Will school weapon detections cause class time delay?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:From Westfield today. We have received zero messaging about weapons detection.

Greetings. All Westfield families are receiving this message. Please note that students who accumulate between 5 and 10 unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive lunch detention and be placed on pass restrictions (from 4 to 2 per day). Students who accumulate 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive an afterschool detention and will be pass restricted to 1/day. When students have four weeks of 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts (consecutively or not), they will be placed on full day escort and parents will be invited to a meeting at school. This is a change from last year. Tardies and class cuts will be monitored on weekly basis. Please talk with your student and remind them to arrive to class on time and to not leave class without permission. Thank you for your support and partnership!

Best,
Maranda Black
Dean of Students

What is this nonsense? Is this the worst run school in Fairfax? You were tardy because our line is too long, so now YOU CANT GO TO THE BATHROOM? That's what "passes" are, bathroom passes.

Their punishment for tardies is can’t go to the bathroom????????

I’m a teacher and think the entire weapon detection system is for show, but nowhere in that email does it mention preventing students from using the bathroom. You are trying to cause hysteria for no reason. Of course it’s stupid to hold them up for class for this, if it makes them late for class, but that wouldn’t be an unexcused tardy anywhere.

+1. Also a teacher. We're in the second week of school and my school doesn't have metal detectors yet. Some kids already have dozens of unexcused tardies across various classes. They're the same ones who roam the halls and start problems in the bathrooms. Schools should be addressing this early.

Ok well as a teacher I need to ask you what are the middle and high schools doing about no one being able to use bathrooms because of all the "trouble"in them. I'm an educator we all know kids have trouble learning in situations/enviornments where they can't have their basic needs met. People need to use the restrooms.

First, I doubt you're an educator based on your writing style. If you are, you would know that teachers have been asking for more help with the "high flyers" for years. Restricting their bathroom and hall passes and giving them escorts is not a bad idea.

The rest of us doubt you are a parent.....so run along Gatehouse.

PP. I'm a teacher and a parent in FCPS. Most of the people at Gatehouse are useless and that's part of the reason we're in this mess. Scrap the administrative bloat over there and you could easily fund multiple hall monitors for every single middle and high school in the county.

Recommend that you take a few minutes to watch the work session from Tuesday, Aug 26. If this is a sample of the preparation and work that staff does, it is not any wonder we are in this mess. Of course, leadership does not inspire I'm sure. But, the lack of preparation for obvious questions was stunning.

Did anyone complain about the weapons detectors making kids late?

I complained to the school board but as you can see from the meeting they are being very rosy about the whole situation and sure that once kids are used to them the lines will be gone.

The only person who actually probed Reid on this at the school board meeting was the student rep. She asked Reid whether students will be marked tardy. Reid skirted around the question by saying things are going so well that no one is going to be late so there is no need to decide whether to mark kids tardy. She did eventually say that kids shouldn't be marked tardy if it isn't their fault (after establishing to her own satisfaction that it is going to be the student's fault in all cases). She then entertained a question about whether the bus schedule should change to get everyone to school earlier, and she said that would be a good idea. So, to sum up: it's going great, and if it's not going great, the answer is to get students to school long before the first bell.

Wow. She is so full of it.

It would be good if Reid spent more time on what is going on in the schools in reality. Instead, she walks in and gets her picture taken and talks to a small group of kids about special projects.

Her job is to see that kids are getting a good education. I am all for the superintendent visiting the schools, but unless she is showing up without warning, she is not going to see that.

[Anonymous]

The metal detectors are trampling on students constitutional rights. Students who are not suspected of carrying weapons shouls not be subjected to these unlawful searches.

[Anonymous]

Serious question: how does one go about suing FCPS over searching these students every day? What is the best law firm to handle this case? My kid is already rattled about school and it has zero to do with the possibility of a mass shooter who might open up at the grocery store, movie theater, or anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Westfield today. We have received zero messaging about weapons detection.

Greetings. All Westfield families are receiving this message. Please note that students who accumulate between 5 and 10 unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive lunch detention and be placed on pass restrictions (from 4 to 2 per day). Students who accumulate 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive an afterschool detention and will be pass restricted to 1/day. When students have four weeks of 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts (consecutively or not), they will be placed on full day escort and parents will be invited to a meeting at school. This is a change from last year. Tardies and class cuts will be monitored on weekly basis. Please talk with your student and remind them to arrive to class on time and to not leave class without permission. Thank you for your support and partnership!

