Reply to Eastern or Sligo middle school? Are they equally good/safe?

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Reply to "Eastern or Sligo middle school? Are they equally good/safe?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Eastern parent here.  The way I read the listserv traffic was that the principal probably did, indeed, respond initially with a "off school property, nothing we can do" attitude, but then the Eastern PTA president contacted her and posted that he had talked with Principal Crouse and "she understood the concerns".  I don't think that anything would have happened without the further poke from the PTA president.

FWIW, there have been many, many security concerns at the school.  This is definitely not the first time students have been "jumped" on the way home from school.  DD has a friend who missed two days of school having been beaten up on the way home.  There are fights at school and sexual harassment of girls is a consistently under-addressed problem (yes, slap-ass week was a thing for several semesters and unwanted touching still continues, although not in as highly organized a fashion).  Kids are not necessarily "scared" of these behaviors because it is considered "normal" and something that will never change.  Sad.  [/quote]

I have an inside perspective on what happened and I can assure you that this was not how it happened.  The interpretation of the principal's attitude of "sorry nothing we can do" is not accurate.  I understand that the parent was upset but this is not a fair characterization.  The steps taken were taken before the listserv posts began to circulate,  not at the behest of the (very dedicated)  PTA president communicated with the principal.

I think sometimes people want to hear something specific (for example, "oh of course I will station teachers at points around the neighborhood with walkie talkies and dismiss students with behavior problems only to the custody of their parents") and when they don't get that, they jump to a carachterization that isn't entirely fair.  Principals are limited in terms of what they can do without working with the police and MCPS security.

Also, I think it's important to note that it's not like the school is bringing all these kids into the neighborhood from far away.  These students live in the neighborhood.  This is a neighborhood-wide problem and while the school has an important role to play, the school doesn't cause them.  I don't honestly know what people expect the school to do, beyond the disciplinary and administrative actions they've already taken.
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