What is MCPS doing to make schools safer?

[Anonymous]

Most kids want SROs back.

https://www.mymcmedia.org/police-may-return-to-mcps-schools-students-have-mixed-reactions/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maryland's gun control measures are better than most states. Not that this going to help. This is a national problem.

I have no doubt that Maryland has more gun control than other states but can an 18 year old legally buy a gun, including an AR-15? I think given the data that most mass shootings have been males under the age of 21 that the legal age should be raised to 21. It makes sense that if you can’t legally drink till 21 that you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

[Anonymous]

Serious question: do MCPS parents only care about mass shootings? Or all shootings? I am really shocked at how little outrage there is about Magruder, or Jai'lyn Jones being murdered by a fellow Northwest student.

Because mark my words, if we don't get our act together, it's only a matter of time before another school shooting or serious stabbing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Gun control

Gun control has nothing to do with making MCPS safer. MCPS is doing nothing. Most parents wanted them to remove SRO's and police from the schools. They did.

How did the police do in Uvalde? Or Parkland?

Don’t get me wrong, I support having SROs in schools. I just think it is ridiculous to think they’d stop school shootings.

They didn't do well but that's not a justification to not have them. If they did their job they would have gone in, killed the killer and got those kids medical attention and that is the point.

If these incidents are representative, SROs will stand around, run away or arrest parents.

There have been SRO's who have also saved lives.

Neat. What percentage of the very, very long list of school shootings in the US since the 90s were stopped by SROs?

Hint: damn few.

Here’s a report with some statistics for you:
https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-w0903-pub.pdf

It highlights 236 cases, of which 168 were adverted. It also contains twelve case studies of SRO-related events. On a personal level, I witnessed the SRO at my high school remove three knives and one gun from students, all taken without incident. He did a lot more than that, but those are the incidences I witnessed with my own eyes. The simple truth is there are many of us who have seen the value of SROs.

We all know the MoCo council pulled SROs without actually surveying the community. Instead, they listened to a small, yet vocal group. We also know that the principals were unanimous in wanting them to remain.

In almost every case in that truth the situation was diverted by a student, teacher, principal or behavioral specialist.

Having an armed guard at a school is the #1 reason a psycho thinks they need an AR15.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7887654/

SROs make schools less safe.

You are welcome to hate SROs, but you are also going to have to accept facts. If you actually look at that report, you’ll realize you are incorrect. As for being “diverted by a student,” I have personally witnessed how that actually happens… 4 times. Students don’t disarm their peers. Students tell adults, who get the SRO to do the disarming. If that’s what you mean by “divert,” then I think we would both have to agree SROs are still necessary.

Again… you may hate SROs all you want. I suspect the majority of MCPS is in support of them, but we won’t know until the BOE or the council decides to send out a survey. I doubt they will since they may not like the results.

I don’t hate SROs my family has many police officers, lawyers and judges. I know SROs never disarm a gunman, never… not once. They are ineffective window dressing.

They call for real police just like a teacher, student or principal can do. They are a useless step in the process.

You can love window dressing all you want but your ignorant anecdotes don’t mean SROs help with shootings. Gun control does.

DP here. You're right. We need Gun control but you're wrong that SROs make schools less safe and wrong when you said that they don't disarm students. At Clarksburg High, an SRO disarmed a student with a gun a few years ago.
All 25 HS principals disagree with you. And students disagree with your position that SROs are harmful. This is from the Blair HS newspaper written by a student recently:

Before MCPS decided to remove SROs, Blair benefited from a mentoring program run by its security team and then-SRO. As Blair's Security Team Leader, Darryl Cooper, describes it, "Everybody on security would take at least five kids [to] mentor throughout the year along with the SRO. So you had a police [officer] that was mentoring kids… they keep in touch with her now that she's been transferred out."
By limiting the presence of these officers on high school campuses, MCPS prevents them from continuing their tradition of mentoring at-risk students. According to the Department of Homeland Security, social isolation is a major risk factor for students who commit violence in schools. A core part of violence prevention is ensuring that at-risk students build positive relationships with mentors–teachers, counselors, coaches, and officers–who can guide them in the right direction.

No an SRO did NOT disarm a student at Clarksburg. A student told a teacher, who told an SRO, who told a principal (because the SRO didn’t even know where the student was/which class). They called the real police and the real police made a plan and called the kid out of class. Nobody was disarmed because he was not holding the gun.

What that kid needed was a mental health intervention before he brought a gun to school. Everybody knew he was unstable. The SRO didn’t stop him from bringing a gun”because he was so in tune with students”.

I agree principals need to identify dangerous kids and remove them but they can’t. They get moved around like the Damascus rapist and Sheinbein.

