Scandal Poolesville High School Student Arrest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And back…

What do you mean "And back..."? Meaning the arrested student is back in school at Poolesville?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The question of virtual academy was asked. The principal said that virtual school is not an equal education with regular school, which is required by law.

It’s sometimes in the best interest to send the kid to another school per principal. It was implied that PHS is gets these kids even though it’s further away because they don’t want one school to have too many troublemakers.

They said they consider that the kids are safe before moving them but I call BS to that.

This makes no sense. If MVA is not an equal education with regular school, then how and why is it even allowed to exist as an option for MCPS families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are so quick to blame MCPS for shuffling around kids that have problems. There’s no other solution. They can’t build more alternative schools to stick the kids who don’t want to “do school” because the schools end up being failing schools which don’t meet the requirements of the public schools to provide a free and fair public education. Kids that used to drop out at 16 can’t since the age of mandatory attendance was raised to 18 around 2015. As a society we have no actual plan to support children 11-17 who need real support to overcome trauma / poverty / learning disabilities and become productive citizens. We just hope that we can use the schools to contain kids until they grow up. Shuffling the trouble makers around used to separate them from other kids and reduce poor behaviors, but now with cells phones and easy transportation, they easily stay in contact with each other.

I think you are mostly right but let's clarify that the call isn't for alternative programs for kids who "don't want to do school."

It is for programs to meet the legal requirement to educate kids who have committed crimes, and not to mainstream those kids back into regular high schools so they can rape their classmates four months later.

The context for this thread was kids who commit crimes. Not all kids who don’t want to do school commit crimes, but almost all kids who commit crime aren’t interested in school (based on the grades of HS students that go through our school who get into trouble.)

There used to be schools for kids like this, but they got shut down under No Child Left Behind around 2005-07 timeframe because according to the data, these were failing schools because the kids couldn’t read/do math. It didn’t matter that the educational opportunity was there, the outcomes weren’t acceptable.

Again, as a society we don’t have a good solution for this. What I think children like this need are special boarding schools in remote areas that address mental and physical health, education, and vocational training. Put them in construction trade training while repairing homes for the elderly in Western Maryland. Have them help with parks services clearing invasive species, building rain gardens, planting trees, cleaning waterways. Get them into pre-apprenticeships learning electrical grid/solar farm/wind farm work. Teach them household skills such as cooking and cleaning while they help to maintain their group home. Pay for enough qualified adults to do this work with these kids. These type of programs are expensive up front, but they save society money down the road in reduced crime, legal system costs and running prisons.

Experience shows that MCPS often has the absolute worst solutions to these sorts of problems, though. I don't know why, maybe because a district near the nation's capital draws people always looking for the next thing, but this district is chockablock with half measures that look good on paper for about one year, and then start falling apart in the implementation, but it doesn't matter because the person whose brainchild it was has moved to a new role.

So, the question is this: MCPS is not the only school district in the country dealing with adjudicated youth. What do other districts do?

Other districts have the previous SRO model. PG even has it. The SJ warriors of MoCo have this huge issue with having police officers inside the school when in fact we had them for years and Obama was a huge proponent. MCPS principals advocated for their presence in the schools since they were not only a deterrent to violent behavior, they actually acted as role models for some students who didn't have one outside school. I'm convinced that one of the reasons for the uptick in crime and violence on the schools in recent years was a result of removal of the previous SRO model. The CEO model is not the same.

I take your point about SROs, but it doesn't answer the question of how other districts deal with adjudicated youth. There is a legal obligation to educate these kids, but I don't think every US district takes the tack of "shuffle them around until they do a crime violent enough to send them to prison beyond the age of 18."

I'm guessing the answer is alternative school programs? Or maybe other jurisdictions are less likely to have adjudicated youth released back into the community without some rehabilitation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are so quick to blame MCPS for shuffling around kids that have problems. There’s no other solution. They can’t build more alternative schools to stick the kids who don’t want to “do school” because the schools end up being failing schools which don’t meet the requirements of the public schools to provide a free and fair public education. Kids that used to drop out at 16 can’t since the age of mandatory attendance was raised to 18 around 2015. As a society we have no actual plan to support children 11-17 who need real support to overcome trauma / poverty / learning disabilities and become productive citizens. We just hope that we can use the schools to contain kids until they grow up. Shuffling the trouble makers around used to separate them from other kids and reduce poor behaviors, but now with cells phones and easy transportation, they easily stay in contact with each other.