Best,
Maranda Black
Dean of Students

Unintended consequences

If those kids get full day escorts can they skip the security lines?

I also think the metal detectors are overkill. But where is the disbelief that a high schooler needs to be walked to class like a 2nd grader? These behaviors take up way too much staff time and unfortunately it’s not a rare occurrence. Maybe mom or dad needs to come in and walk their darling to class for a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Westfield today. We have received zero messaging about weapons detection.

Greetings. All Westfield families are receiving this message. Please note that students who accumulate between 5 and 10 unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive lunch detention and be placed on pass restrictions (from 4 to 2 per day). Students who accumulate 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts in one week will receive an afterschool detention and will be pass restricted to 1/day. When students have four weeks of 11+ unexcused tardies or class cuts (consecutively or not), they will be placed on full day escort and parents will be invited to a meeting at school. This is a change from last year. Tardies and class cuts will be monitored on weekly basis. Please talk with your student and remind them to arrive to class on time and to not leave class without permission. Thank you for your support and partnership!

Best,
Maranda Black
Dean of Students

Unintended consequences

If those kids get full day escorts can they skip the security lines?

I also think the metal detectors are overkill. But where is the disbelief that a high schooler needs to be walked to class like a 2nd grader? These behaviors take up way too much staff time and unfortunately it’s not a rare occurrence. Maybe mom or dad needs to come in and walk their darling to class for a few days.

+1. These high schoolers need to be given a laptop and told to log on from home. What a waste of staff resources.

[Anonymous]

Actual student here. I go to TJ, so I generally don’t have to worry about classmates bringing weapons to school anyway. At least at TJ, it goes by very smoothly. It was a bit annoying at first, but you get used to it quickly. However, it all depends on when your bus arrives. If your bus arrives later, then you’ll most likely be late. The process is quite quick though.

[Anonymous]

TJ is completely different from a regular high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ is completely different from a regular high school.

TJ also has a very strong principal.

[Anonymous]

Week 3- have all the kinks been worked out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Week 3- have all the kinks been worked out?

So far, my 2 kids have been late to first period every day except for the Friday of the first week.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why are they doing this across all schools? They should be using crime and student incident data. There is no reason mclean and langley pyramids need these compared to the bad schools like justice and falls church zones.

Pshhh. Imagine if FCPS decided not to put metal detectors at those schools and then something terrible happened. Those parents would lawyer up so fast.

Also, there are plenty of incidents at both McLean and Langley and their feeders. The parents know how to work the system so there's no evidence their kids did anything wrong.

How on earth could you know that? I've assumed that the school board didn't want to stigmatize the schools that actually need the weapons detectors because that would appear inequitable.

Staff talk and so do students. Students share videos, too.

Which is exactly why I think your statement lacks credibility. My kids (Woodson) have told me about the occasional fight but they've never seen or heard of a weapon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Week 3- have all the kinks been worked out?

Nope!
GL to everyone starting this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

There aren't "kinks". Its logistically impossible to shuttle 3000 kids through a few doors of metal detectors---taking items out of their bags--- in 20 minutes. It can't be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actual student here. I go to TJ, so I generally don’t have to worry about classmates bringing weapons to school anyway. At least at TJ, it goes by very smoothly. It was a bit annoying at first, but you get used to it quickly. However, it all depends on when your bus arrives. If your bus arrives later, then you’ll most likely be late. The process is quite quick though.

TJ had 2098 students in 2024-2025. The # of students in the new school year is unavailable yet, but TJ probably is one of the small high schools in NOVA if not the smallest. Some high schools have over 3000 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actual student here. I go to TJ, so I generally don’t have to worry about classmates bringing weapons to school anyway. At least at TJ, it goes by very smoothly. It was a bit annoying at first, but you get used to it quickly. However, it all depends on when your bus arrives. If your bus arrives later, then you’ll most likely be late. The process is quite quick though.

It would be ridiculous to put on teacher to determine who is legit tardy and who is weapons late. So do teachers just mark tardy and then sorted by main office? Any teachers telling kids to not ride bus to make sure get to school in time for weapons?