Magruder HS Shooting

[Anonymous]

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Obviously we're on our way to reinstatement of SROs in schools, and thank goodness for that. I'll never understand people who wanted to defund police, etc. I'm all for left-wing policies, but only when they actually make sense. If you want to address racism in law enforcement, you make make police academies MORE selective, and you lure in smarter candidates with more attractive pay (same method if you want to increase teaching standards).The dumb people will never react well in crisis situations regardless of the training they get! You can't staff such positions with the poorly-paid and the ones without critical thinking skills, and then act surprised that they're incompetent.

Good luck achieving this with the police academies in the hands of the existing police force.

+1 To keep this close to home, look at the caes of the officers caught on camera abusing a 5 year-old child inside an MCPS school last year. No accountability. No repercussions. Nothing but a blue wall protecting bad cops from ever seeing their actions have consequences.

As long as the entire structure of policing continues to protect abusive cops, none of the changes listed above will ever happen. Except giving them more money, because rewarding abusive cops is the American Way (tm).

MCPD is filled with very good officers. It’s a strong police department. Yes, those two officers were in the wrong. Guess what? A lot of MCPD agrees. Instead of falling back on old arguments, I recommend you get to know current policing. Fortunately, there are a couple avenues through which you can do that. Request a ride-along. Attend the citizens’ academy. Instead of falling back on preconceived notions, get to know the department. They are out in the community and sponsor regular events.

There are good and bad employees in any workplace. I would say the good outweigh the bad in MCPD. SROs are the best of the best. Our SRO had been in our school for over a decade. She interacted with students to give them a smile. She knew students by name - not because they were in trouble but because she would take more time than the principal to have conversations with the students.

Yeah. I don’t want my kid interacting with police unless it is mandatory. I can see that you don’t understand it. You might reflect on the fact that your refusal to understand it is part of why there are no SROs in schools now.

I don't want my kid to interact with shooters in school.

Right, it comes down to whether kids can form a positive relationship with one SRO who is kid-friendly to begin with, or have their schools flooded with hundreds of SWAT like police with long guns searching for their fellow perpetrator student.

PREVENTION IS SO MUCH BETTER.

I don’t accept these as our only two options.

What? You don’t accept prevention as an option? What could be preferaable to prevention ?

I can’t tell whether you are actually not too bright or whether you are just so hell-bent on arguing for the presence of police in schools that you can’t see any other alternatives.

I do not accept that school just as it is now, plus or minus SROs, are our only options for prevention.

Go away troll.

Violence has risen since SROs were removed. Alexandria has reinstated them. PG kept them. Putting them back removes one more variable re the increase in school violence. An SRO would have been much more likely to handle the situation on Friday appropriately.

[Anonymous]

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McKnight wasn't working from home.

Where was she? The incident started at 1pm. She was late to a 4:45pm press conference.

We really do need to know this and I hope the media ask serious questions about her whereabouts.

She could have done the press conference remotely. There was no reason to hold students till she got there. Release the kids and have the conference when you have it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s silly people think an SRO would have stopped this.

well, we will never know now.

How many school shootings and/or arrest of a student who brought a gun to school has MCPS had, pre and post SRO removal?

What we KNOW is that a SRO would have drastically changed the response. The first 911 call was for a "community" officer for a school. It wasn't for an emergency police response for a school shooting. Precious time elapsed that allowed the shooter to hide in a classroom that was already in lockdown. Why was he allowed to enter that classroom after the lockdown?
An SRO would have locked the school down faster and trapped the shooter in the hall where he could have been apprehended instead of hiding.

I disagree wholeheartedly. These schools are huge. Unless the SRO was literally in the hallway it occurred in and happened to witness the event, they wouldn’t have known who it was or even what happened for several minutes. Obviously, teachers are trained to scan the hallway and collect all students they see before locking down so the shooter was probably pulled in by a teacher anyway. The way it played out may have gotten officers in the school a couple minutes quicker but the end result would have been the same. I am impressed that they maintained calm, found the student, and AVOIDED any more injuries. If they wouldn’t have been so careful, I believe the student would have been much more likely to freak out and turn the event into a mass shooting. I get it guys, we feel the natural need to criticize (cmon, you guys can’t really are about the color of people coats and ties, right?) because the kids we love the most are inside of those buildings. We NEED gun control NOW!

