Violent Fight at Magruder HS

[Anonymous]

It's sad and painful to watch. Just going to try to talk to my son and let him know that it is never a good idea to fight and that you are not a snitch for getting help when you see others fighting. Hopefully, full and speedy recoveries.

[Anonymous]

It looks to me like the one with the head injury is the one who picked up the other kid and slammed him down - like he miscalculated and whacked his head on the way down. Am I seeimg this right?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you call 911 before doing anything else - you ask for ambulance AND police. All middle and high schoolers should be told to do this.

That is the reality of all institutions - they are well-meaning, but have so many rules and regulations, that care for the people in their charge gets lost in the shuffle.

[Anonymous]

The school resource officer is there, so MoCo police are involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks to me like the one with the head injury is the one who picked up the other kid and slammed him down - like he miscalculated and whacked his head on the way down. Am I seeimg this right?

FWIW, I agree. The kid who seems to have hit his head the hardest is the kid who was trying to flip the other one. Which makes sense because the front of your head (where he hit) is more vulnerable than the back of the head (where the other kid hit).

Honestly, this could happen anywhere, "even" at a W school. Both kids involved were white, to all appearances it was a fight between two young highschoolers rather than being rival groups. I saw the same at my own public high school back in the mid-90s, and no one would have said that was a troubled school or a difficult student body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This kid should get an appropriate private school placement now, paid for by MCPS. Somewhere where he will be safe. Of course many kids should be getting that - explain to me again why we don’t have charter schools here?

Has the kid who beat him been arrested or is he at school beating up other kids??

Because they're not a good use of public money.

Don't kids in private schools get in fights? If they do, what does the private school do?

Is the issue here that two ninth grade boys got into a fight?
Or that it was allowed to go on so long before an adult intervened?
Or that the school chose to tell the mother when she arrived an hour later to take injured kid to an ER rather than call ambulance directly?
MCPS principals don’t like to call police or ambulances, because it shows up in their school report as an incident. Perhaps MCPS needs to review their policies so that there isn’t an incentive for principals to avoid calling for help. In a school with few incidents, a principal can afford to call an ambulance or police. In a school where it happens a lot more, the principal is feeling pressure to get those incidents down.

This is the part that I would really like to know if it's based on facts. THe other day, our ES called for an ambulance because a young kid had a health incident in the cafeteria. How does the school determine if they should call for an ambulance? What is their protocol? Seriously wondering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at an elementary school and we had more than one physical fight last week (2 on the same day). Yes, elementary school. OSSI wouldn’t allow suspension because a weapon wasn’t involved. Kids have been able to get away with way too much due to lack of consequences because the student code of conduct is written that way. Administrators are too spineless to push back. They don’t want their numbers to look bad. The people at OSSI need to physically be in schools to see firsthand what’s going on.

The people who developed the student code of conduct need to get out of their ivory tower and see what we’re seeing. Once kids realize they can get away with behaviors then the behaviors escalate until we have the current situation. It’s a perfect storm of no consequences and spineless admin and the teachers are expected to work miracles with kids who know they can get away with anything, and then once other kids see that then game on.

Teachers are leaving my school in droves next year. Maybe that will actually catch the eye of central office since teachers’ accounts of what’s really going on in schools certainly haven’t.

We are at an ES that has had several fights this year. Same situation. None of the students can be suspended. Kids know there are few (if any) consequences, and the bad behavior continues. Too much of a focus on PBIS, and not enough on punishing kids who behave badly.

Agree with the other PP that there is pressure to NOT report things. Principals don't want it to reflect poorly on their schools, so they pretend incidents are less important than they may be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at an elementary school and we had more than one physical fight last week (2 on the same day). Yes, elementary school. OSSI wouldn’t allow suspension because a weapon wasn’t involved. Kids have been able to get away with way too much due to lack of consequences because the student code of conduct is written that way. Administrators are too spineless to push back. They don’t want their numbers to look bad. The people at OSSI need to physically be in schools to see firsthand what’s going on.

