Anonymous
05/23/2025 20:49
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I had a talk with my admin today at high school and they report more support is supposed to come next year. We’ll see.
Dr. Taylor just cut the promised security and extra special ed teachers. I would not count on any help.
He did not. They lowered the amount of each. And many of the Special Ed positions was always about making Paras fulltime
Anonymous
05/23/2025 20:39
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Anonymous wrote:I had a talk with my admin today at high school and they report more support is supposed to come next year. We’ll see.
Dr. Taylor just cut the promised security and extra special ed teachers. I would not count on any help.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 20:38
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Anonymous wrote:The SESES program is a discrete program for students with emotional disabilities. If this child is having as many problems even with the support of the program, it’s likely that the program staff are looking at moving the child to a more restrictive environment. If that’s taking a long time, it’s outside of the school staffs control. That’s federal law plus central office MCPS being difficult to work with and refusing to move students.
This system needs to change. We asked for an IEP, begged for help (child is not acting up, good kid but clearly needs help) and the VP without meeting the child or knowing who they are said no they are fine and refused even an evaluation. It was so bizarre. So, more than likely admin is just ignoring this as they are too lazy to put in the work, or do their job.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 20:36
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It is crazy there is no support for kids with behaviors that are harmful to themselves or others, and no support for other kids harmed by those kids.
Thank goodness Taylor kept logowear in the budget. Everything is better with logowear.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 20:02
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
My cousin got a concussion from a kid and had to retire early as a result. Some of these kids are a menace. MCPS needs to admit the home school model is often too little too late for some kids.
By the time they get to high school we are just trying to manage them until the they move, drop out, or get arrested and have a judge assign actual consequences for once.
By the time they get to high school we are just trying to manage them until the they move, drop out, or get arrested and have a judge assign actual consequences for once.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 19:40
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Elementary is horrible right now. Classes aren't leveled and kids aren't coded with special needs yet. Kids are also not allowed to get suspended (or central office makes it almost impossible). Elementary used to be a sweet and fun place to work, but no longer.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 19:33
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
A relative just returned to work after needing shoulder surgery when she was injured by an out of control elementary-aged sped student.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 18:43
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
The problem is it can take an entire year for the teachers to document enough data for central office to ok the discrete programs, and even then, only if the parents agree. Sometimes they've been begging for it, and sometimes, unfortunately, the parents are in complete denial and don't want a "label" for their kid
Anonymous
05/23/2025 18:32
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
The SESES program is a discrete program for students with emotional disabilities. If this child is having as many problems even with the support of the program, it’s likely that the program staff are looking at moving the child to a more restrictive environment. If that’s taking a long time, it’s outside of the school staffs control. That’s federal law plus central office MCPS being difficult to work with and refusing to move students.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 17:44
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
One of my second grade students cussed me out today because she didn't like the lunch her mom packed for her. Her mom wouldn't bring her a different one and you would have thought the world was coming to an end. Sadly, that's actually a mild example of what's going on in our elementary schools right now. The hitting, throwing of furniture, defiance, etc. is through the roof. I am so glad that this is my last year. Six years was enough for me in this line of work.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 15:35
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
I had a talk with my admin today at high school and they report more support is supposed to come next year. We’ll see.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 15:00
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
It’s so much worse than this article describes. When we have had out of control students in the past, kids can get sent to the office and have consequences such as detention or suspension. Now, throwing a stapler across the room is just a normal day. Better work on your relationship with the child by giving up your lunch! Getting cussed at- don’t send them to the office, just build your rapport with the child! Get hit. No biggie- just build your rapport. But whatever you do, do t send them to the office because if you do you will be told that it is your fault!
Anonymous
05/23/2025 14:44
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
Anonymous wrote:It is crazy there is no support for kids with behaviors that are harmful to themselves or others, and no support for other kids harmed by those kids.
Thank goodness Taylor kept logowear in the budget. Everything is better with logowear.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 14:26
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
It is crazy there is no support for kids with behaviors that are harmful to themselves or others, and no support for other kids harmed by those kids.
Anonymous
05/23/2025 14:10
Subject: Bethesda Today: Behavioral issues, lack of support creating unsafe classrooms
There's a long, in-depth, reported story on the state of special ed in elementary schools and how it's impacting families, students, staff and schools.
It's worth a read: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/05/23/behavioral-issues-unsafe-classrooms/
Here's a good excerpt:
It's worth a read: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/05/23/behavioral-issues-unsafe-classrooms/
Here's a good excerpt:
Jones Lane Elementary School fourth grader Raya Anolik doesn’t feel safe in her Gaithersburg school – not after several incidents involving students with behavioral challenges who ran away from their teachers and hurt her or her classmates.
“She has drawn a diagram of every classroom that she is in, and then she’s also drawn on that paper, a diagram of the bathroom and underneath the bathroom, she wrote ‘the only safe place at Jones Lane,’” Raya’s mother Alexis Anolik told Bethesda Today recently.
....
According to Anolik, her 10-year-old daughter has been subjected to harassment and sometimes physical violence by another student who was in her classes. Raya Anolik also has testified before the school board about the experiences of her and her classmates, saying that she had concerns about safety and disruptions to her education.
“I truly believe that MCPS has not only failed the safety of my family and the other kids around, but they are definitely not doing any good for that kid,” Anolik said, referring to the student who she says has harassed her daughter. “Nobody should go to school and feel so out of control that they have to seek out another student and harm them.”
...
Anolik, who has two children at Jones Lane, said she was made aware of behavioral challenges regarding students participating in SESES during the 2023-2024 school year when she served as president of the Jones Lane Parent Teacher Association. Some students were pulling the fire alarm consistently, tearing down bulletin boards and hurting or threatening to hurt other students, she said.
“It was very clear that the training and the resources given to at least Jones Lane [wasn’t working],” Anolik said.
Anolik said she began looking for information and asking MCPS for ways parents could support the SESES program, without much of a response from the district.
Then in October, a student in the program became upset in the school library, pushed Raya and another student into a bookshelf, elbowed Raya in the ribs and grabbed and shook her. After Raya told her about the incident, Anolik said she reached out to Jones Lane Principal Ron Morris, who contacted her and discussed the incident.
“We were told that things had been changed, that they were going to monitor it,” Anolik said.
Later in the fall, the same student left a classroom from a separate part of the building and ran along a hallway yelling for Raya and then grabbing her by the hoodie before teachers could separate them, Anolik said. The student was removed from Raya’s classroom, but Anolik said she still had concerns for Raya’s safety.
In December, the student again ran along a hallway, yelling Raya’s name and entered her classroom, according to Anolik.
“She hid under her desk,” Anolik said. “Her homeroom teacher stood between the student and Raya while it took two other teachers to restrain him and remove him from the classroom.”