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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you... I was sort of confused as to why this is so much drama about dropping kids off not at specific location. It's a residential area, you could live there and your kid could walk to school, or your kid could take public transit or a ride and walk a few blocks, what's a big deal? I come from the city where kids commute to schools on their own, so this complaining is very weird to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

At Rocky Run?

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

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

Herndon sends kids to Langston/Soith Lakes and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Kids don’t care about grades? Aren’t kids in this area obsessed with grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Kids don’t care about grades? Aren’t kids in this area obsessed with grades?

No. Their parents are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

Kids don’t care about grades? Aren’t kids in this area obsessed with grades?

Not in middle school.

[Anonymous]

And yet, plenty of us had kids home in DL just as long as everyone else and yet managed to send them back with manners and self-control and not feral.

Parenting is awesome. More people should try it sometime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

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

She did add something. You are not the moderator. Move along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Covid is absolutely over. Stop with your nonsense

No, it’s not, Brenda. Stop with your nonsense.

[Anonymous]

I teach ES in a FCPS but from what my MS teacher friends tell me, it's terrible this year.

One friend's theory is that as OP said, the MS kids were the most affected by virtual learning. She believes this is because parents focused their attention on younger siblings who couldn't navigate technology on their own or older siblings whose classes were more "important" because they counted for college admissions. And also, focusing on their own virtual work and assuming that tweens would be fine on their own.

I will say, in my ES, we've had many more outbursts and meltdowns from kids than in the years prior to Covid.

The police were called once when a kid having a meltdown threw a stapler and hit a teacher in the head. Blood was drawn during the incident but the kid didn't get in trouble with the police as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet, plenty of us had kids home in DL just as long as everyone else and yet managed to send them back with manners and self-control and not feral.

Parenting is awesome. More people should try it sometime.

Some of the kids of the “my kids thrived! Thrived! Love DL” parents are some of the worst behavioral offenders. You have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Our FCPS MS (not previously mentioned) has been struggling too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes and no. Not every school system kept kids out of buildings and left kids on their own to fend with distance learning as long as FCPS. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. No kids in middle school but definitely noticed freshmen in multiple HS this year who behaved like oversized 6th or 7th graders.

My sister and brother both teach in schools that only closed for a brief time (public school in Nevada, parochial school in Michigan) They are experiencing the same mental health/behavior issues there as we are here. And they are behind in academics. It's the stress of the pandemic wearing on, the constant rotation of teachers and students being out with covid, the shortages of teachers, the polarization of everything etc.

[Anonymous]

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

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

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

+1
If you look at the data, there are less disruptive behaviors, fights, bullying, teen pregnancies, smoking/drug use than there were in earlier decades. More anxiety and mental health concerns now though. (Whether that's greater diagnoses due to less stigma or actual increases though, who knows)

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes and no. Not every school system kept kids out of buildings and left kids on their own to fend with distance learning as long as FCPS. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. No kids in middle school but definitely noticed freshmen in multiple HS this year who behaved like oversized 6th or 7th graders.

My sister and brother both teach in schools that only closed for a brief time (public school in Nevada, parochial school in Michigan) They are experiencing the same mental health/behavior issues there as we are here. And they are behind in academics. It's the stress of the pandemic wearing on, the constant rotation of teachers and students being out with covid, the shortages of teachers, the polarization of everything etc.

Yes. Look at society. Adults are a hot mess. Of course kids are going to be a hot mess too.