Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

Um....the kids doing those things aren't the ones going to clubs! Do you even have a child in MCPS?

Also, there isn't MCPS funding for to support after-school activity buses for all the HS clubs (and probably not enough bus drivers, either). Having it during school ensures that more kids can participate.

Yes. I have children in MCPS. And guess what? Club participation in my kids schools sucks even with the lunch option.

Furthermore, my point is we got the kids doing the negative things I outlined above in a productive afterschool club, then we wouldn't have these issues.

Your high-achieving kid might benefit from accessing clubs during lunch, but that is at the expense of kids who need to be engaged in safe and productive afterschool activities.

Your AP kid will be fine because you're a hyper involved parent. And they likely can't meet afterschool because you have them signed up for other enrichment opportunities. So once again, your high-achieving kid liking the ability to meet as a club during lunch is not a reason to maintain a status quo that isn't working for the majority.

With regard to transportation: Assuming we're talking about high school kids, they have free access to Ride-On and Metrobus. Isn't that why that benefit was arranged with both of those transportation systems in the first place? Again, when kids need to get around to do bad things, they have no problem doing it. We have to stop acting like afterschool clubs is some unreasonable burden or hurdle that can't be overcome. This was the norm in MCPS for many decades.

Lastly, clubs running exclusively during lunch is inequitable because once again, it relies on teachers being willing to give up their contracted down time (lunch). You can't build a sustainable system on the backs of teachers being willing to give up their labor rights. This means only those teachers who are willing sacrifice their down time and space will do it. But that's not fair. They deserve a break. Additionally, because clubs and other stuff are crammed during lunch, fewer teachers are interested in becoming club sponsors too, which is a requirement for any club. Which just exacerbates the problem of school culture and connection which is prevalent in many of our high schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

Um....the kids doing those things aren't the ones going to clubs! Do you even have a child in MCPS?

Also, there isn't MCPS funding for to support after-school activity buses for all the HS clubs (and probably not enough bus drivers, either). Having it during school ensures that more kids can participate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

We have to stop with this narrative. The same children you're insisting are too busy to meet after school have all the time in the world to:

- Get their hands on ghost guns
- Drug deal and/or use drugs
- Rob CVS
- Get into fights at McDonald's
- Break into vacant houses and record fight videos
- Stab and rob people at Wheaton mall

If the children have time to get into trouble after school, they certainly have time to do productive things after school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

Yes, I do and we make it work. No activity busses for us. We make multiple trips to schools some days. On ap days you can sign your kid out to leave early. I don’t, most do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Do you have high schoolers? Especially ones that rely on the buses to get to and from school? Having one lunch period where students can do make-up tests, meet with teachers, and have club meetings is incredibly helpful for busy kids and families who would otherwise struggle to find time outside of the school day. Activity buses only run some days, so it can be hard for students to stay late or get to school early. As a parent with kids in two separate MCPS high schools (including one at Blake), I would prefer that more effort be put into actually enforcing the closed campus rules at lunch at least for the schools with closed lunches. I just dropped one kid off at their high school (not Blake) for an afternoon AP test and the number of students walking around the neighborhood during a supposed closed lunch period was ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I don't know what can be done about crap that happens outside of school during the school day, and I'm not in favor of prohibiting open lunch. Let's just focus on preventing guns and other weapons from being brought INSIDE school.

You're not in favor of giving up open lunch to the extent that you're on board with fighting to preserve even though you know it puts the safety of children at risk? I think you really need to re-evaluate why you feel that strongly about preserving open lunch over the safety and wellbeing of children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

The reasons that there is one lunch period is for clubs can meet and so kids can meet with teachers.

They can do clubs after school. Kids can meet before and after school with teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Lol, I graduated from Blake 10 years ago and it was a terrible school. Even 10 years later its still bad.

W schools have shottings and violence too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

Many MCPS schools have had open campus lunch since the 1960s. B-CC's cafeteria was designed on the small side on purpose so that students would continue to leave campus at lunch.

Very few. BCC had multiple lunch times way back when.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I don't know what can be done about crap that happens outside of school during the school day, and I'm not in favor of prohibiting open lunch. Let's just focus on preventing guns and other weapons from being brought INSIDE school.

How do you propose preventing that? Our campus is crazy at lunch with all the kids and staff leaving plus all the delivery drivers. The delivery drivers are a constant stream and many unsafe with driving.

Honestly I don't know what can be done about crap that happens outside of school during the school day, and I'm not in favor of prohibiting open lunch. Let's just focus on preventing guns and other weapons from being brought INSIDE school.

Anonymous wrote:Given that the 17yo probably had the gun on him all morning INSIDE the school, the problem wasn't that they had lunch outside. Prohibiting outside lunch doesnt help the violence issue and doesnt keep our kids safe.

No, it could have been in his car.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming that the 19 year old was a former Blake HS student. Hence why he was at the school to pick up a friend. He has ties to the Blake community and is known by many seniors.

Furthermore, the gun likely belonged to the student was shot. Which might mean he had the gun on him while he was in school.

Another thing: apparently the principal has been allowing students to eat lunch in their cars in the parking lot. So the reason why the kids were congregating in the parking lot was because the principal has been allowing them to spend lunch there. That seems like a really bone-headed call for him to have made.

I think that’s common in many HS. There isn’t really room in the cafeteria for people to eat. Our schools are very overcrowded.
I’m not really sure the solution. I think one issue is that when I was in HS, you could drop out after 16, so I think some of these kids that just didn’t want to be in school weren’t in school.

Outside of MCPs there are high schools that schedule multiple lunches. Easy to combine lunch and advisory into one period to at least split lunches into 2.

In 2027, almost every HS building will have reduced enrollment due to the boundary changes and opening of Woodward. Seems like a great time to go back to closed lunches.

Many MCPS schools have had open campus lunch since the 1960s. B-CC's cafeteria was designed on the small side on purpose so that students would continue to leave campus at lunch.

Lol, I graduated from Blake 10 years ago and it was a terrible school. Even 10 years later its still bad.