Your "probably" is not what happened.
Two hours to find a student with a gun inside a school wasn't being careful. The police thought the shooter had run out the door across the field. That's where they were looking first.

Holding the students hostage for 3 hours after the shooter was taken down and removed from the classroom is absurd. Students peeing in bottles was necessary because?????

Except for the nurse, the actions of those in charge do not inspire any confidence whatsoever. Withholding bathroom use from teachers and students for HOURS after the shooter was removed? Not releasing students to waiting parents for HOURS? Not treating the situation as though the shooter may still be on the premises? None of it makes sense.

This makes no sense. If the student identified the other student, they get that student and release the others. It shouldn't take hours and if it does, they should have brought in snacks/drinks and allowed bathroom use. They could have had police/adults escort kids to bathrooms.

And, why did it take so long to call an abundance?

The "slowed things down" statement reeked of CYA as to why the kid was allowed to potentially shoot others for 2 hours. Then after that arrest, there is no explanation. The students should have been released well before 6. Bathroom use should not have been withheld from teacher and students. This school had repeated recent threats, they should have been on top of their game re: safety response. What goal was achieved by peeing in bottled?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know where or how severely the student was shot? Hoping for speedy and full recovery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly people think an SRO would have stopped this.

well, we will never know now.

How many school shootings and/or arrest of a student who brought a gun to school has MCPS had, pre and post SRO removal?

What we KNOW is that a SRO would have drastically changed the response. The first 911 call was for a "community" officer for a school. It wasn't for an emergency police response for a school shooting. Precious time elapsed that allowed the shooter to hide in a classroom that was already in lockdown. Why was he allowed to enter that classroom after the lockdown?
An SRO would have locked the school down faster and trapped the shooter in the hall where he could have been apprehended instead of hiding.

I disagree wholeheartedly. These schools are huge. Unless the SRO was literally in the hallway it occurred in and happened to witness the event, they wouldn’t have known who it was or even what happened for several minutes. Obviously, teachers are trained to scan the hallway and collect all students they see before locking down so the shooter was probably pulled in by a teacher anyway. The way it played out may have gotten officers in the school a couple minutes quicker but the end result would have been the same. I am impressed that they maintained calm, found the student, and AVOIDED any more injuries. If they wouldn’t have been so careful, I believe the student would have been much more likely to freak out and turn the event into a mass shooting. I get it guys, we feel the natural need to criticize (cmon, you guys can’t really are about the color of people coats and ties, right?) because the kids we love the most are inside of those buildings. We NEED gun control NOW!

IMO, it's not just about whether an SRO in the school could have prevented the shooting that day but the overall need for adults to mentor and connect with kids to prevent incidents from escalating to the point where someone brings a gun to school to settle an argument.

DP here. The overall need for adults to mentor and connect with the kids is EXACTLY the reason why we need SROs back. Look at Seneca Valley and how the principal felt compelled to ask volunteer dads to do this very thing. Why doesn't the county value our students enough to pay for this? Why do we have to resort to volunteers to make up for this deficiency? I am sick and tired of these clueless idiots running this county and this school system.

PP here.. 100% agree with you. I'm just pointing out to the anti-SRO crowd that having SROs is NOT just about whether they could have prevented this incident. Maybe, maybe not. But, clearly, we need more adult mentors in these schools, and SROs can be part of that. It doesn't mean we can't have mental health counselors, volunteer dads, etc.. But SROs is part of the solution, and they are the only ones who are trained to deal with shooters and assess these kinds of risks.

PG county has a higher URM % than MCPS and chose to keep SROs in school, and they have a black county executive. There must be something positive about SROs that made PGCPS keep the SROs. Yet, in MCPS, at the direction of a woke white male, MCPS got rid of SROs. We are seeing a rise in violence, mostly in schools with a higher URM. Which group is now being more damaged by removing SROs?

Exactjy. I will say this over and over again. The people who run this county do not care about students or POC. They don't. Elrich who wanted SROs out is an old white man from Takoma Park who doesn't even have school aged kids. Jawando who was behind all this has a known grudge with law enforcement and he doesn't even feel like mcps is good enough for his kids considering that he sends them to a private school. On the other hand, every single HS principal..the people who know their students and communities the most begged to keep SROs. If the county cared, they would have listened to them.

