Is Rockville High a dangerous school? (question for parents of kids at RHS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior at Rockville. We’ve been really happy with the school. He keeps out of trouble in general and has a good group of friends who are all engaged with classes. He really does not talk about fights or things that make him feel unsafe and the gossip I heard his first two years in high school was pretty benign (and I heard a lot driving carpools). After a mediocre experience at Wood we’ve been really pleasantly surprised. It’s totally possible that there are some rougher groups within the school, but it’s a small school with a decent sense of community and I don’t worry about him at all there. He’s had some great teachers as well.

+1

Rockville is definitely hit or miss when it comes to the environment and security team as my kid stated when he graduated there a few years ago. He despised Wood but going to Rockville was a breath of fresh air for him. Carpools have recently started to surge in the school recently and my kid never had any problems with the security despite how nitpick the security is for the most part. Rockville isn't dangerous at all but I can see where people could be concerned.

What does carpool surges and nit-pick security mean?

[Anonymous]

If people say Wood is bad, then JW must be pretty bad since it's the only middle school in the RM cluster.

[Anonymous]

A bit late, but here's the 21-22 Safety and Security Report at RHS which is the most recent one.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/SafetyGlance/currentyear/schools/04230.pdf

8 incidents of fighting happened at the school during the year, and 4 incidents involving attacks. Also, 16 students during the year get suspended with a few more female students likely to be more suspended than a male student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids there right now and I feel perfectly safe sending them there. It’s a small school and the principal really seems to care about them.

There’s a football game going on right now—since you’re in the cluster you should go and check out the scene! The band will play, the Poms will dance, the cheerleaders doing their cheers. The student section cheering. A lot of parents in the community go to the games. Little siblings walk back and forth to get snacks.

I disagree with the principal part, most say she's really nice but I've heard a lot about her bad side.

As a Rockville parent for 3 years, I truly haven’t heard anything bad. What have you heard? I know that people have differing opinions, of course, but I’m surprised that you’ve heard from a lot of people that she has a bad side.

She cancelled the homecoming dance last year about an hour early because students were consuming on alcoholic drinks and the security wasn't aware, and she didn't even notify or warn the school about the incident, and I think the same think happened with last year's prom and this year's homecoming.

+ she is a bit aggressive on most days especially with some kids.

She did stop the homecoming dance an hour early because kids were drunk and puking in the bathrooms and there was also crowd surfing and the kids wouldn’t listen to the security guards.

I did not hear that about last years prom or this years homecoming. Just that one time, homecoming last year.

My kids are the type to share their strong opinions about the adults in the building and neither have said she’s aggressive. In fact their biggest annoyance with her is that she calls her students her “babies.” I don’t mind it; I feel like she’s telling them she’s going to take care of them. But I know it rubs some people the wrong way.

My kid said the same thing about calling her students her "babies". While I see nothing wrong with it, my kid said it just felt so weirdly uncomfortable and unsettling. It just doesn't sound right if you think about it. I take the blame on the aggressiveness on the security more than the principal.

Psst, most of her aggressive side comes with the parents, not the kids. Either way, she does a pretty bad job with contacts and the same with the main office if you are a parent of a kid at Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Those are just the numbers that got reported. I wonder how many were swept under the rug. They get teachers to fear retaliation for their jobs if they report. New teachers are commonly labeled as ineffective if they have students who fight. It's always blamed on the teachers who have no support

[Anonymous]

I graduated from the school back in 2005, and I’m not surprised the school has changed based on the recent posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I graduated from the school back in 2005, and I’m not surprised the school has changed based on the recent posts.

Whoops, meant the school hasn’t changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a bit curious, but why do so many posters in this thread think wood is a bad middle school? My son is an 8th grader at Wood and he hasn't seen a lot of bad experiences with the school. Any reasons to why?

I’m an earlier poster. Both my kids did fine at Wood but there wasn’t anything great about the experience. I don’t know how much that’s the environment at Wood itself or just that middle school is a tough time. Both kind of sailed through academically and stayed out of trouble, but I’m friends with a few parents whose kids struggled. When DS started at Rockville it did seem like a breath of fresh air (and I’m not the poster who originally wrote that) - he was excited to actually be learning things in classes, enjoyed sports team, became more involved socially, got engaged in new activities. He does complain a bit that it’s the same old group of kids he’s been with since 6th grades, but for a kid who was eager to apply out of the cluster in 8th grade, it’s a nice surprise to see him so happy where he is.

