Violence in Kindergarten- Sligo Creek Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No dog in this fight, but what do you want the school to actually do? If the parents don't agree their child is special ed/or has mental health issues, the school has to legally give that child an education, and can't just yank them out of class.

And, I agree it's a huge problem. I just don't know what the solution is

I don’t care if the parents of the violent child agree or not. MCPS has programs for children with emotional disabilities. They have great teacher-student ratios and the staff know what they’ve signed up for. The child will get an education. The school should transfer him tomorrow.

This or at least suspend the kid. Make it the parents problem too. Not everyone can be held hostage to an out of control kid just bc the parents don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is sad.

So many factors cause this. Five year-olds are generally too young to sit in a classroom all day. How much recess time do these kids get?

I am 41 and when I was growing up, public kindergarten was a half day. You got AM or PM along lots of free time and recess. School is too long for the children and for these hardworking teachers.

Oh please. Kids may be antsy from sitting too much but not violent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years ago we had a kindergarten teacher, upcounty, who got hit by a student, and suffered permanent brain damage. She went on long-term disability but then left the school system soon after. It happens.

What the heck? How are five year olds that strong?

Six years and two principals ago, a kindergartener at the same school did something that broke a teacher's leg (I'm unfamiliar with the current incident, so I don't know if the same K teacher was involved). A long-term sub was needed for a few months; one of the parents filled in.

Thankfully, the teacher was able to return. The student was moved (uncertain where), but the issue should have been addressed earlier, as there had been several earlier reports of that child's sometimes violent behavior.

I think this is less about a particular school and more about the system, though administrations at one school or other may be more adept in their handling of incidents. RJ, IEPs, etc., are important individual and societal goods when employed correctly. That doesn't mean a lack of consequence, and it shouldn't mean countervailing action out of a concern for social optics. It also shouldn't have to get to the point of serious medical attention, whether for a broken major bone or a head wound with a concussion, before protections kick in that remove the child from class, and reasonable return conditions should be set.

Safety has to trump accommodation when the two are in great conflict, and there needs to be situation-conditioned allowance of immediate temporary relief while processes (e.g., IEP and associated staffing) play out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our lovely elementary school has seen an uptick in violence by kids in kindergarten. A small number of students are doing most of it, but there seems to be a generally high level of violent amongst many of the kids.

Yes I know- these are 5/6 year olds but things are getting crazy and the principal seems to do nothing about it.

So far we have had kids knocked out cold, kids getting punched in the face/ hurt regularly. One kindergarten teacher (1st year teacher) quit suddenly and today another teacher was hurt so badly when a kindergartener throw a water bottle at her she had to go to hospital with a bleeding wound.

The violence is traumatizing our kids. I am worried more teachers will quit. All kids are behind in reading and math!!

Is anything we can do to pressure the principal to get help for the violent kids? At what point do they get excluded or sent to another school which can handle them?

Vote out the board of Education. All of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is sad.

So many factors cause this. Five year-olds are generally too young to sit in a classroom all day. How much recess time do these kids get?

I am 41 and when I was growing up, public kindergarten was a half day. You got AM or PM along lots of free time and recess. School is too long for the children and for these hardworking teachers.

We've never had issues of significance OP is describing, but the issues we have had are all worse at recess. The staffing issues are so bad for recess monitors, and the ones they can get are mostly checked out. We've been playing a bit of a whack-a-mole with bullying this year for our second grader, and it's all been at recess. To its credit the school has been good at responding and we've been able to get them all under control, but we'd need to overhaul recess significantly to make more recess a solution, in my eyes.

+1. I have heard so many complaints about recess and lunch monitoring. These issues are not ones that schools are going to be able to fix without significant influxes of cash to be able to offer greater salaries to people. The is the realization of the U.S. relying on volunteer support instead of making the necessary dramatics changes to our social structure to allow for meaningful action and support for families.

MCPS lunch and recess is like lord of the flies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the students ignore the parent volunteers. They might as well not be there, though having an extra warm body is always welcome. But the problem is are you willing to get hurt on a volunteer basis?

I think parent volunteers can be effective, but, they should not be brought in to help with a child that has significant behaviors. Teachers have a hard time dealing with this. No parent volunteer is going to be able to help in these kinds of situations.

[Anonymous]

We had issues with the SCES principal last year for a different issue and she was awful to work with—gaslighting, offering empty solutions that sounded good but in reality did nothing, miscommunications galore. Eventually a group of parents in the class went above her head to complain to her supervisor. It was a well organized effort with more than a dozen parents behind it, and the issue was resolved within days of going over the principal’s head. I would recommend the K parents begin organizing and advocating in a similar way to get the kid removed or get a full time aid placed with him/her at all times. I can’t emphasize this enough: the principal will not do it on her own. You need to go above her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had issues with the SCES principal last year for a different issue and she was awful to work with—gaslighting, offering empty solutions that sounded good but in reality did nothing, miscommunications galore. Eventually a group of parents in the class went above her head to complain to her supervisor. It was a well organized effort with more than a dozen parents behind it, and the issue was resolved within days of going over the principal’s head. I would recommend the K parents begin organizing and advocating in a similar way to get the kid removed or get a full time aid placed with him/her at all times. I can’t emphasize this enough: the principal will not do it on her own. You need to go above her.