Mentoring at risk kids FFS. No just no. They need therapists/ psychiatrists and real parents/families. A cop is not a psychologist, most don’t even have a 4 year degree. Hey maybe the school plumber can mentor them too, they have more of an education.

But you're wrong again: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/18-year-old-who-brought-gun-to-clarksburg-hs-sentenced-to-4-months/65-545325214

Listen the overwhelming number of people IN the schools adults and kids know the value of SROs and want them back. There is huge evidence that having them in schools was a huge benefit for everyone. They helped keep schools safe and served as role models to tons of students. Your inability to see that tells me you fall in one of these categories: you don't have kids at school or your kids attend an expensive private, or you're a full pledged activist that hates all cops. It's not a surprise that members of the county council who pulled SROs from schools without regard of the people it would impact fall in one or more of these categories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gun control

Gun control has nothing to do with making MCPS safer. MCPS is doing nothing. Most parents wanted them to remove SRO's and police from the schools. They did.

How did the police do in Uvalde? Or Parkland?

Don’t get me wrong, I support having SROs in schools. I just think it is ridiculous to think they’d stop school shootings.

They didn't do well but that's not a justification to not have them. If they did their job they would have gone in, killed the killer and got those kids medical attention and that is the point.

If these incidents are representative, SROs will stand around, run away or arrest parents.

There have been SRO's who have also saved lives.

Neat. What percentage of the very, very long list of school shootings in the US since the 90s were stopped by SROs?

Hint: damn few.

Here’s a report with some statistics for you:
https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-w0903-pub.pdf

It highlights 236 cases, of which 168 were adverted. It also contains twelve case studies of SRO-related events. On a personal level, I witnessed the SRO at my high school remove three knives and one gun from students, all taken without incident. He did a lot more than that, but those are the incidences I witnessed with my own eyes. The simple truth is there are many of us who have seen the value of SROs.

We all know the MoCo council pulled SROs without actually surveying the community. Instead, they listened to a small, yet vocal group. We also know that the principals were unanimous in wanting them to remain.

In almost every case in that truth the situation was diverted by a student, teacher, principal or behavioral specialist.

Having an armed guard at a school is the #1 reason a psycho thinks they need an AR15.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7887654/

SROs make schools less safe.

You are welcome to hate SROs, but you are also going to have to accept facts. If you actually look at that report, you’ll realize you are incorrect. As for being “diverted by a student,” I have personally witnessed how that actually happens… 4 times. Students don’t disarm their peers. Students tell adults, who get the SRO to do the disarming. If that’s what you mean by “divert,” then I think we would both have to agree SROs are still necessary.

Again… you may hate SROs all you want. I suspect the majority of MCPS is in support of them, but we won’t know until the BOE or the council decides to send out a survey. I doubt they will since they may not like the results.

I don’t hate SROs my family has many police officers, lawyers and judges. I know SROs never disarm a gunman, never… not once. They are ineffective window dressing.

They call for real police just like a teacher, student or principal can do. They are a useless step in the process.

You can love window dressing all you want but your ignorant anecdotes don’t mean SROs help with shootings. Gun control does.

DP here. You're right. We need Gun control but you're wrong that SROs make schools less safe and wrong when you said that they don't disarm students. At Clarksburg High, an SRO disarmed a student with a gun a few years ago.
All 25 HS principals disagree with you. And students disagree with your position that SROs are harmful. This is from the Blair HS newspaper written by a student recently:

Before MCPS decided to remove SROs, Blair benefited from a mentoring program run by its security team and then-SRO. As Blair's Security Team Leader, Darryl Cooper, describes it, "Everybody on security would take at least five kids [to] mentor throughout the year along with the SRO. So you had a police [officer] that was mentoring kids… they keep in touch with her now that she's been transferred out."
By limiting the presence of these officers on high school campuses, MCPS prevents them from continuing their tradition of mentoring at-risk students. According to the Department of Homeland Security, social isolation is a major risk factor for students who commit violence in schools. A core part of violence prevention is ensuring that at-risk students build positive relationships with mentors–teachers, counselors, coaches, and officers–who can guide them in the right direction.

No an SRO did NOT disarm a student at Clarksburg. A student told a teacher, who told an SRO, who told a principal (because the SRO didn’t even know where the student was/which class). They called the real police and the real police made a plan and called the kid out of class. Nobody was disarmed because he was not holding the gun.

What that kid needed was a mental health intervention before he brought a gun to school. Everybody knew he was unstable. The SRO didn’t stop him from bringing a gun”because he was so in tune with students”.

