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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]From what I heard, the suspect has been in altercations before.

The overall issue with school violence in MCPS is that they closed down the school for students with behavioral problems (Twain) a couple years ago, to much fanfare. Now, students with issues who are a threat are just shifted around between schools. In the Damascus rape case, the ringleader was on his third high school by that point, since that's all they can do.

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There are other alternative schools that MCPS has access to.  There's RICA.  There's Blair Ewing, although I don't think it's geared for kids with behavioral problems.  MCPS needs to do a better job of identifying the kids' needs and sending them to the appropriate schools.  Maybe they can even expel a kid from MCPS and use that money to send the kid to a private school like Ridge or Foundations.  If MCPS doesn't want to reopen the alternative schools, they should at least do something and not let the kids devolve into WWE in the regular high schools.  The BOE has been dropping the ball for years, neglecting money and resources toward behavioral problems (closing Twain).  The recent MCPS behavioral incidents in the news are not normal (Richard Montgomery HS hallway sex in 2014, Damascus HS football team, Rockville HS sex in bathroom, now Whitman frying pan).  BOE needs to get their heads out of their sand and do something, anything.  I get that they want to close the achievement gap, but they can walk and chew gum at the same time right?[/quote]

You clearly have no understanding of the legal requirements of the special ed process or the nature of these private placements. You talk as if it's just a matter of MCPS assigning problem students to the right schools. It has nothing to do with the BOE. RICA, Ridge, Lourie Center, Pathways, Jefferson, Foundation, etc. are only for kids with IEPs. They have a right under federal law to be in the least restrictive environment. It's very often not until you have an incident like this frying pan attack that you have the evidence you need to demonstrate that a more restrictive placement is warranted. The IEP team isn't clairvoyant. And placing a kid in a 100% special education school is not a simple decision or an easy process--it's months of jumping through hoops, assessments, data collection, etc. and these private schools are not part of MCPS and can reject kids they don't think are a good fit. And they are ludicrously expensive. Blair Ewing is an alternative placement for kids who have been expelled, meaning you actually have to have done something terrible first to get there.

And that's assuming the parents are even on board. MCPS can try its best but parents can wreak havoc on the process. Getting a kid an IEP for Emotional Disability is already difficult because it's widely regarded as the third rail of special ed codes and many parents will do anything they can to avoid it or deny it, even if it's appropriate. Hence, the classrooms often end up filled with FARMS or minority kids because the wealthier parents hire lawyers and advocates to do gymnastics to avoid these placements, which MCPS is rightfully concerned about. Nobody wants to be in the ED classrooms in a comprehensive school, let alone be placed in RICA or Foundation unless the situation is absolutely desperate. Nobody wants their kid to be one of "those" kids (same with Intellectual Disability, sadly).  With the Damascus rapist ringleader, all of MCPS's efforts to give him special ed and change his placement were stymied by his mother, who was in total denial of her son's issues and refused consent for services, which MCPS can do absolutely nothing about. Only when he did something truly horrible and was in legal trouble did she suddenly have an epiphany.

You seem to be advocating some kind of Minority Report world where MCPS magically knows who these problem kids are and forces them into 100% self-contained special ed placements before they've done anything to warrant it. IDEA doesn't work that way.[/quote]

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