Reply to School safety - What is MCPS actually doing and considering doing?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, we've been in MCPS for 14 years now, and really have not had any real issues of note.  Our three kids have had jointly 33 years in the system now and we've never had a chair throwing or table flipping incident.  I've also never heard about anything like that from someone in our schools that personally experienced it.  I think the people who have experienced this post a lot, so it's an unrepresentative sample.   Of course, kids get into fights on the playground -- that happens, and I do wish there was better playground monitoring to minimize those problems.  When it got bad at our ES, they asked our curriculum specialist to help out at recess for a while.  (He was great and is now a principal!)  There was also a period where they tried to get parents to volunteer to come in and help -- but even though the PTA asked for this, no one signed up to do it, so that petered out.
 
One of my HS students had a few lockdowns while she was in HS for kids with guns on campus or in the surrounding community.  Honestly, I don't think it's any worse than it was when I was in school in the 1980s in a suburban HS out west.  Back then, we didn't have lock downs -- kids just whispered about it.  Now, if anyone even gets a whiff of anyone with a gun within a quarter mile of the school, the whole school goes on lockdown.  They are just incredibly cautious now -- this is part of the answer to "what are they doing.  They are also requiring IDs to enter at most HS now -- although my understanding is that it's not super effective because there aren't enough security guards to really check.

Your OP is little unclear about your real concerns.  You mention the news stories that reference student on student violence, but then are asking about a mass shooting incident, which is really different.  Totally different causes and solutions.

My understanding is that MCPS, and individual schools, have had security assessments by individuals who work in the field of mass violence. This led to the locked doors -- you can't enter without buzzing in after being viewed on camera, and you are then fed directly into the admin office, where you must present ID and sign in.  Having security/police there during outdoor PE, bus dropoff, etc., for every elementary school would be really expensive and, at the end of the day, probably wouldn't prevent much of anything.  I personally don't think it's realistic.  MCPS does do a LOT of work in talking to kids about mental health and how to identify when a friend needs help, etc.  Some of the schools also have excellent counselors who are really on top of the kids at their school (I wish there were more!).  And Maryland has stronger gun laws than a lot of other places, and MCPS has a demographic that is more anti-gun than some other places.  So you're much less likely to have the situation of a 6 year old that brings mom's loaded gun in his backpack to school, or have a 13 year old that gets an automatic weapon for his birthday.

There is talk about bringing back the SRO program (or beefing up the current CEO program so its more like the SRO program) -- I think that is a realistic goal for parents, and could be really helpful.  IMHO, parents of color need to be asking for this, if they want it.  When they had meetings about it in 2020-2021, I think white parents were a little reluctant to center themselves in this conversation, given the accusations that the SRO program was bad for students of color.  If families of color are upset with the current situation, I think their voices would be most effective in counteracting that narrative.  Increasing the number of security guards (who are unarmed MCPS employees, not police) would also be really helpful, and is probably a realistic goal.  My understanding is that there was some inequity in the allocation of security guards, but some HSs that didn't get enough complained and it's fixed if the HS makes enough noise.

There is also talk about metal detectors.  That's probably not realistic given the budget crisis in Maryland this year, but might be realistic in the future.  I personally am skeptical that it would be practical given the sheer numbers of kids at most HSs.

One other thing that might be realistic is those alerts that were used in a recent school shooting where the teachers were able to alert the police directly and response arrived within minutes.  (I can't remember which one this was -- maybe the one in Georgia?)  I think those would be great, although I think that currently there seems to be decent communication.  At one of the lockdowns at my kids HS, this is what happened, all within a couple of minutes:
1) a kid saw another kid in the parking lot, who seemed to have a gun.  (I think the first kdi saw it through a window).
2) kid immediately alerted security guard
3) Security guard locked door and radioed back to admin office -- "Gun Lockdown" while he sprinted across the school to ensure that the admin office had heard him and was taking action.
4) Admin office announced lockdown over speakers.
5) At same time, MCPD office stationed there as a CEO was on response for the kid with gun -- who ran off the school property.
6) MCPD sent additional cars, arrived within minutes, to patrol neighborhood looking for the kid who'd run off.
7) Lockdown converted to a shelter in place once MCPS confirmed kid off property.
I thought it was handled really well, with the possible exception that the shelter in place lasted a long time, because MCPD didn't find the kid with the gun and was patrolling around the neighborhood for hours.  Again ,back in the 80s and 90s, they would never lockdown or shelter in place a school just because some idiot is running around the neighboring community with a gun.  They are super cautious now.[/quote]

Thank you for such a realistic post! [/quote]

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