MoCo defunded police/school resource officers, causing a school shooting and a lawsuit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County should not have defunded school resource officers.

Now one student will spend most of his adult life in prison.

Worse for you, your school system has to pay out millions to defend (and likely settle) a lawsuit by the family of a shooting victim, all because of Montgomery County's foolish decision:


https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/maryland-gun-violence-former-student-sentenced-after-shooting-15-year-old-classmate-at-montgomery-county-high-school/65-5431a3f5-7a46-49f5-a421-03a66cc2578f


From that article:

" In November, the mother sued MCPS, saying the lack of school resource police officers was partially to blame for her son’s life-threatening injuries."

If you live in MoCo, demand a return to sanity, and the restoration of school resource officers immediatly.

If your county politicians are outside of MoCo, and are considering eliminating school resource officers, demand they abandon such foolish ideas.

Keep our kids safe!

Parkland had SROs.

Two things are true:

All cops are bastards (and shouldn’t be around our children). And most of them are cowards and useless in a shooting like this (see Parkland).

The bigotry is strong in this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

I do feel for this family, and it IS horrible. But I don't see why that means MCPS or MoCo should pay them. Lots of horrible tragedies happen all the time. Would you say that the owner of the physical location where anyone is shot/assaulted/murdered should pay the victim's family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

I do feel for this family, and it IS horrible. But I don't see why that means MCPS or MoCo should pay them. Lots of horrible tragedies happen all the time. Would you say that the owner of the physical location where anyone is shot/assaulted/murdered should pay the victim's family?

Are you saying MCPS is essentially just a landlord and anything that happens within the walls of the school is none of their responsibility? If anyone hurt your child at school, you wouldn’t be upset with the adults in that school for failing to intervene and protect your child? No, I do not think a random landlord is responsible in the example you gave, and I think suing the county council is a bit of a reach.

[Anonymous]

I’m one of the posters who thinks the framing of the liability being about removing SROs is ridiculous. BUT I do think MCPS bears some liability here, just not around they issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

I do feel for this family, and it IS horrible. But I don't see why that means MCPS or MoCo should pay them. Lots of horrible tragedies happen all the time. Would you say that the owner of the physical location where anyone is shot/assaulted/murdered should pay the victim's family?

Are you saying MCPS is essentially just a landlord and anything that happens within the walls of the school is none of their responsibility? If anyone hurt your child at school, you wouldn’t be upset with the adults in that school for failing to intervene and protect your child? No, I do not think a random landlord is responsible in the example you gave, and I think suing the county council is a bit of a reach.

No, I am not saying that they are not responsible for *anything* that happens within their walls.
Yes, I would be upset with anyone and everyone who could have done a single thing to stop it. (Interesting that you say "the adults in the school". You want to sue the teachers and administration personally?)

But what I am saying is that they don't have liability for anything wrong that happens within that school. If in the middle of class one kid punches the other out of nowhere, should anybody other than the assailant pay any money? If a child overdoses in the bathroom, is the school responsible? If a child gets injured during gym class or sports, is the school responsible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

I do feel for this family, and it IS horrible. But I don't see why that means MCPS or MoCo should pay them. Lots of horrible tragedies happen all the time. Would you say that the owner of the physical location where anyone is shot/assaulted/murdered should pay the victim's family?

Are you saying MCPS is essentially just a landlord and anything that happens within the walls of the school is none of their responsibility? If anyone hurt your child at school, you wouldn’t be upset with the adults in that school for failing to intervene and protect your child? No, I do not think a random landlord is responsible in the example you gave, and I think suing the county council is a bit of a reach.

No, I am not saying that they are not responsible for *anything* that happens within their walls.
Yes, I would be upset with anyone and everyone who could have done a single thing to stop it. (Interesting that you say "the adults in the school". You want to sue the teachers and administration personally?)

But what I am saying is that they don't have liability for anything wrong that happens within that school. If in the middle of class one kid punches the other out of nowhere, should anybody other than the assailant pay any money? If a child overdoses in the bathroom, is the school responsible? If a child gets injured during gym class or sports, is the school responsible?

PP here, and I should add- I do think there are times when a school can be liable for negligence. But in this case I don't see where the school did, or failed to do, anything that would have prevented this shooting.

I guess, or course, there is always something that could be done- metal detectors, monitors ensuring only one child in a bathroom at a time, pat downs, etc. But everything, including physical safety, is a cost benefit analysis....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

DP.

The teen victim here survived. The shooter will be a ward of the state (and will cost the state) every day for the next 2 decades, at least.

Now, our kids’ school system (or the state of Maryland in some fashion) is likely to be several million dollars poorer, because they have to pay the victims family.