I think you are mostly right but let's clarify that the call isn't for alternative programs for kids who "don't want to do school."

It is for programs to meet the legal requirement to educate kids who have committed crimes, and not to mainstream those kids back into regular high schools so they can rape their classmates four months later.

The context for this thread was kids who commit crimes. Not all kids who don’t want to do school commit crimes, but almost all kids who commit crime aren’t interested in school (based on the grades of HS students that go through our school who get into trouble.)

There used to be schools for kids like this, but they got shut down under No Child Left Behind around 2005-07 timeframe because according to the data, these were failing schools because the kids couldn’t read/do math. It didn’t matter that the educational opportunity was there, the outcomes weren’t acceptable.

Again, as a society we don’t have a good solution for this. What I think children like this need are special boarding schools in remote areas that address mental and physical health, education, and vocational training. Put them in construction trade training while repairing homes for the elderly in Western Maryland. Have them help with parks services clearing invasive species, building rain gardens, planting trees, cleaning waterways. Get them into pre-apprenticeships learning electrical grid/solar farm/wind farm work. Teach them household skills such as cooking and cleaning while they help to maintain their group home. Pay for enough qualified adults to do this work with these kids. These type of programs are expensive up front, but they save society money down the road in reduced crime, legal system costs and running prisons.

Experience shows that MCPS often has the absolute worst solutions to these sorts of problems, though. I don't know why, maybe because a district near the nation's capital draws people always looking for the next thing, but this district is chockablock with half measures that look good on paper for about one year, and then start falling apart in the implementation, but it doesn't matter because the person whose brainchild it was has moved to a new role.

So, the question is this: MCPS is not the only school district in the country dealing with adjudicated youth. What do other districts do?

Other districts have the previous SRO model. PG even has it. The SJ warriors of MoCo have this huge issue with having police officers inside the school when in fact we had them for years and Obama was a huge proponent. MCPS principals advocated for their presence in the schools since they were not only a deterrent to violent behavior, they actually acted as role models for some students who didn't have one outside school. I'm convinced that one of the reasons for the uptick in crime and violence on the schools in recent years was a result of removal of the previous SRO model. The CEO model is not the same.

I take your point about SROs, but it doesn't answer the question of how other districts deal with adjudicated youth. There is a legal obligation to educate these kids, but I don't think every US district takes the tack of "shuffle them around until they do a crime violent enough to send them to prison beyond the age of 18."

I'm guessing the answer is alternative school programs? Or maybe other jurisdictions are less likely to have adjudicated youth released back into the community without some rehabilitation?

I think so; however, I think that the ultimate focus should be prevention of violent behavior; and I think MCPS/Montgomery County policies are not helping in this regard; in fact, they're causing the rise in violence. In fact, there's a proposal by Maryland Democrats right now that want to drop penalties to students who commit crimes and disruptive behavior at the schools: https://wjla.com/news/local/maryland-dems-want-to-drop-penalties-for-students-who-commit-certain-crimes-at-school-democrats-annapolis-md-project-baltimore-crisis-in-the-classroom-sheila-ruth-law-proposal-bill-

It doesn't take a genius to conclude that stuff like this is the reason we're all in this predicament.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks are so quick to blame MCPS for shuffling around kids that have problems. There’s no other solution. They can’t build more alternative schools to stick the kids who don’t want to “do school” because the schools end up being failing schools which don’t meet the requirements of the public schools to provide a free and fair public education. Kids that used to drop out at 16 can’t since the age of mandatory attendance was raised to 18 around 2015. As a society we have no actual plan to support children 11-17 who need real support to overcome trauma / poverty / learning disabilities and become productive citizens. We just hope that we can use the schools to contain kids until they grow up. Shuffling the trouble makers around used to separate them from other kids and reduce poor behaviors, but now with cells phones and easy transportation, they easily stay in contact with each other.