The people who developed the student code of conduct need to get out of their ivory tower and see what we’re seeing. Once kids realize they can get away with behaviors then the behaviors escalate until we have the current situation. It’s a perfect storm of no consequences and spineless admin and the teachers are expected to work miracles with kids who know they can get away with anything, and then once other kids see that then game on.

Teachers are leaving my school in droves next year. Maybe that will actually catch the eye of central office since teachers’ accounts of what’s really going on in schools certainly haven’t.

We are at an ES that has had several fights this year. Same situation. None of the students can be suspended. Kids know there are few (if any) consequences, and the bad behavior continues. Too much of a focus on PBIS, and not enough on punishing kids who behave badly.

Agree with the other PP that there is pressure to NOT report things. Principals don't want it to reflect poorly on their schools, so they pretend incidents are less important than they may be.

sad thing is this - Teachers can leave all they want. It isn't better in other schools. Now, if they leave the profession altogether, that's another thing (and another societal issue as well that's too big to solve here).

[Anonymous]

Even if my kid didn't attend MHS, I would write to the BOE. Just b/c you don't hear of it happening at your school doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

lots of covering up . . .

This situation at MHS affects all kids, and every parent should be alarmed at how poorly it was handled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This kid should get an appropriate private school placement now, paid for by MCPS. Somewhere where he will be safe. Of course many kids should be getting that - explain to me again why we don’t have charter schools here?

Has the kid who beat him been arrested or is he at school beating up other kids??

Because they're not a good use of public money.

Don't kids in private schools get in fights? If they do, what does the private school do?

Is the issue here that two ninth grade boys got into a fight?
Or that it was allowed to go on so long before an adult intervened?
Or that the school chose to tell the mother when she arrived an hour later to take injured kid to an ER rather than call ambulance directly?
MCPS principals don’t like to call police or ambulances, because it shows up in their school report as an incident. Perhaps MCPS needs to review their policies so that there isn’t an incentive for principals to avoid calling for help. In a school with few incidents, a principal can afford to call an ambulance or police. In a school where it happens a lot more, the principal is feeling pressure to get those incidents down.

This is the part that I would really like to know if it's based on facts. THe other day, our ES called for an ambulance because a young kid had a health incident in the cafeteria. How does the school determine if they should call for an ambulance? What is their protocol? Seriously wondering.

Was it related to an allergy? Children with allergies generally have a written plan approved by a nurse (not just a health tech) from the district. It's usually really clear on when to call an ambulance. It will say if the child has these and these symptoms give a Benadryl. If it gets worse and it's that and that administer an Epi-Pen and call 911. There's little ambiguity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks to me like the one with the head injury is the one who picked up the other kid and slammed him down - like he miscalculated and whacked his head on the way down. Am I seeimg this right?

FWIW, I agree. The kid who seems to have hit his head the hardest is the kid who was trying to flip the other one. Which makes sense because the front of your head (where he hit) is more vulnerable than the back of the head (where the other kid hit).

Honestly, this could happen anywhere, "even" at a W school. Both kids involved were white, to all appearances it was a fight between two young highschoolers rather than being rival groups. I saw the same at my own public high school back in the mid-90s, and no one would have said that was a troubled school or a difficult student body.

I'm not a doctor but isn't a hit to the back of the head more dangerous? I thought that if you get hit in a certain part there it can cause the area of the skull diagonally across in the front near the eyes to fracture (contrecoup fracture).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if my kid didn't attend MHS, I would write to the BOE. Just b/c you don't hear of it happening at your school doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

lots of covering up . . .

This situation at MHS affects all kids, and every parent should be alarmed at how poorly it was handled.

I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school resource officer is there, so MoCo police are involved.

Resource officer was out sick yesterday per ABC7 news report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if my kid didn't attend MHS, I would write to the BOE. Just b/c you don't hear of it happening at your school doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

lots of covering up . . .

This situation at MHS affects all kids, and every parent should be alarmed at how poorly it was handled.

MCPS thrives on a culture of covering up! That has been very apparent to parents over the past decade.

[Anonymous]

So many potential lawsuits. Horrific.