[Anonymous]

^ bottles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is the police are the ones who slowed things down. They said there was not an active shooter situation, because they didn't want it to get out on social media that they were looking for the suspect, because they didn't want the suspect to start shooting more people. They also needed to collect evidence before it was all traded over. This one is not on MCPS for giving misinformation.

Wrong. Every hand in this was wrong.

You do not tell parents their children are safe when they are not.
They stated they thought he had left on foot and were looking for him outside.
They weren't playing 4-D chess with the shooters psyche. They were wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly people think an SRO would have stopped this.

well, we will never know now.

How many school shootings and/or arrest of a student who brought a gun to school has MCPS had, pre and post SRO removal?

What we KNOW is that a SRO would have drastically changed the response. The first 911 call was for a "community" officer for a school. It wasn't for an emergency police response for a school shooting. Precious time elapsed that allowed the shooter to hide in a classroom that was already in lockdown. Why was he allowed to enter that classroom after the lockdown?
An SRO would have locked the school down faster and trapped the shooter in the hall where he could have been apprehended instead of hiding.

I disagree wholeheartedly. These schools are huge. Unless the SRO was literally in the hallway it occurred in and happened to witness the event, they wouldn’t have known who it was or even what happened for several minutes. Obviously, teachers are trained to scan the hallway and collect all students they see before locking down so the shooter was probably pulled in by a teacher anyway. The way it played out may have gotten officers in the school a couple minutes quicker but the end result would have been the same. I am impressed that they maintained calm, found the student, and AVOIDED any more injuries. If they wouldn’t have been so careful, I believe the student would have been much more likely to freak out and turn the event into a mass shooting. I get it guys, we feel the natural need to criticize (cmon, you guys can’t really are about the color of people coats and ties, right?) because the kids we love the most are inside of those buildings. We NEED gun control NOW!

IMO, it's not just about whether an SRO in the school could have prevented the shooting that day but the overall need for adults to mentor and connect with kids to prevent incidents from escalating to the point where someone brings a gun to school to settle an argument.

DP here. The overall need for adults to mentor and connect with the kids is EXACTLY the reason why we need SROs back. Look at Seneca Valley and how the principal felt compelled to ask volunteer dads to do this very thing. Why doesn't the county value our students enough to pay for this? Why do we have to resort to volunteers to make up for this deficiency? I am sick and tired of these clueless idiots running this county and this school system.

PP here.. 100% agree with you. I'm just pointing out to the anti-SRO crowd that having SROs is NOT just about whether they could have prevented this incident. Maybe, maybe not. But, clearly, we need more adult mentors in these schools, and SROs can be part of that. It doesn't mean we can't have mental health counselors, volunteer dads, etc.. But SROs is part of the solution, and they are the only ones who are trained to deal with shooters and assess these kinds of risks.

PG county has a higher URM % than MCPS and chose to keep SROs in school, and they have a black county executive. There must be something positive about SROs that made PGCPS keep the SROs. Yet, in MCPS, at the direction of a woke white male, MCPS got rid of SROs. We are seeing a rise in violence, mostly in schools with a higher URM. Which group is now being more damaged by removing SROs?

Exactjy. I will say this over and over again. The people who run this county do not care about students or POC. They don't. Elrich who wanted SROs out is an old white man from Takoma Park who doesn't even have school aged kids. Jawando who was behind all this has a known grudge with law enforcement and he doesn't even feel like mcps is good enough for his kids considering that he sends them to a private school. On the other hand, every single HS principal..the people who know their students and communities the most begged to keep SROs. If the county cared, they would have listened to them.

They care least of all for the white kids, whose parents cannot advocate for them or they are called racist. Erlich goes with the popular vote to get reelected. It has nothing to do with race and students don't vote.

Anyone following Jawando or believes his non-sense is harming our kids. You should be required to have a child in MCPS to be on the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know where or how severely the student was shot? Hoping for speedy and full recovery

It was severe, in the bathroom, child had major surgery last night and is recovering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly people think an SRO would have stopped this.

well, we will never know now.

How many school shootings and/or arrest of a student who brought a gun to school has MCPS had, pre and post SRO removal?