There is no real going over the principal's head in this matter. There is a process to follow for this kid to get accommodations or be moved to a different program. Going over the principal's head isn't going to speed it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years ago we had a kindergarten teacher, upcounty, who got hit by a student, and suffered permanent brain damage. She went on long-term disability but then left the school system soon after. It happens.

What the heck? How are five year olds that strong?

Six years and two principals ago, a kindergartener at the same school did something that broke a teacher's leg (I'm unfamiliar with the current incident, so I don't know if the same K teacher was involved). A long-term sub was needed for a few months; one of the parents filled in.

Thankfully, the teacher was able to return. The student was moved (uncertain where), but the issue should have been addressed earlier, as there had been several earlier reports of that child's sometimes violent behavior.

I think this is less about a particular school and more about the system, though administrations at one school or other may be more adept in their handling of incidents. RJ, IEPs, etc., are important individual and societal goods when employed correctly. That doesn't mean a lack of consequence, and it shouldn't mean countervailing action out of a concern for social optics. It also shouldn't have to get to the point of serious medical attention, whether for a broken major bone or a head wound with a concussion, before protections kick in that remove the child from class, and reasonable return conditions should be set.

Safety has to trump accommodation when the two are in great conflict, and there needs to be situation-conditioned allowance of immediate temporary relief while processes (e.g., IEP and associated staffing) play out.

I don't think this is about the school because we also have a child at SCES and haven't heard anything about recess violence or violence in class (granted, our DC is older). But if you are part of the school community you probably saw the many emails from PTA begging for more parent volunteers at recess. If you can take the time to do it, even for just one day, please do. Obviously, your job is not to intervene in fights, and some kids will act out regardless, but it is definitely helpful to simply have more adults present. For example, there was an issue with recess soccer games getting out of hand but some parents have stepped up to help "referee." They are just really, really understaffed and cannot possibly be everywhere at once on the recess field.

I mean, pull your kid out of the school if you want - but SCES is really a very good school with an amazing parent community, and other MCPS elementary schools likely have similar issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a hard time believing this is true, but if it is, contact the local media to run a story and put pressure on the school/district.

Out of curiosity, what do you think is not true? Why would someone lie about this?

Teachers keep saying it. Parents keep saying it. It's been widely spread that aggression is out of control throughout the country. Yet, some parents keep denying it. Why? What do you get out of not believing people? When you do that, it allows MCPS, and truly all schools, from being pressured into making lasting change. Just because you yourself have not experienced it, you should not belittle the experiences of others.

Not necessarily disputing that the incidents happened, but OP also threw in "All kids are behind in reading and math!", which is patently not true and unfortunately lends an air of exaggeration to the entire post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in K at Sligo. The first year teacher who quit in OP told the kids she was quitting bc of [named K student] and that she didn't feel like she couldn't keep the kids or herself safe. It was completely inappropriate, but it also sounds like she was desperate. Kids in her class had gotten concussions and black eyes.
Since the teacher left, the child who has had violent outburst was transferred to my kid's class. Today the class received an email from the Principal saying our child had witnessed a violent incident where a child hurt an adult. Our kid said that the child had taken a water bottle and thrown it at a teacher's head, sending her to the hospital. It's not good for the kids, the teachers or the kid who keeps acting out--he's obviously not getting the support he needs.

Sounds like CPS might need to be involved.

[Anonymous]

This is not true.
OP is a troll.
I just called the school and asked.
I then called multiple news orgs not one will has heard this either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not true.
OP is a troll.
I just called the school and asked.
I then called multiple news orgs not one will has heard this either.

Thank you. Now can this please be deleted before someone gets sued?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not true.
OP is a troll.
I just called the school and asked.
I then called multiple news orgs not one will has heard this either.

OP here- not sure why you are saying this. I believe it is true as my kids and multiple friends told me. I didn’t actually see the kids do anything but I am certain bad things are happening as I received an email from the principal.

Did you really make all these calls? Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Violence is not the correct word. These children are having extremely physical/emotional/violent tantrums. I still think a child like this needs to be pulled from their school asap. OP is making it sound like a war zone and it’s not.

Violence is absolutely the correct word. Just because they’re five or six-year-olds doesn’t mean it’s not. Somebody was asking about what kind of water bottle this would be. Any object that is thrown or that hits a head depending on the velocity or force, has the ability to open up and wound the skin. Especially if it’s on her face she would want to get stitches and maybe have a plastic surgeon to her so that she does not have a scar.