Gangs in area schools

[Anonymous]

The OP is not talking about kids that are getting into the magnet program but talking about what school district to buy a house - so until you are willing to send your kids to the mainstream program at Blair and live in the outlying neighborhood you should not talk from experience. It is well known the magnet kids at Blair are kept away from the general population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The OP is not talking about kids that are getting into the magnet program but talking about what school district to buy a house - so until you are willing to send your kids to the mainstream program at Blair and live in the outlying neighborhood you should not talk from experience. It is well known the magnet kids at Blair are kept away from the general population.

I can talk from experience - I live in one of the neighborhoods directly adjacent to Blair. We do not have gangs in our neighborhood, or to my knowledge, any of the Silver Spring neighborhoods directly surrounding Blair. There may be some gangs in the areas closer to Langley Park, but that's at least a mile or more away from Blair. You cannot paint with such a broad stroke here. Most of the neighborhoods that feed into Blair are quiet residential neighborhoods that do not harbor gang populations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YOU need to wake up.

First of all, what 9th grader goes to a birthday party? Where do you live? La La Land? (Are you in a W school or its feeder, by any chance?)

Gang members are not easily identified. They are quiet b/c the school is their "area of business," and if they're suspended, they've lost their business. Attendance is an issue, too. So when they're absent, any gang activity is usually done off campus for the reason mentioned above.

Their "tatts" (such cool lingo, PP) are covered b/c although the "tatt" is important to their gang "family," it's not a great thing to show off in school b/c security is always in the know, constantly keeping up with tagging.

Finally, gang members usualy don't associate with your average kid. They are not interested in your child. They recruit in elementary and middle school and usually recruit local kids (as in those in their neighborhoods) b/c gangs are territorial. So unless you're living in a low-income neighborhood (Sadly, this IS the truth.), you really have nothing to worry about.

such ignorance

Anonymous wrote:Really, gang activity doesn't affect other students? Hmmm...what if you went to drop off your 9th grader at a bday party at their AP/GT English classmate's place and their older sibling opened the door covered in gang tatts? Change sibling to parent. Would you be comfortable with that? What if your gang member PE student sells drugs in the locker room? What if your gang member PE student stashes their drugs in your kid's locker without your kid's knowledge? What if they stash and tell your kid, "you don't mind, right?" And your kid does mind and says so and then gets the crap beat out of them. Or knows about the last kid who minded and got the crap beat out of them and so shrugs their shoulders.

Gang kids are EASY to pick out. Wake up, people.

Agree wth all of this. I, too, have taught MS-13 members (in FCPS) and they definitely keep to themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The OP is not talking about kids that are getting into the magnet program but talking about what school district to buy a house - so until you are willing to send your kids to the mainstream program at Blair and live in the outlying neighborhood you should not talk from experience. It is well known the magnet kids at Blair are kept away from the general population.

I'm astonished you would post that certain things are "well known" about the Blair magnets, when these things actually aren't true. I'm also astonished you would insist others post about mainstream Blair "from experience," when you obviously have none but it doesn't stop you from painting wild, hallucinatory pictures about the place.

Even magnet kids take 3-6 year-long classes per year with the rest of the school, depending on the magnet program (math/science or CAP) and the year. All foreign language, gym, elective (art, music, band) and required courses (health, tech) are taken with NON-MAGNET kids. Not only that, magnet kids take all their non-magnet classes with NON-MAGNET kids (for the math/science magnet that would be english and social studies, for the CAP that would be science and math). Then of course they mix with NON-MAGNET kids in cafeteria and the hallways because, despite what you think, the magnet kids don't have their own wing of the school.

I can speak from experience (unlike you, because you clearly have no clue whatsoever). I have a kid who has taken a number of "regular" Blair classes. DC tells me that she has no idea who the gang members are. The gang members do not interrupt her "regular" Blair classes. Nobody has ever stashed drugs in her locker. For that matter, nobody has even stolen her PDA, and the one time she left it somewhere it was in the same place when she came back for it. She doesn't have to show her tatt to enter the building. She has never had to dodge bullets in the hallway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The OP is not talking about kids that are getting into the magnet program but talking about what school district to buy a house - so until you are willing to send your kids to the mainstream program at Blair and live in the outlying neighborhood you should not talk from experience. It is well known the magnet kids at Blair are kept away from the general population.

I can talk from experience - I live in one of the neighborhoods directly adjacent to Blair. We do not have gangs in our neighborhood, or to my knowledge, any of the Silver Spring neighborhoods directly surrounding Blair. There may be some gangs in the areas closer to Langley Park, but that's at least a mile or more away from Blair. You cannot paint with such a broad stroke here. Most of the neighborhoods that feed into Blair are quiet residential neighborhoods that do not harbor gang populations.

1 mile? you mean a 15 min walk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The OP is not talking about kids that are getting into the magnet program but talking about what school district to buy a house - so until you are willing to send your kids to the mainstream program at Blair and live in the outlying neighborhood you should not talk from experience. It is well known the magnet kids at Blair are kept away from the general population.

I'm astonished you would post that certain things are "well known" about the Blair magnets, when these things actually aren't true. I'm also astonished you would insist others post about mainstream Blair "from experience," when you obviously have none but it doesn't stop you from painting wild, hallucinatory pictures about the place.