I would say to have the Rockville HS community a bit larger in terms of the boundary updates regarding Crown HS, have some portions of the Wheaton cluster change so that their students instead will attend Rockville (specifically for the households that are zoned for the Brookhaven ES), as well as a small portion of the Magruder cluster that's right up north from the ICC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a bit curious, but why do so many posters in this thread think wood is a bad middle school? My son is an 8th grader at Wood and he hasn't seen a lot of bad experiences with the school. Any reasons to why?

I’m an earlier poster. Both my kids did fine at Wood but there wasn’t anything great about the experience. I don’t know how much that’s the environment at Wood itself or just that middle school is a tough time. Both kind of sailed through academically and stayed out of trouble, but I’m friends with a few parents whose kids struggled. When DS started at Rockville it did seem like a breath of fresh air (and I’m not the poster who originally wrote that) - he was excited to actually be learning things in classes, enjoyed sports team, became more involved socially, got engaged in new activities. He does complain a bit that it’s the same old group of kids he’s been with since 6th grades, but for a kid who was eager to apply out of the cluster in 8th grade, it’s a nice surprise to see him so happy where he is.

I would say to have the Rockville HS community a bit larger in terms of the boundary updates regarding Crown HS, have some portions of the Wheaton cluster change so that their students instead will attend Rockville (specifically for the households that are zoned for the Brookhaven ES), as well as a small portion of the Magruder cluster that's right up north from the ICC.

Crown boundary analysis does not include Rockville HS, I don't think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a bit curious, but why do so many posters in this thread think wood is a bad middle school? My son is an 8th grader at Wood and he hasn't seen a lot of bad experiences with the school. Any reasons to why?

I’m an earlier poster. Both my kids did fine at Wood but there wasn’t anything great about the experience. I don’t know how much that’s the environment at Wood itself or just that middle school is a tough time. Both kind of sailed through academically and stayed out of trouble, but I’m friends with a few parents whose kids struggled. When DS started at Rockville it did seem like a breath of fresh air (and I’m not the poster who originally wrote that) - he was excited to actually be learning things in classes, enjoyed sports team, became more involved socially, got engaged in new activities. He does complain a bit that it’s the same old group of kids he’s been with since 6th grades, but for a kid who was eager to apply out of the cluster in 8th grade, it’s a nice surprise to see him so happy where he is.

I would say to have the Rockville HS community a bit larger in terms of the boundary updates regarding Crown HS, have some portions of the Wheaton cluster change so that their students instead will attend Rockville (specifically for the households that are zoned for the Brookhaven ES), as well as a small portion of the Magruder cluster that's right up north from the ICC.

Crown boundary analysis does not include Rockville HS, I don't think.

It's not, and that's what I'm saying. The Rockville HS cluster is somehow lucky that they've avoided boundary changes and I think cluster needs boundary changes. Basically saying, because of the school's small size, they should overgo some boundary changes. I'm not sure if the schools capacity size has already reached the limit, but I found a source that shows the capacity and projected capacity size for the entire school cluster.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP26_Chapter4Rockville.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a bit curious, but why do so many posters in this thread think wood is a bad middle school? My son is an 8th grader at Wood and he hasn't seen a lot of bad experiences with the school. Any reasons to why?

I’m an earlier poster. Both my kids did fine at Wood but there wasn’t anything great about the experience. I don’t know how much that’s the environment at Wood itself or just that middle school is a tough time. Both kind of sailed through academically and stayed out of trouble, but I’m friends with a few parents whose kids struggled. When DS started at Rockville it did seem like a breath of fresh air (and I’m not the poster who originally wrote that) - he was excited to actually be learning things in classes, enjoyed sports team, became more involved socially, got engaged in new activities. He does complain a bit that it’s the same old group of kids he’s been with since 6th grades, but for a kid who was eager to apply out of the cluster in 8th grade, it’s a nice surprise to see him so happy where he is.

I would say to have the Rockville HS community a bit larger in terms of the boundary updates regarding Crown HS, have some portions of the Wheaton cluster change so that their students instead will attend Rockville (specifically for the households that are zoned for the Brookhaven ES), as well as a small portion of the Magruder cluster that's right up north from the ICC.

