Violent Fight at Magruder HS

[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?

I’m not seeing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

The back of the head is more dangerous, but better protected as a result. From the video, it seems that the boy who hit the back of his head didn't land head first, but the kid who flipped him down did land head first because both of his hands were on the kid being flipped.

[Anonymous]

I saw this on the news last night and was shocked that an ambulance wasn't called. I've worked in MCPS elementary schools for years, and every school I've been in has acted with an abundance of caution when it comes to possible head injuries. The same should hold true for middle and high schools. I have to wonder if the student conveyed to the health tech that his head was slammed during the fight; if he did, at the very least there should have been a call to 911.

[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.

There should be an on sitecschool nurse responsible for this but do MCPS schools have full time nurses?

[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.

Which ES has fights??
Who would buy a house here so that they could enroll their kids in this school system?

[Anonymous]

All HSs have fights. It’s not an exclusive MCPS issue.

An ambulance should have been called, but in and of itself, fighting is not unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Which ES has fights??
Who would buy a house here so that they could enroll their kids in this school system?

PP, not everybody lives in a house, and not everybody is a homeowner.

[Anonymous]

All elementary schools have fights, even the rich ones. Try volunteering at your child's school and you'll be surprised at what you see.

Do you have a girl?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Resource officer was out sick yesterday per ABC7 news report.

Resource officers are employed by the Montgomery County Police Department. They can be reassigned and are not in schools 5 days a week. As ABC highlighted, there's no coverage if the resource officer is sick or on leave.

MCPS and MCPD really need to consider staffing issues so a full-time with back up Resource Officers can be assigned to every high school.

[Anonymous]

Of most importance - I hope the boy is able to make a recovery.

Of secondary importance - I hope Leroy Evans finally loses his job over this. He is an abomination. I don’t mean hidden in a cushy central office position either. I don’t want one penny of my taxes going to his salary anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All HSs have fights. It’s not an exclusive MCPS issue.

An ambulance should have been called, but in and of itself, fighting is not unusual.

I agree all high schools have fights. MCPS really needs to look hard at steps that can taken to improve student safety, decrease bullying, and improving every school’s climate.

[Anonymous]

All HSs have fights. It’s not an exclusive MCPS issue.

An ambulance should have been called, but in and of itself, fighting is not unusual.

All HSs have flights and most school systems unlike MCPS take action. MCPS protects itself not the students. This leads to more fights but again MCPS doesn't care unless it becomes public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All HSs have fights. It’s not an exclusive MCPS issue.

An ambulance should have been called, but in and of itself, fighting is not unusual.

All HSs have flights and most school systems unlike MCPS take action. MCPS protects itself not the students. This leads to more fights but again MCPS doesn't care unless it becomes public.

PP who you quoted. I agree 100%. MCPS cares about publicity. The fact that so many different HSs have been in the news this year is probably making their heads spin. It’s no longer two “bad” apples, it’s the whole lot.

[Anonymous]

I hope the Attorney General who is investigating MCPS athletics because of the Damascus rapes will broaden the county-wide investigation beyond athletics. The problems with bullying, hazing, harrasement, and assault spill over from climate issues with MCPS schools.

How can children feel safe and welcome to access educational opportunities if violence and hate is the norm? MCPS leadership should be ashamed and begin doing something to protect all students.

[Anonymous]

Which kid got a fractured skull? The one who was body slammed or the one doing the body slamming? To me, it looked like the one doing the body slamming overestimated his abilities and smashed his own head into the ground. Right after he does the body slam, he immediately covers his head and doesn't exchange more blows, which is why I believe it was he whose skull got fractured.

Either way, the fact that an ambulance wasn't called is insane to me. For a broke wrist or ankle? Eh, sure, but not a head injury! Heck, my kid got hit on the head during PE and was sent off to the ER in an ambulance even though he appeared fine and coherent.