Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm giving names, people. Pay attention.

klewis@sbgtv.com
Kevin Lewis

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were the students who jumped the security guard arrested??

Not sure. I think the security guard would need to press charges. But this brings up a good point - why are crimes IN the schools, treated the same as crimes committed OUTSIDE of the school? If there is a fight at a movie theater, or a library, the cops are called, people are arrested, but not in MCPS. The school "handles" it.

A former colleague of mine taught in PA. That is how they handled violence in schools there. I wonder why MCPS won't do the same (or maybe it is a state law?)

At my school (a W school) a month ago, a freshman was trying to get into the building through the locked doors. She was knocking and knocking but another student (20 years old) just sat on the floor and didn't let her in. Finally security came, let her in, and she said in passing "thanks a lot for letting me in" to the student on the floor. He got up, pinned her against the wall by her throat, then started punching her in the face and body, then once she fell to the floor, continued to kick her. She suffered serious injury. Her mom is pressing charges now, but when that happened, he was suspended for ONE DAY. He is an Edison student, so technically not even supposed to be here each day, but his girlfriend still goes here, so the school lets him hang around. Now, he is told he can't be inside the building, but he is out front, right in front of the doors each day during lunch, making out with his girlfriend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS currently has teachers going through mandatory safety and security training, however, these incidents have happened very recently:

At Clarksburg, a security guard entered the boy's locker room to break-up a fight over a cell phone, then was jumped by three students. He was beat up pretty badly and dragged out of the locker room by the students.
At Sherwood, a substitute teacher was beat up last Monday.
Yesterday at Northwest, a student had an unloaded gun.
Last week, also at Sherwood, a student left bullets in a classroom. The school went on lockdown and was searched.

Funny, I am going to bet most of you haven't heard about a single one of these incidents.

I am sick and tired of MCPS not taking a stand when it comes to student security. No longer can they suspend students. It used to be 10 days for a fight, but students were missing too much "instructional time" so suspensions are frowned up. The county is terrified to say "no".

It is getting worse. It is going to take something major for there to be any changes made, and at this point, I don't know if THAT would even change anything.

The public deserves to know. Parents deserve to know about every single violent incident that happens within a public school building.

OP, if this stuff is true, get off the anonymous internet message board and start talking to the media. Or tell your local or state elected officials. Or both. Right now, all you're doing is rumormongering. That won't accomplish what you want to accomplish (unless what you want to accomplish is rumormongering).

That is why I came here. I need to know where to go. I got some good leads. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Were the students who jumped the security guard arrested??

Not sure. I think the security guard would need to press charges. But this brings up a good point - why are crimes IN the schools, treated the same as crimes committed OUTSIDE of the school? If there is a fight at a movie theater, or a library, the cops are called, people are arrested, but not in MCPS. The school "handles" it.

A former colleague of mine taught in PA. That is how they handled violence in schools there. I wonder why MCPS won't do the same (or maybe it is a state law?)

At my school (a W school) a month ago, a freshman was trying to get into the building through the locked doors. She was knocking and knocking but another student (20 years old) just sat on the floor and didn't let her in. Finally security came, let her in, and she said in passing "thanks a lot for letting me in" to the student on the floor. He got up, pinned her against the wall by her throat, then started punching her in the face and body, then once she fell to the floor, continued to kick her. She suffered serious injury. Her mom is pressing charges now, but when that happened, he was suspended for ONE DAY. He is an Edison student, so technically not even supposed to be here each day, but his girlfriend still goes here, so the school lets him hang around. Now, he is told he can't be inside the building, but he is out front, right in front of the doors each day during lunch, making out with his girlfriend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS currently has teachers going through mandatory safety and security training, however, these incidents have happened very recently:

At Clarksburg, a security guard entered the boy's locker room to break-up a fight over a cell phone, then was jumped by three students. He was beat up pretty badly and dragged out of the locker room by the students.
At Sherwood, a substitute teacher was beat up last Monday.
Yesterday at Northwest, a student had an unloaded gun.
Last week, also at Sherwood, a student left bullets in a classroom. The school went on lockdown and was searched.

