S/O Silver Creek letter announcing new AP who was placed on leave after ESS police incident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, but are any of us really saying that we would be in a room with a 5 year old being treated like that and not try to do something? Huge judgement lapse from this AP. Terrifying. SCMS has major discipline issues to begin with - this is not a place for someone "starting fresh".

Everyone thinks they would have hidden Jews in their attic, and everyone thinks they would have stood up to a Black mom telling Black cops to please go ahead and continue yelling at her son.

💯💯💯

And if I had been the [white] AP who had failed to stand up to a [Black] parent and [Black] cops berating a kid, I would expect to lose my job.

Maybe she did risk losing her job rather than as a white woman in a position of power splaining to a Black mom and Black cops, in that moment, how to act. That's an instinct that some people find hard to learn. Now she's has had a lot more training as have many school admins.

Her responsibility was to the student regardless of race dynamics. Her job was not easy, but she should have done it.

What is the actual MCPS policy/regulation covering the situation of a student's parent and the police being present?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, but are any of us really saying that we would be in a room with a 5 year old being treated like that and not try to do something? Huge judgement lapse from this AP. Terrifying. SCMS has major discipline issues to begin with - this is not a place for someone "starting fresh".

Everyone thinks they would have hidden Jews in their attic, and everyone thinks they would have stood up to a Black mom telling Black cops to please go ahead and continue yelling at her son.

💯💯💯

And if I had been the [white] AP who had failed to stand up to a [Black] parent and [Black] cops berating a kid, I would expect to lose my job.

Maybe she did risk losing her job rather than as a white woman in a position of power splaining to a Black mom and Black cops, in that moment, how to act. That's an instinct that some people find hard to learn. Now she's has had a lot more training as have many school admins.

Her responsibility was to the student regardless of race dynamics. Her job was not easy, but she should have done it.

What is the actual MCPS policy/regulation covering the situation of a student's parent and the police being present?

Board policies and MCPS regulations can be found here: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve heard Pfeiffer speak disdainfully of returning to school-based work. She isn’t going back because she wants to but because they are eliminating her CO role and can’t make up something new for her to do.

They confirmed at the meeting that she lost her job in central office and that it was central office, and not the principal, who appointed her to this role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either AP is

friends with Principal or someone at CO
CO wanted this Principal to deal with new AP
CO had no other place to put this AP
School needed "diversity" - a non black person in Administration (assumimg outgoing AP was white)
New AP has worked with families of special needs before
Hired an AP who can deal with any incoming complaining-rising-6th grade-parent/s
Other reason
All of the above

Potentially a little bit of all of the above, but also she might just be good at her job.

I've seen the video of what happened at ESSES, and it was horrifying, but I also think the situation is more complicated than folks are portraying it. As someone whose job sometimes happens inside MCPS schools, I've attended a lot of trainings about how I can't project my white supremacist colonialist parenting norms onto communities of color. So, the fact that the child's mom was in the room, and that the police and the mom and the child were all Black and the administrator was white, makes this situation more fraught and complicated than it would be otherwise, for a white educator/administrator.

Add the lack of training that most of us receive on de-escalating cops in particular? I'm not saying the AP was right to let that situation go on, but I'm saying I believe she may have learned from the experience and be an asset to Silver Creek.

I'm also just kind of intrigued at while folks are so intent on going after the AP but not the police officers who did the actual yelling. There's something there, but I can't quite figure out what it is.

Can someone explain how the family won litigation about this situation if the mother was there and encouraging the police behavior?

Well, the behavior of the officers was egregious, and the optics were terrible. The incident happened in January 2020, George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, and our national Summer of Racial Reckoning kicked off. By the time the incident was widely reported in 2021, DEI was the new gospel.

In that context, it might be possible to miss the fact that pre-2020, the conventional wisdom in education policy was "cultural competence" which meant deferring to the parenting norms of different cultures. In that context, the mom's presence in the room, and the race of the police officers, absolutely mattered.

Should it have? No. But MCPS also should not have tried to tell educators and administrators that there were no actual norms in terms of parenting.

[Anonymous]