I agree principals need to identify dangerous kids and remove them but they can’t. They get moved around like the Damascus rapist and Sheinbein.

Mentoring at risk kids FFS. No just no. They need therapists/ psychiatrists and real parents/families. A cop is not a psychologist, most don’t even have a 4 year degree. Hey maybe the school plumber can mentor them too, they have more of an education.

But you're wrong again: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/maryland/18-year-old-who-brought-gun-to-clarksburg-hs-sentenced-to-4-months/65-545325214

Listen the overwhelming number of people IN the schools adults and kids know the value of SROs and want them back. There is huge evidence that having them in schools was a huge benefit for everyone. They helped keep schools safe and served as role models to tons of students. Your inability to see that tells me you fall in one of these categories: you don't have kids at school or your kids attend an expensive private, or you're a full pledged activist that hates all cops. It's not a surprise that members of the county council who pulled SROs from schools without regard of the people it would impact fall in one or more of these categories.

+1. Well said. I don’t know of a single teacher at my school who is against SROs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids want SROs back.

https://www.mymcmedia.org/police-may-return-to-mcps-schools-students-have-mixed-reactions/

Lol, I love how the article says "MyMCM spoke with some students at Gaithersburg High School who said they would feel safer..." then goes on to say, "However, other students disagree ...." and you somehow landed on "MOST students want SROs back." Do you even know how to comprehend what you are reading? Nowhere in that article did it state MOST students...in fact, the rest of the article goes on to contradict exactly that... "At a recent student vigil organized by Sunrise Silver Spring, those in attendance demonstrated their desire to keep schools police-free.

“Putting in the CEO 2.0 Program is not going to keep us safer, and it is actually just going to cause more trauma,” Miles, a 15-year-old freshman at Montgomery Blair High School, said at the vigil.

MCPS students also held a rally against police precedence in schools in February. Students told MyMCM they were against the CEO 2.0 Program and instead wanted to see more mental health support."

YOU cited this article to back a claim and it appears you didn't even read it. Just..wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids want SROs back.

https://www.mymcmedia.org/police-may-return-to-mcps-schools-students-have-mixed-reactions/

Lol, I love how the article says "MyMCM spoke with some students at Gaithersburg High School who said they would feel safer..." then goes on to say, "However, other students disagree ...." and you somehow landed on "MOST students want SROs back." Do you even know how to comprehend what you are reading? Nowhere in that article did it state MOST students...in fact, the rest of the article goes on to contradict exactly that... "At a recent student vigil organized by Sunrise Silver Spring, those in attendance demonstrated their desire to keep schools police-free.

“Putting in the CEO 2.0 Program is not going to keep us safer, and it is actually just going to cause more trauma,” Miles, a 15-year-old freshman at Montgomery Blair High School, said at the vigil.

MCPS students also held a rally against police precedence in schools in February. Students told MyMCM they were against the CEO 2.0 Program and instead wanted to see more mental health support."

YOU cited this article to back a claim and it appears you didn't even read it. Just..wow.

I’m a different poster, not the one who linked the Mymcmedia link. I just looked at the vague article AND I watched the video. 100% of the students quoted in the video have a positive view about the return of SROs. Yes, you are correct there was recently an anti-SRO rally, but the poster of this link is also correct: many students ALSO want SROs to return.

So that’s where we are. Many students want them to return. Some don’t. Many teachers and ALL principals want them to return. Some community members don’t. Statistics (as posted above) show the benefit of SROs, but people who want to hate them will continue to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland's gun control measures are better than most states. Not that this going to help. This is a national problem.

I have no doubt that Maryland has more gun control than other states but can an 18 year old legally buy a gun, including an AR-15? I think given the data that most mass shootings have been males under the age of 21 that the legal age should be raised to 21. It makes sense that if you can’t legally drink till 21 that you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

Sounds like it's illegal - for now.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/maryland-bans-assault-weapons-setting-supreme-court-showdown-198707

https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/assault-weapons-in-maryland/


https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/minimum-age-to-purchase-possess-in-maryland/


Again, even with these rules in place, it's only a slight mitigation, with bordering Virginia and Pennsylvania

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids want SROs back.

https://www.mymcmedia.org/police-may-return-to-mcps-schools-students-have-mixed-reactions/

Lol, I love how the article says "MyMCM spoke with some students at Gaithersburg High School who said they would feel safer..." then goes on to say, "However, other students disagree ...." and you somehow landed on "MOST students want SROs back." Do you even know how to comprehend what you are reading? Nowhere in that article did it state MOST students...in fact, the rest of the article goes on to contradict exactly that... "At a recent student vigil organized by Sunrise Silver Spring, those in attendance demonstrated their desire to keep schools police-free.