What we KNOW is that a SRO would have drastically changed the response. The first 911 call was for a "community" officer for a school. It wasn't for an emergency police response for a school shooting. Precious time elapsed that allowed the shooter to hide in a classroom that was already in lockdown. Why was he allowed to enter that classroom after the lockdown?
An SRO would have locked the school down faster and trapped the shooter in the hall where he could have been apprehended instead of hiding.

I disagree wholeheartedly. These schools are huge. Unless the SRO was literally in the hallway it occurred in and happened to witness the event, they wouldn’t have known who it was or even what happened for several minutes. Obviously, teachers are trained to scan the hallway and collect all students they see before locking down so the shooter was probably pulled in by a teacher anyway. The way it played out may have gotten officers in the school a couple minutes quicker but the end result would have been the same. I am impressed that they maintained calm, found the student, and AVOIDED any more injuries. If they wouldn’t have been so careful, I believe the student would have been much more likely to freak out and turn the event into a mass shooting. I get it guys, we feel the natural need to criticize (cmon, you guys can’t really are about the color of people coats and ties, right?) because the kids we love the most are inside of those buildings. We NEED gun control NOW!

Your "probably" is not what happened.
Two hours to find a student with a gun inside a school wasn't being careful. The police thought the shooter had run out the door across the field. That's where they were looking first.

Holding the students hostage for 3 hours after the shooter was taken down and removed from the classroom is absurd. Students peeing in bottles was necessary because?????

Except for the nurse, the actions of those in charge do not inspire any confidence whatsoever. Withholding bathroom use from teachers and students for HOURS after the shooter was removed? Not releasing students to waiting parents for HOURS? Not treating the situation as though the shooter may still be on the premises? None of it makes sense.

This makes no sense. If the student identified the other student, they get that student and release the others. It shouldn't take hours and if it does, they should have brought in snacks/drinks and allowed bathroom use. They could have had police/adults escort kids to bathrooms.

And, why did it take so long to call an abundance?

The "slowed things down" statement reeked of CYA as to why the kid was allowed to potentially shoot others for 2 hours. Then after that arrest, there is no explanation. The students should have been released well before 6. Bathroom use should not have been withheld from teacher and students. This school had repeated recent threats, they should have been on top of their game re: safety response. What goal was achieved by peeing in bottled?

No DCUM debate is going to get anywhere because we aren’t involved and we probably don’t have the professional experience or training to speak knowledgeably. I can, however, help you out with your “peeing in bottles” concern. I’ve been teaching high school for almost two decades. Since Columbine, I’ve been provided with supplies in case of a lockdown situation. My closet has bottles of water, basic medical supplies, and… a bucket. Yes, we have trained for the possibility of having our students with us for hours. Gratefully, I’ve never had to use those supplies. But this is teaching in America now. I’ve had students in my room for lockdowns, the longest being over two hours. My job was keeping the kids safe in the classroom. The police had their own responsibilities, which I can’t comment on because I’m not an officer.

[Anonymous]

I think McKnight & BOE are happy to get people's mind off their poor decision making regarding the pandemic.

How is McKnight still in charge? How can we get her out? BOE should be out, too. They only care about their pockets, politics, and their own agenda's.

Of course Jawando wants SROs out, his kids are in private school.

I am exhausted with them taking our money and not listening to ANYTHING we have to say. All of them cover up for each other. BOE is no longer formed of "volunteers" who only get reimbursed for mileage. They each make 25k/yr now. It's not a lot of money but it is money taken away from our kids to pay people who simply do not care. BOE is a joke.

How can we make sure McKnight loses her job if BOE has her back. She is not fit for this job.

MCPS, our kids were not safe. Our teachers were not safe, but you come out patting yourself on the back while kids were peeing in bottles and make-shift toilets. This is the best you could do.

MCPS covers up rapes, weapons brought into the schools, and much much more. I know first hand.

[Anonymous]

Good question for the police. What was the timing of the arrest and the release of students?

If there was a delay, were the police making sure there weren’t other students involved? That would be a good explanation for a delay.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I think McKnight & BOE are happy to get people's mind off their poor decision making regarding the pandemic.

How is McKnight still in charge? How can we get her out? BOE should be out, too. They only care about their pockets, politics, and their own agenda's.