I think you are mostly right but let's clarify that the call isn't for alternative programs for kids who "don't want to do school."

It is for programs to meet the legal requirement to educate kids who have committed crimes, and not to mainstream those kids back into regular high schools so they can rape their classmates four months later.

The context for this thread was kids who commit crimes. Not all kids who don’t want to do school commit crimes, but almost all kids who commit crime aren’t interested in school (based on the grades of HS students that go through our school who get into trouble.)

There used to be schools for kids like this, but they got shut down under No Child Left Behind around 2005-07 timeframe because according to the data, these were failing schools because the kids couldn’t read/do math. It didn’t matter that the educational opportunity was there, the outcomes weren’t acceptable.

Again, as a society we don’t have a good solution for this. What I think children like this need are special boarding schools in remote areas that address mental and physical health, education, and vocational training. Put them in construction trade training while repairing homes for the elderly in Western Maryland. Have them help with parks services clearing invasive species, building rain gardens, planting trees, cleaning waterways. Get them into pre-apprenticeships learning electrical grid/solar farm/wind farm work. Teach them household skills such as cooking and cleaning while they help to maintain their group home. Pay for enough qualified adults to do this work with these kids. These type of programs are expensive up front, but they save society money down the road in reduced crime, legal system costs and running prisons.

Experience shows that MCPS often has the absolute worst solutions to these sorts of problems, though. I don't know why, maybe because a district near the nation's capital draws people always looking for the next thing, but this district is chockablock with half measures that look good on paper for about one year, and then start falling apart in the implementation, but it doesn't matter because the person whose brainchild it was has moved to a new role.

So, the question is this: MCPS is not the only school district in the country dealing with adjudicated youth. What do other districts do?

Other districts have the previous SRO model. PG even has it. The SJ warriors of MoCo have this huge issue with having police officers inside the school when in fact we had them for years and Obama was a huge proponent. MCPS principals advocated for their presence in the schools since they were not only a deterrent to violent behavior, they actually acted as role models for some students who didn't have one outside school. I'm convinced that one of the reasons for the uptick in crime and violence on the schools in recent years was a result of removal of the previous SRO model. The CEO model is not the same.

I take your point about SROs, but it doesn't answer the question of how other districts deal with adjudicated youth. There is a legal obligation to educate these kids, but I don't think every US district takes the tack of "shuffle them around until they do a crime violent enough to send them to prison beyond the age of 18."

I'm guessing the answer is alternative school programs? Or maybe other jurisdictions are less likely to have adjudicated youth released back into the community without some rehabilitation?

I think these students should be placed in the virtual program with required counseling. The law obligates the system to educate these kids; and having in person school is not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

The whole virtual school will be gone soon. So, this will not be a viable solution.

Anonymous wrote:
I think these students should be placed in the virtual program with required counseling. The law obligates the system to educate these kids; and having in person school is not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole virtual school will be gone soon. So, this will not be a viable solution.

Anonymous wrote:
I think these students should be placed in the virtual program with required counseling. The law obligates the system to educate these kids; and having in person school is not a requirement.

It is not going away.

[Anonymous]

I would pay higher taxes to keep the virtual school open for these kids with issues.

[Anonymous]

what is it about the virtual school that's so divisive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you look in the daily arrest log a juvenile in Clarksburg was arrested for first degree rape on Valentine’s Day. That matches up with what is being said.

Where can you see the daily arrest logs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look in the daily arrest log a juvenile in Clarksburg was arrested for first degree rape on Valentine’s Day. That matches up with what is being said.

Where can you see the daily arrest logs?

If only as many people were as interested in education as finding fault with our schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you look in the daily arrest log a juvenile in Clarksburg was arrested for first degree rape on Valentine’s Day. That matches up with what is being said.

Where can you see the daily arrest logs?

If only as many people were as interested in education as finding fault with our schools...

Narrator: it's the same thing.