Even magnet kids take 3-6 year-long classes per year with the rest of the school, depending on the magnet program (math/science or CAP) and the year. All foreign language, gym, elective (art, music, band) and required courses (health, tech) are taken with NON-MAGNET kids. Not only that, magnet kids take all their non-magnet classes with NON-MAGNET kids (for the math/science magnet that would be english and social studies, for the CAP that would be science and math). Then of course they mix with NON-MAGNET kids in cafeteria and the hallways because, despite what you think, the magnet kids don't have their own wing of the school.

I can speak from experience (unlike you, because you clearly have no clue whatsoever). I have a kid who has taken a number of "regular" Blair classes. DC tells me that she has no idea who the gang members are. The gang members do not interrupt her "regular" Blair classes. Nobody has ever stashed drugs in her locker. For that matter, nobody has even stolen her PDA, and the one time she left it somewhere it was in the same place when she came back for it. She doesn't have to show her tatt to enter the building. She has never had to dodge bullets in the hallway.

Not sure who is painting the hallucinatory picture - all I said is there are gang members in the school and crime ridden neighborhoods 3 miles away.

I did not say there are bullets in the hallway. I did not say gang memeber interrupt the class or stash drugs - all I said is that they exist. You seem to concur that they exist since your DC says they are there but she does not know who they are.

[Anonymous]

There is a series of posts that insinuate a whole lot of bad, without providing concrete details. These posts use the tactic of asking leading questions, i.e. whether we would send our kids to a school with gangs, if we would send our kids to playdates with kids who have parents or siblings with tatts, how we would feel if somebody put their stash in our kid's locker, et cetera. (The insinuating questions tactic reminds me of the Alexandria Academy stalker, BTW.) Not sure if they are yours, somebody else's, or from both of you.

But none of these posters has kids at Blair, or even in MoCo it would seem. So these insinuating questions are worthless scare-mongering.

Here's how ridiculous all these insinuations are: several people have quoted public officials saying that gangs exist at almost every school in MoCo. So does this mean we should avoid every single public school in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Not everywhere - Wheaton, Rockville, Germantown and Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

I posted way earlier on this thread to say that a high-level administrator told us, a few years ago, that there are gangs in almost every MoCo school. Maybe not every last MoCo school, but most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everywhere - Wheaton, Rockville, Germantown and Silver Spring.

As another poster (you?) said, opinions are worthless unless backed up by direct experience. Neither of the posters who keep slamming these schools has any experience with them. (And being a lawyer in VA, with kids in private school, doesn't count as experience with the schools mentioned above.)

Two other posters with direct experience have said that many of these schools are fine.

Gee, I wonder whose opinion to trust?

[Anonymous]

MCPS middle school parent here. A police officer who spoke at a PTA meeting did say that there are gang members in [u]every[/u] Montogmery County high school; not just the high schools in Wheaton, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, etc. The numbers and activity level is different at different schools, but the sad truth is that gang members are in all our high schools and some middle schools. Instead of arguing with each other, perhaps our energy would be better spent discussing what if anything can be done about this sad state of affairs. I am told that while there are gang members in our high school (Blair) that there are no gang activities at school. I'm not even sure what that means or that it makes me feel any better. I know that the idea that my child or any child will be in school with gang members makes me feel sick. Can any parents and/or teachers give me a realistic picture of what to expect?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]MCPS middle school parent here. A police officer who spoke at a PTA meeting did say that there are gang members in [u]every[/u] Montogmery County high school; not just the high schools in Wheaton, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, etc. The numbers and activity level is different at different schools, but the sad truth is that gang members are in all our high schools and some middle schools. Instead of arguing with each other, perhaps our energy would be better spent discussing what if anything can be done about this sad state of affairs. I am told that while there are gang members in our high school (Blair) that there are no gang activities at school. I'm not even sure what that means or that it makes me feel any better. I know that the idea that my child or any child will be in school with gang members makes me feel sick. Can any parents and/or teachers give me a realistic picture of what to expect? [/quote]

Not sure anything can be done. The original post was asking about what school district to buy a house and for some reason a magnet school parent (Blair and Takoma Park) took it personal that somebody might not recommend buying a house in that school district (even though they personally don't live there but commute into the magnet programs).

The crime rate is more around the schools not in the schools.

All kids need to be educated on how to stay safe - walk with friends, be aware of your surroundings, don't go to Langley Park, etc.

Every part of MoCo have neighborhoods that our kids should stay away from, some more dangerous, some less dangerous. It does not make sense to be ignorant to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everywhere - Wheaton, Rockville, Germantown and Silver Spring.

As another poster (you?) said, opinions are worthless unless backed up by direct experience. Neither of the posters who keep slamming these schools has any experience with them. (And being a lawyer in VA, with kids in private school, doesn't count as experience with the schools mentioned above.)

Two other posters with direct experience have said that many of these schools are fine.

Gee, I wonder whose opinion to trust?

I actually have direct experience - I am not the lawyer - my experience is through the eyes of an adult not children that attend the school. (though I have relatives there)

[Anonymous]

"My experience is through the eyes of dn adult not children who attend the school"

-- What does this even mean? Obviously you don't have kids there. Do you think reading the papers or DCUM counts as "experience"?

[Anonymous]

She drives by Blair every day on her way from her home in College Park to her job in Bethesda. Sometimes she sees Blair kids outside the school with her "adult eyes."

Two posters have cited good authorities saying there are gangs in every MoCo school. So ignore this buffoon.

The question for those of us with school-age kids (house hunters or not) is whether this should deter us from publics in MoCo. I think we can ignore the scary hypotheticals about play dates and such, because posters with kids at MoCo schools have said this isn't the experience. Two teachers have posted to say the gangs are actually low key at school.