These are great points. Another layer here (with hope this is helpful for ppl to see) is that while "cultural competence" is now kind of out, "cultural humility" is in. (Cultural sensitivity is still used but kind of out bc doesn't recognize power dynamics enough). Idea is that nobody should think of themselves as ever reaching competence, that it's super arrogant to think they ever fully know best, but that processes of reflexive humility, that recognize power dynamics and savior dynamics (whether or to what extent the latter are performative), are necessary. In CPS-adjacent professions, there's a lot of advocacy still, to this day, for taking into account parenting norms so that the systems do not kidnap Black children. I've heard Black parents go through the emo labor to tell me myriad times that there is literally no second chance for their kid, no leeway to experiment with book learning and elevate it over what they know and believe works best. And that post 2020 this should be even more obvious to people. Given issues in schools today kids totally need to be protected and MCPS should have some kind of constant feedback loop around how various situations go, what can go better, impact, and one that centers Black voices (students, parents, community) post 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are great points. Another layer here (with hope this is helpful for ppl to see) is that while "cultural competence" is now kind of out, "cultural humility" is in. (Cultural sensitivity is still used but kind of out bc doesn't recognize power dynamics enough). Idea is that nobody should think of themselves as ever reaching competence, that it's super arrogant to think they ever fully know best, but that processes of reflexive humility, that recognize power dynamics and savior dynamics (whether or to what extent the latter are performative), are necessary. In CPS-adjacent professions, there's a lot of advocacy still, to this day, for taking into account parenting norms so that the systems do not kidnap Black children. I've heard Black parents go through the emo labor to tell me myriad times that there is literally no second chance for their kid, no leeway to experiment with book learning and elevate it over what they know and believe works best. And that post 2020 this should be even more obvious to people. Given issues in schools today kids totally need to be protected and MCPS should have some kind of constant feedback loop around how various situations go, what can go better, impact, and one that centers Black voices (students, parents, community) post 2020.

I’m going to be honest and say I am pretty fascinated by the dynamics of those who think the AP should have intervened in a situation with parent and police. I don’t understand practically where your comments leave us. Maybe I don’t understand what they mean either.

[Anonymous]

We're basically on the same page, but maybe coming from different ingrained jargon and types of experiences, as is everyone I guess... Trying to expand on the comment someone made on 7/9, above. Hoping that more understanding around these issues is good.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why central office would place her in a school as diverse as Silver Creek. Seems like if they want her to be disciplining kids, that is not the right school to place her in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are great points. Another layer here (with hope this is helpful for ppl to see) is that while "cultural competence" is now kind of out, "cultural humility" is in. (Cultural sensitivity is still used but kind of out bc doesn't recognize power dynamics enough). Idea is that nobody should think of themselves as ever reaching competence, that it's super arrogant to think they ever fully know best, but that processes of reflexive humility, that recognize power dynamics and savior dynamics (whether or to what extent the latter are performative), are necessary. In CPS-adjacent professions, there's a lot of advocacy still, to this day, for taking into account parenting norms so that the systems do not kidnap Black children. I've heard Black parents go through the emo labor to tell me myriad times that there is literally no second chance for their kid, no leeway to experiment with book learning and elevate it over what they know and believe works best. And that post 2020 this should be even more obvious to people. Given issues in schools today kids totally need to be protected and MCPS should have some kind of constant feedback loop around how various situations go, what can go better, impact, and one that centers Black voices (students, parents, community) post 2020.

I’m going to be honest and say I am pretty fascinated by the dynamics of those who think the AP should have intervened in a situation with parent and police. I don’t understand practically where your comments leave us. Maybe I don’t understand what they mean either.

PP's post might benefit from a paragraph break or two, but the bottom line is that MCPS (and other districts and social service providers) urge white teachers and administrators to practice cultural humility, and not to assume that parenting norms are universal.

White educators are also constantly reminded that Black families feel the need to be stricter with their children than white families, as a result of "respectability politics" but also situations like Tamir Rice.

The one other contextual item is that, at the time, the broader political discourse was about "White cops versus Black citizens" and we weren't really yet having the much-needed conversation about how the culture of policing is itself a problem, and that problem infects Black cops as much as white ones.

[Anonymous]

Should rising 5th grade families start exploring other MS if folks are talking issues of new AP? What's going on? Any petition, a clarification or other info?

[Anonymous]

The principal (Dr Awkard) and the central office staff person (Mr Chia) said they would update the community. At the meeting we attended, there was a lot of anger particularly given the process (done by central office, no input from principal). Principal also mentioned she had received a lot of emails/calls. There are some parents who said they simply didn’t think their kids would be sad en at school.

Parents talked about different options if she is to stay on staff — assigning AP to central office, giving her role that is non-disciplinary, making sure she is not alone with students, making the position temporary rather than permanent, allowing families to opt out of having their kids assigned to her—I’m probably missing a few. Dr Awkard said she would send an update. We has e not gotten anything yet.

In terms of rising 5th grade families, you have a year to deal with this — I would consider they mitigations Dr Awkard commits to putting in place and then check back in in the fall to see how it is going.

[Anonymous]

What updates and when will incoming 6th grade parents receive regarding the new Asst Principal and school's leaders?

[Anonymous]

Guess she's definitely going to be there. Got an email from her yesterday.

[Anonymous]

From what I have heard, she was much loved by staff and faculty at ESS and they were very sad to see her go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I have heard, she was much loved by staff and faculty at ESS and they were very sad to see her go.

Can confirm this. Her replacement (who is now the principal) was/is particularly horrible (which is why so many teachers have left ESS in the past two years). That made her absence even more upsetting.