Crown boundary analysis does not include Rockville HS, I don't think.

It's not, and that's what I'm saying. The Rockville HS cluster is somehow lucky that they've avoided boundary changes and I think cluster needs boundary changes. Basically saying, because of the school's small size, they should overgo some boundary changes. I'm not sure if the schools capacity size has already reached the limit, but I found a source that shows the capacity and projected capacity size for the entire school cluster.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP26_Chapter4Rockville.pdf

I think the school would need some updating if it were to accept a considerable increase in student body. It’s not one that has had a recent renovation

[Anonymous]

Considering these previous posts about parents and their kids negative experiences with Wood, I'd want OP to post a thread for parents to post about their kids experience at Wood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS in general is doing a terrible job with safety and security. I don't dispute there are probably some concerning incidents overall that have happened at Rockville High School, but it's definitely not one of the worst in MCPS.

Agree with this. We know families all over the county and safety is an issue at all high schools. MCPS likes to sweep things under the rug (like they tried to do with the Rockville HS rape case and the Damascus rape case). Admin is somewhat powerless when it comes to discipline students. Not enough security staff. It’s a combination of factors.

Rockville is no better or worse than any other school.

I disagree with this. They are not all the same. Wootton is better than Rockville which is better than Northwest. (Just using examples of high schools I am familiar with)

Sorry, while test scores may be better at some schools due to socio economic status in the neighborhoods, there are issues at all the schools. I recall some post-football game brawls from BCC, a better ranked school than Rockville. WJ students are periodically banned from their open lunch stores because of bad behavior. Racist incidents at Wooton in June. Vaping problems at all the schools. Rich kids can afford more drugs

Hope this paragraph makes you feel better about your school. Far reaching boundaries at schools....

This paragraph was meant to make the OP feel better about RHS. It’s the truth that there are issues at all schools. RHS is hardly a dangerous school where you should be worried about sending your child.

Yep, these agitators post hype every year but reality is there has been a single gang incident in well over a decade.

There'll be 13 year-old wanna be gangsters in a middle school...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a bit curious, but why do so many posters in this thread think wood is a bad middle school? My son is an 8th grader at Wood and he hasn't seen a lot of bad experiences with the school. Any reasons to why?

I’m an earlier poster. Both my kids did fine at Wood but there wasn’t anything great about the experience. I don’t know how much that’s the environment at Wood itself or just that middle school is a tough time. Both kind of sailed through academically and stayed out of trouble, but I’m friends with a few parents whose kids struggled. When DS started at Rockville it did seem like a breath of fresh air (and I’m not the poster who originally wrote that) - he was excited to actually be learning things in classes, enjoyed sports team, became more involved socially, got engaged in new activities. He does complain a bit that it’s the same old group of kids he’s been with since 6th grades, but for a kid who was eager to apply out of the cluster in 8th grade, it’s a nice surprise to see him so happy where he is.

I would say to have the Rockville HS community a bit larger in terms of the boundary updates regarding Crown HS, have some portions of the Wheaton cluster change so that their students instead will attend Rockville (specifically for the households that are zoned for the Brookhaven ES), as well as a small portion of the Magruder cluster that's right up north from the ICC.

Crown boundary analysis does not include Rockville HS, I don't think.

It's not, and that's what I'm saying. The Rockville HS cluster is somehow lucky that they've avoided boundary changes and I think cluster needs boundary changes. Basically saying, because of the school's small size, they should overgo some boundary changes. I'm not sure if the schools capacity size has already reached the limit, but I found a source that shows the capacity and projected capacity size for the entire school cluster.

https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP26_Chapter4Rockville.pdf

I think the school would need some updating if it were to accept a considerable increase in student body. It’s not one that has had a recent renovation

RHS had a major renovation in 2004, which would be considered recent compared to many other schools in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A bit late, but here's the 21-22 Safety and Security Report at RHS which is the most recent one.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/regulatoryaccountability/SafetyGlance/currentyear/schools/04230.pdf

8 incidents of fighting happened at the school during the year, and 4 incidents involving attacks. Also, 16 students during the year get suspended with a few more female students likely to be more suspended than a male student.

I don’t really trust these. Lots of incidents get swept under the rug. Plenty of issues go unreported.