What's going on at Churchill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is very dangerous and becoming more so each month

Kids at Churchill are wielding knives this week. Next week it's MS13!

Nope, we'll keep our MS13. Right now they are less violent than the the Churchill kids.

The incident was handled properly and well by the Churchill Principal, school security, and the police; and without SRO's.

Instead of complimenting their work, you write this drivel?

Take a seat, clown.

Not the poster PP quoted, but I think there are lessons Churchill, MCPS, and the police should take away and improve for student and staff safety.

The police response time was abysmal. 20 minutes is too long. The armed student had a knife. What if next time it is a gun?

Churchill never warned the community that a dangerous event was happening on campus till hours later. This allowed more students to return to campus after lunch. Again, what if this was an active shooter situation? Or a bomb threat? The principal has a way to send Sunday phone calls, emails, and text messages but there’s not a safety alert that is triggered when the school goes on lockdown? Also, why wasn’t the school immediately in lockdown instead of waiting till the end of lunch?

MCPS needs a proactive approach to school security. It was evident last week that there is a huge lack of planning, coordination, and communication that would result in lives lost if the student had used his knife or used a gun. MCPS is just waiting for a mass casualty event to happen before they will take school security seriously.

I don't see any evidence that Churchill didn't handle this exactly correctly. The problem is that we don't know much about the event. It may be that it's really not possible to convey any more than we currently know, but from the outside, we can't tell how much risk there really was.

For instance, this could be the kind of incident that doesn't put anyone in harm's way except those immediately involved (i.e., the girl being assaulted by the Whitman student)-- and it could be that those on the ground saw the Whitman student vacate the area (i.e., get in a car and leave the neighborhood) brandishing a knife as a threat not to be followed. In that case, I don't see any problem with any of Churchill's actions. There was nothing to warn anyone about at that time.

On the other hand, it could be much more serious (if the knife was used to threaten people at close range) and the Whitman student was seen going into the neighborhood with the knife--- in which case, the community should have been warned because kids would have been walking to school at that time and the incident could have escalated.

My guess is that even if it is the second scenario, any warning would have been way, way too late. The amount of time it takes to send out a message is surely longer than for the Whitman student to get far from the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is very dangerous and becoming more so each month

Kids at Churchill are wielding knives this week. Next week it's MS13!

Nope, we'll keep our MS13. Right now they are less violent than the the Churchill kids.

The incident was handled properly and well by the Churchill Principal, school security, and the police; and without SRO's.

Instead of complimenting their work, you write this drivel?

Take a seat, clown.

Not the poster PP quoted, but I think there are lessons Churchill, MCPS, and the police should take away and improve for student and staff safety.

The police response time was abysmal. 20 minutes is too long. The armed student had a knife. What if next time it is a gun?

Churchill never warned the community that a dangerous event was happening on campus till hours later. This allowed more students to return to campus after lunch. Again, what if this was an active shooter situation? Or a bomb threat? The principal has a way to send Sunday phone calls, emails, and text messages but there’s not a safety alert that is triggered when the school goes on lockdown? Also, why wasn’t the school immediately in lockdown instead of waiting till the end of lunch?

MCPS needs a proactive approach to school security. It was evident last week that there is a huge lack of planning, coordination, and communication that would result in lives lost if the student had used his knife or used a gun. MCPS is just waiting for a mass casualty event to happen before they will take school security seriously.

I don't see any evidence that Churchill didn't handle this exactly correctly. The problem is that we don't know much about the event. It may be that it's really not possible to convey any more than we currently know, but from the outside, we can't tell how much risk there really was.

For instance, this could be the kind of incident that doesn't put anyone in harm's way except those immediately involved (i.e., the girl being assaulted by the Whitman student)-- and it could be that those on the ground saw the Whitman student vacate the area (i.e., get in a car and leave the neighborhood) brandishing a knife as a threat not to be followed. In that case, I don't see any problem with any of Churchill's actions. There was nothing to warn anyone about at that time.

