Ditto to TP and anyone in a HGC or magnet.

Mcps panicked when test scores started to decline and their previously pristine record and nationally regarded public school reputation changed. Their solution was to lower the bar so everyone would succeed. Instead they created a race to the bottom and everyone suffered. The curriculum is ridiculous. No grammar?!?! No rigor?!?! California is reinstating cursive and I bet mcps will add it back in 5 years or so.

I’d pay more taxes if the schools were better. Seriously.

Instead, I’m exploring private high school.

Good for you. It’s what we did too. The privates (including many religiously affiliated schools) are more like what public high schools were like 40 years ago, except of course they are more diverse, which is great, because you see minority kids as leaders. Students thrive in schools where discipline, high expectations, smaller classrooms, and a supportive community exist. Good luck to you.

And yet here you are, posting on the MCPS forum, for some reason.

Their posts are just fabrications to push their far-right agenda.

+100

Your dismissive attitude is part of the problem that got Trump elected, and may cause Biden to lose. Did you ever consider that people with whom you share policy goals may have different thoughts about how to achieve that success? You’re my way or the highway view of what a Democrat is or is not is deeply troubling to me.

Eh, no. If you voted for Trump because anonymous posters were mean to you on an Internet message board, that's on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Guess what? Baltimore used to be a thriving city before the white flight that happened in the 1960s. Thriving.

Yeah, it's weird what redlining, blockbusting, de-industrialization, highway building, labor automation, and drugs will do to a city.