“Putting in the CEO 2.0 Program is not going to keep us safer, and it is actually just going to cause more trauma,” Miles, a 15-year-old freshman at Montgomery Blair High School, said at the vigil.

MCPS students also held a rally against police precedence in schools in February. Students told MyMCM they were against the CEO 2.0 Program and instead wanted to see more mental health support."

YOU cited this article to back a claim and it appears you didn't even read it. Just..wow.

Uvalde shows how helpful police presence is in these situations, it isn't. Yes, extremists want to turn this into a police state but that isn't going to help with gun violence. If you are concerned about this, push for strict gun laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland's gun control measures are better than most states. Not that this going to help. This is a national problem.

I have no doubt that Maryland has more gun control than other states but can an 18 year old legally buy a gun, including an AR-15? I think given the data that most mass shootings have been males under the age of 21 that the legal age should be raised to 21. It makes sense that if you can’t legally drink till 21 that you shouldn’t be able to own a gun.

Sounds like it's illegal - for now.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/maryland-bans-assault-weapons-setting-supreme-court-showdown-198707

https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/assault-weapons-in-maryland/


https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/minimum-age-to-purchase-possess-in-maryland/


Again, even with these rules in place, it's only a slight mitigation, with bordering Virginia and Pennsylvania

I blame the Republicans because they're blocking common sense reforms like background checks and regulating assault weapons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I’ve missed it, but I haven’t seen anything about increased security at MCPS schools or even what the safety measures already in place are. I went to the website and could not find info on this. I’ve noticed differences between schools when it comes to security measures. I’d like to know what MCPS already requires, and what it is planning to do county-wide.

Until the GOP is driven from power, not a lot can be done.

Oh really?

Do you live in Montgomery County? Not a single Republican in sight in local politics. And at the federal level….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: do MCPS parents only care about mass shootings? Or all shootings? I am really shocked at how little outrage there is about Magruder, or Jai'lyn Jones being murdered by a fellow Northwest student.

Because mark my words, if we don't get our act together, it's only a matter of time before another school shooting or serious stabbing.

+1 million

Where were the marches then? Where was the parental outrage when a kid was raped in the bathroom at a high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: do MCPS parents only care about mass shootings? Or all shootings? I am really shocked at how little outrage there is about Magruder, or Jai'lyn Jones being murdered by a fellow Northwest student.

Because mark my words, if we don't get our act together, it's only a matter of time before another school shooting or serious stabbing.

+1 million

Where were the marches then? Where was the parental outrage when a kid was raped in the bathroom at a high school?

I saw the outrage then. I was part of it. People have been calling for better security and support for a long time. Personally, I’ve been asking for it, including speaking at a Board meeting, since 2005. This isn’t new, and we’ll continue to see problems until we start asking responsibly and proactively. That includes reinstating police, hiring additional counselors, giving teachers additional training in social/emotional health training, and providing more positive outlets for students.

- a teacher who signed up for 3 Social/emotional learning workshops this summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: do MCPS parents only care about mass shootings? Or all shootings? I am really shocked at how little outrage there is about Magruder, or Jai'lyn Jones being murdered by a fellow Northwest student.

Because mark my words, if we don't get our act together, it's only a matter of time before another school shooting or serious stabbing.

How are you measuring parental outrage? There was much anger and frustration expressed here about both of those acts of violence. I'm sure most parents are outraged by any death or serious injury of a student. But it isn't surprising that mass shootings would garner more attention, especially nationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question: do MCPS parents only care about mass shootings? Or all shootings? I am really shocked at how little outrage there is about Magruder, or Jai'lyn Jones being murdered by a fellow Northwest student.

Because mark my words, if we don't get our act together, it's only a matter of time before another school shooting or serious stabbing.

How are you measuring parental outrage? There was much anger and frustration expressed here about both of those acts of violence. I'm sure most parents are outraged by any death or serious injury of a student. But it isn't surprising that mass shootings would garner more attention, especially nationally.

What are parents doing about it? Where are the letters, the protests? Who is demanding to have meetings with principals, local police? I was invited to an MCPS safety forum last month, which I thought was specific to Magruder, but it wasn't. It was put on by MCPS facilitators to gauge parent concerns and suggestions about improving safety. 10 people showed up. 10. We had a school shooting, for goodness' sake. And 10 Magruder parents show for a safety discussion.

I see more people upset about whether people need to wear masks or not. Which I get. I'm not trying to minimize that. It's just physical violence is up significantly in the schools. What used to be a threat of a fist fight is now a fist fight. What used to be a threat of a fight is now bringing a knife or gun to school. I don't know why the community is tolerating this.