Reply to Gun recovered at Northwood High school??

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm on the community meeting now and they are being very self-congratulatory about how well they reacted.

I am glad they are so good at reacting, [b]but how about preventing? [/b]

[/quote]

MCPS is not interested in that conversation.[/quote]

What kinds of things do you think would prevent this from happening? I’ve heard a lot of comments like this, but it’s not like they’re “letting” kids bring guns to school. I would love to help advocate for stronger prevention but I’m trying to understand what that looks like. What should we be asking for? Are there models out there MCPS could be following better? [/quote]

+100

What is MCPS’s role in this? And the answer is not refusing to service trouble kids. Legally, that isn’t an option. [/quote]

So here's the thing, the answer to this question structurally already exists on paper. The problem is MCPS refuses to follow through on what it already should be doing.

Those things include:

- Working collaboratively with MCPD to detect, investigate and root out crime in communities that spills into schools, in accordance to their existing MOU
- Furthermore, updating their MOU to strengthen investigative and community collaboration is another option
- Bringing to bear all of the community resources they're already supposed to be deploying (Bridge to Wellness, Linkages to Learning, Wellness Centers, PPWs, Street Outreach Network, Social Workers) and seeing why despite this wide safety net, so many kids, like the boy arrested at Northwood, keep falling through the cracks
- Holding principals accountable for leadership and training failures
- Being more honest and transparent with the public about what is happening in the schools, as opposed to suppressing information in the hopes of preservation the illusion of a reputation MCPS doesn't deserve

That's just for starters.

The National Education Association has a whole host of recommendations MCPS can also follow too: https://www.nea.org/resource-library/gun-violence-prevention-response-guide/gun-violence-prevention

One of the most effective things that prevents gun violence in school according to the NEA, is a Safe and Supportive School Climate. MCPS's school climate surveys show that they've done a horrible job for years of meeting that critical expectation.

So there's plenty that MCPS can and should be doing, but they aren't. Instead of assuming MCPS is helpless and should be held blameless, let's hold them accountable.[/quote]

There’s a lot of space between asking what MCPS could be doing better and assuming they’re helpless or not holding MCPS accountable. This list of aspirational goals sounds great on paper. I’m curious how ideals like this can be actually implemented or measured.

Like “holding principals accountable for leadership and training failures.” Did you list that because you have some information that was a contributing factor here? Because if not, then that example isn’t very useful in this conversation. What about deploying community resources? How do we on the outside know if that was happening here? Is there a reason we should assume it wasn’t?

I’m not an MCPS apologist. But I do appreciate Dr. Garrick and the staff at Northwood, who no more want a gun in the school than we do. And who probably tried very hard to implement these ideals and to support this student. It’s unfair to assume they weren’t doing all those things you outlined above.

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