On the other hand, it could be much more serious (if the knife was used to threaten people at close range) and the Whitman student was seen going into the neighborhood with the knife--- in which case, the community should have been warned because kids would have been walking to school at that time and the incident could have escalated.

My guess is that even if it is the second scenario, any warning would have been way, way too late. The amount of time it takes to send out a message is surely longer than for the Whitman student to get far from the school.

Great way to rationalize and minimize what happened. Of course tis still dangerous for a teen to be walking around with a knife with intent to harm someone. In no way is this acceptable. You are why we have incidents like this at school. You don't see an issue and would allow your kids to behave that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is very dangerous and becoming more so each month

Kids at Churchill are wielding knives this week. Next week it's MS13!

Nope, we'll keep our MS13. Right now they are less violent than the the Churchill kids.

The incident was handled properly and well by the Churchill Principal, school security, and the police; and without SRO's.

Instead of complimenting their work, you write this drivel?

Take a seat, clown.

Name calling is your only way to handle things. No wonder these things are happening at these schools with parents like you. There is a clear need for SRO's in the schools. This is very concerning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School is very dangerous and becoming more so each month

Kids at Churchill are wielding knives this week. Next week it's MS13!

Nope, we'll keep our MS13. Right now they are less violent than the the Churchill kids.

The incident was handled properly and well by the Churchill Principal, school security, and the police; and without SRO's.

Instead of complimenting their work, you write this drivel?

Take a seat, clown.

Not the poster PP quoted, but I think there are lessons Churchill, MCPS, and the police should take away and improve for student and staff safety.

The police response time was abysmal. 20 minutes is too long. The armed student had a knife. What if next time it is a gun?

Churchill never warned the community that a dangerous event was happening on campus till hours later. This allowed more students to return to campus after lunch. Again, what if this was an active shooter situation? Or a bomb threat? The principal has a way to send Sunday phone calls, emails, and text messages but there’s not a safety alert that is triggered when the school goes on lockdown? Also, why wasn’t the school immediately in lockdown instead of waiting till the end of lunch?

MCPS needs a proactive approach to school security. It was evident last week that there is a huge lack of planning, coordination, and communication that would result in lives lost if the student had used his knife or used a gun. MCPS is just waiting for a mass casualty event to happen before they will take school security seriously.

+1000, the W schools, no schools are immune from these incidents and more needs to be done in terms of safety.

[Anonymous]

The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

The point is that the first priority is addressing the situation, which takes some time. It's only once there are enough adults there heading off the situation that anyone will have the bandwidth to alert the central office. Then they will need to compose a measured script, record it, and get it sent out. This incident probably spanned all of 5 minutes and in the best circumstances, the above will take more than 5 minutes. The real question is whether they believed the knife-bearing student was a danger to the neighboring community or had left the area (i.e., did they get into a car or just run into the neighborhood).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

The point is that the first priority is addressing the situation, which takes some time. It's only once there are enough adults there heading off the situation that anyone will have the bandwidth to alert the central office. Then they will need to compose a measured script, record it, and get it sent out. This incident probably spanned all of 5 minutes and in the best circumstances, the above will take more than 5 minutes. The real question is whether they believed the knife-bearing student was a danger to the neighboring community or had left the area (i.e., did they get into a car or just run into the neighborhood).

Addressing the situation includes getting all students to safe and secure locations. College campuses and private schools in our area have an instantaneous alert system to help with that goal.

The carefully scripted Central Office letter can come much later. That is not for student safety and normally gives far less information than parents get from local media outlets. Principal Taylor’s letter hours after last week’s events is a perfect example.

Safety should be the TOP priority. Google the Virginia Tech shooting and you will see the consequences of not having an emergency alert system in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

I don’t know about other families, but my HS student doesn’t get those robocalls, the parents do. My kid would never see an MCPS email in time to react to an emergency. They probably wouldn’t answer a phone call from MCPS, either. They might see a text, but there’s a chance they wouldn’t even read it right away if it weren’t from a friend or family member.