Isn’t the better solution here to restore the SROs, who protect our children, and are favored by every principal unanimously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

DP.

The teen victim here survived. The shooter will be a ward of the state (and will cost the state) every day for the next 2 decades, at least.

Now, our kids’ school system (or the state of Maryland in some fashion) is likely to be several million dollars poorer, because they have to pay the victims family.

Isn’t the better solution here to restore the SROs, who protect our children, and are favored by every principal unanimously?

Whether the district restores the SROs will actually have no bearing on whether the family wins their lawsuit or not. And as has been stated multiple times in this thread, SROs are one of those symbolic actions that make parents think their kids are safer but actually make things worse. So no, MCPS should definitely not restore the program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

DP.

The teen victim here survived. The shooter will be a ward of the state (and will cost the state) every day for the next 2 decades, at least.

Now, our kids’ school system (or the state of Maryland in some fashion) is likely to be several million dollars poorer, because they have to pay the victims family.

Isn’t the better solution here to restore the SROs, who protect our children, and are favored by every principal unanimously?

Whether the district restores the SROs will actually have no bearing on whether the family wins their lawsuit or not. And as has been stated multiple times in this thread, SROs are one of those symbolic actions that make parents think their kids are safer but actually make things worse. So no, MCPS should definitely not restore the program

Incorrect.

SROs help in a multitude of ways, which is why the people with the greatest experience (principals) all want the SROs restored unanimously.

PP - you can keep stating, “multiple times in this thread” that SROs somehow make things worse but that does not make your claim true.

I’m going to believe the principals over you, anonymous-internet person.

Restore the SROs to keep our kids safe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this navel gazing is relevant. The family is suing whatever entity has money with whatever reason the attorneys felt had legal teeth so the family can get a payout. That’s it. If the shooter had come from a wealthy family they’d be suing them, too, but they’re not. My heart goes out to the victim and his family and I hope they get every penny they seek. Because at my core, I know in an emergency, all students are only as safe as they are lucky. Not just in schools but literally everywhere with our gun violence problem in this country.

I agree with almost everything you said, except the bolded.

Why do you think they should get every penny that they seek?

Because it is a living nightmare to have this happen to your child and no one from MCPS ever reached out to the mother to check on her son! Literally horrifying. He was supposed to be safely in the care of his school, protected by MCPS employees (adults) following MCPS procedures (which they screwed up). He will have lifelong injuries, has had expensive medical care, tremendous pain, suffering and trauma, plus the impact this has had on his family. If a payment can ease even a small amount of their suffering and expenses, I hope they can get what they seek.

DP.

The teen victim here survived. The shooter will be a ward of the state (and will cost the state) every day for the next 2 decades, at least.

Now, our kids’ school system (or the state of Maryland in some fashion) is likely to be several million dollars poorer, because they have to pay the victims family.

Isn’t the better solution here to restore the SROs, who protect our children, and are favored by every principal unanimously?

Whether the district restores the SROs will actually have no bearing on whether the family wins their lawsuit or not. And as has been stated multiple times in this thread, SROs are one of those symbolic actions that make parents think their kids are safer but actually make things worse. So no, MCPS should definitely not restore the program

Incorrect.

SROs help in a multitude of ways, which is why the people with the greatest experience (principals) all want the SROs restored unanimously.

PP - you can keep stating, “multiple times in this thread” that SROs somehow make things worse but that does not make your claim true.

I’m going to believe the principals over you, anonymous-internet person.

Restore the SROs to keep our kids safe!

Principals want more resources in the schools however they can possibly get them.
An SRO would not have prevented what happened here.
Where is your evidence that SROs demonstrably make schools safer?

[Anonymous]

My crystal ball says an SRO would have prevented this tragedy. Yours says otherwise. The truth is, we'll never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My crystal ball says an SRO would have prevented this tragedy. Yours says otherwise. The truth is, we'll never know.

An SRO has never prevented a tragedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My crystal ball says an SRO would have prevented this tragedy. Yours says otherwise. The truth is, we'll never know.

An SRO has never prevented a tragedy.

Wrong. I’m a high school teacher who has witnessed a tragedy being averted by an SRO. I had a student with a huge knife, which he brought to school to threaten/hurt another. The SRO talked him down and retrieved the knife.

So yes, it happens. We just don’t advertise it when it does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do businesses hire off-duty police if they are useless then? I've seen them at nightclubs and at some stores (for example Apple store in Bethesda).

Based on what I've read here about SROs in MCPS, having a police officer on site is no deterrent, and has no affect on safety. I guess all those businesses are just wasting their money!

1. Actually, most security guards at retail establishments are ineffective.
2. Retail establishments hire security guards to prevent theft, not protect people. Not at all the same thing.

It’s certainly not stopping shootings at stores.