Of course Jawando wants SROs out, his kids are in private school.

I am exhausted with them taking our money and not listening to ANYTHING we have to say. All of them cover up for each other. BOE is no longer formed of "volunteers" who only get reimbursed for mileage. They each make 25k/yr now. It's not a lot of money but it is money taken away from our kids to pay people who simply do not care. BOE is a joke.

How can we make sure McKnight loses her job if BOE has her back. She is not fit for this job.

MCPS, our kids were not safe. Our teachers were not safe, but you come out patting yourself on the back while kids were peeing in bottles and make-shift toilets. This is the best you could do.

MCPS covers up rapes, weapons brought into the schools, and much much more. I know first hand. [/quote]

+1 The dysfunction by school administrators and the BOE has been on full display during January 2022. A 15 year old child is still is in critical condition on their watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know where or how severely the student was shot? Hoping for speedy and full recovery

Abdomen. He was critical and in surgery for 5 hours so, not a scratch. Is stable now. May have long term issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly people think an SRO would have stopped this.

well, we will never know now.

How many school shootings and/or arrest of a student who brought a gun to school has MCPS had, pre and post SRO removal?

What we KNOW is that a SRO would have drastically changed the response. The first 911 call was for a "community" officer for a school. It wasn't for an emergency police response for a school shooting. Precious time elapsed that allowed the shooter to hide in a classroom that was already in lockdown. Why was he allowed to enter that classroom after the lockdown?
An SRO would have locked the school down faster and trapped the shooter in the hall where he could have been apprehended instead of hiding.

I disagree wholeheartedly. These schools are huge. Unless the SRO was literally in the hallway it occurred in and happened to witness the event, they wouldn’t have known who it was or even what happened for several minutes. Obviously, teachers are trained to scan the hallway and collect all students they see before locking down so the shooter was probably pulled in by a teacher anyway. The way it played out may have gotten officers in the school a couple minutes quicker but the end result would have been the same. I am impressed that they maintained calm, found the student, and AVOIDED any more injuries. If they wouldn’t have been so careful, I believe the student would have been much more likely to freak out and turn the event into a mass shooting. I get it guys, we feel the natural need to criticize (cmon, you guys can’t really are about the color of people coats and ties, right?) because the kids we love the most are inside of those buildings. We NEED gun control NOW!

Your "probably" is not what happened.
Two hours to find a student with a gun inside a school wasn't being careful. The police thought the shooter had run out the door across the field. That's where they were looking first.

Holding the students hostage for 3 hours after the shooter was taken down and removed from the classroom is absurd. Students peeing in bottles was necessary because?????

Except for the nurse, the actions of those in charge do not inspire any confidence whatsoever. Withholding bathroom use from teachers and students for HOURS after the shooter was removed? Not releasing students to waiting parents for HOURS? Not treating the situation as though the shooter may still be on the premises? None of it makes sense.

This makes no sense. If the student identified the other student, they get that student and release the others. It shouldn't take hours and if it does, they should have brought in snacks/drinks and allowed bathroom use. They could have had police/adults escort kids to bathrooms.

And, why did it take so long to call an abundance?

The "slowed things down" statement reeked of CYA as to why the kid was allowed to potentially shoot others for 2 hours. Then after that arrest, there is no explanation. The students should have been released well before 6. Bathroom use should not have been withheld from teacher and students. This school had repeated recent threats, they should have been on top of their game re: safety response. What goal was achieved by peeing in bottled?

No DCUM debate is going to get anywhere because we aren’t involved and we probably don’t have the professional experience or training to speak knowledgeably. I can, however, help you out with your “peeing in bottles” concern. I’ve been teaching high school for almost two decades. Since Columbine, I’ve been provided with supplies in case of a lockdown situation. My closet has bottles of water, basic medical supplies, and… a bucket. Yes, we have trained for the possibility of having our students with us for hours. Gratefully, I’ve never had to use those supplies. But this is teaching in America now. I’ve had students in my room for lockdowns, the longest being over two hours. My job was keeping the kids safe in the classroom. The police had their own responsibilities, which I can’t comment on because I’m not an officer.

Not sure about HS, but in MCPS, our MS and ES don't have supplies, including water in each classroom.