We all just get so much canned messaging from MCPS that nobody treats any of them as urgent. I think it would need to be a dedicated emergency source in order to be of any use in a real emergency. The emergency text/email service at the university I work for is completely separate from any other messaging. If you see a message from them, you know something is happening right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

I don’t know about other families, but my HS student doesn’t get those robocalls, the parents do. My kid would never see an MCPS email in time to react to an emergency. They probably wouldn’t answer a phone call from MCPS, either. They might see a text, but there’s a chance they wouldn’t even read it right away if it weren’t from a friend or family member.

We all just get so much canned messaging from MCPS that nobody treats any of them as urgent. I think it would need to be a dedicated emergency source in order to be of any use in a real emergency. The emergency text/email service at the university I work for is completely separate from any other messaging. If you see a message from them, you know something is happening right now.

Churchill has the ability to text, call, and email alerts to students. They have the phone number and MCPS email for my child which is alerted on his chrome book and phone. It’s not rocket science and there could be a special format for security alerts.

If Churchill and MCPS are too dense to come up with a plan, there are security firms that perform risk assessments for schools so safety improvements are implemented. Every child at Churchill has a cellphone. Sending out alerts to phones would be easy, quick, and cheap.

[Anonymous]

Ever get a weather alert on your phone with an alarm? Hard to miss and definitely gets your attention.

Also, what student at Churchill isn’t glued a cellphone? It would be so easy to send out an alert

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

And how should MCPS address that risk?

Use the same robo phone, text, and email service that Mr. Taylor uses for his Sunday announcements. You can prepare a general lockdown alert that tells students on campus to go into the building and secure themselves in a classroom. For students not on campus should go home till it is safe to go to school.

College campuses have used such alerts for over a decade. MCPS has the technology but has never used it to improve school safety.

I don’t know about other families, but my HS student doesn’t get those robocalls, the parents do. My kid would never see an MCPS email in time to react to an emergency. They probably wouldn’t answer a phone call from MCPS, either. They might see a text, but there’s a chance they wouldn’t even read it right away if it weren’t from a friend or family member.

We all just get so much canned messaging from MCPS that nobody treats any of them as urgent. I think it would need to be a dedicated emergency source in order to be of any use in a real emergency. The emergency text/email service at the university I work for is completely separate from any other messaging. If you see a message from them, you know something is happening right now.

Churchill has the ability to text, call, and email alerts to students. They have the phone number and MCPS email for my child which is alerted on his chrome book and phone. It’s not rocket science and there could be a special format for security alerts.

If Churchill and MCPS are too dense to come up with a plan, there are security firms that perform risk assessments for schools so safety improvements are implemented. Every child at Churchill has a cellphone. Sending out alerts to phones would be easy, quick, and cheap.

Churchill can only do so much without MCPS approval. MCPS catered to the ultra liberal parents who don't want any security in the schools. So, this is what we get. Violence at the school and slow police times. This isn't just a Churchill issue and removing security at the schools was a mistake. Not all kids have phones so relying on phones is an issue but they could even put up signs, sound an alarm or something like they did when we went to HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MCCPTA advocated for an alert system after the bomb threat incident at Churchill years ago under Benz. Both that incident and last week’s assault highlighted the most vulnerable times of the school day is when students are coming to school - either at the beginning of the school day or at lunch. These are the times doors are unlocked and students are outside coming into the building. Not an easy time to lockdown the building or get students to safety.

MCPS needs to wake up and realize safety attacks will come at these periods of vulnerability, not on their class schedules.

MCCPTA is a joke. Lets be real.

They have an intercom system for one. They can make an announcement there. That's what MCPS did when we were kids. They can put speakers outside.

[Anonymous]

What about sending security outside to tell all students to get into the building? There’s a lot that could have been done that wasn’t attempted. That is the problem of not having a plan that fits the scenario.

In a crisis, a principal needs to act and protect students first. A call to Central Office for PR spin should be after the building and students are secure. Instead, lunchtime routines were continued and the lockdown only happened after 6th period began. Not a swift enough reaction given that the school was insecure and no police on the scene to help for 20 minutes. The school should have immediately been put into lockdown.