Funny, I am going to bet most of you haven't heard about a single one of these incidents.

I am sick and tired of MCPS not taking a stand when it comes to student security. No longer can they suspend students. It used to be 10 days for a fight, but students were missing too much "instructional time" so suspensions are frowned up. The county is terrified to say "no".

It is getting worse. It is going to take something major for there to be any changes made, and at this point, I don't know if THAT would even change anything.

The public deserves to know. Parents deserve to know about every single violent incident that happens within a public school building.

OP, if this stuff is true, get off the anonymous internet message board and start talking to the media. Or tell your local or state elected officials. Or both. Right now, all you're doing is rumormongering. That won't accomplish what you want to accomplish (unless what you want to accomplish is rumormongering).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As MCPS staff I’m going to go with whistleblower too. I hope more step up. I know there are plenty who would speak if the press contacted them directly and gave them anonymity.

OP here, I don't know if "MCPS Whistleblower" is a thing, I am just really frustrated with the direction this county has gone and I don't know how much parents know.
If it is a real thing, count me in. I would love to tell the press what I know. And so would about half of the teachers I work with.
Teachers are fed up.
The county got rid of suspensions a while back because there were a disproportionate amount of black and Latino students suspended and those students, who were already not performing as well as their white and Asian counterparts, were missing a ton of instructional time. The problem is, teenagers aren't dumb. They recognized pretty quickly that there are no consequences for their actions (not just fighting, but also insubordination, bullying, cursing out teachers, absences). This has lead to a slow trickle of behaviors becoming accepted, and those behaviors will continue to be allowed until something BIG happens.
So we are being trained on how to take down an assailant, meanwhile, students in our classrooms are our biggest threat.

Okay, what's the Teacher's Union's position on this? Also, what is preventing teachers from calling the cops? I know for sure if some kid became violent in my classroom, I would call the cops. It is within your rights to call the cops if you feel like your safety or a student's safety is in danger. I would say that it's your obligation to call. Who cares what the principal or what the school WANTS you to do.

While I do like knowing more information, I have to correct you.

The county did NOT get rid of suspensions. Perhaps they are applying them more cautiously, but suspensions are still a daily event within MCPS. It's up to the specific school to determine the severity of the suspension (in-house, 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 10 days).

Anonymous wrote:MCPS currently has teachers going through mandatory safety and security training, however, these incidents have happened very recently:

At Clarksburg, a security guard entered the boy's locker room to break-up a fight over a cell phone, then was jumped by three students. He was beat up pretty badly and dragged out of the locker room by the students.
At Sherwood, a substitute teacher was beat up last Monday.
Yesterday at Northwest, a student had an unloaded gun.
Last week, also at Sherwood, a student left bullets in a classroom. The school went on lockdown and was searched.

Funny, I am going to bet most of you haven't heard about a single one of these incidents.

I am sick and tired of MCPS not taking a stand when it comes to student security. No longer can they suspend students. It used to be 10 days for a fight, but students were missing too much "instructional time" so suspensions are frowned up. The county is terrified to say "no".

It is getting worse. It is going to take something major for there to be any changes made, and at this point, I don't know if THAT would even change anything.

The public deserves to know. Parents deserve to know about every single violent incident that happens within a public school building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As MCPS staff I’m going to go with whistleblower too. I hope more step up. I know there are plenty who would speak if the press contacted them directly and gave them anonymity.

OP here, I don't know if "MCPS Whistleblower" is a thing, I am just really frustrated with the direction this county has gone and I don't know how much parents know.
If it is a real thing, count me in. I would love to tell the press what I know. And so would about half of the teachers I work with.
Teachers are fed up.
The county got rid of suspensions a while back because there were a disproportionate amount of black and Latino students suspended and those students, who were already not performing as well as their white and Asian counterparts, were missing a ton of instructional time. The problem is, teenagers aren't dumb. They recognized pretty quickly that there are no consequences for their actions (not just fighting, but also insubordination, bullying, cursing out teachers, absences). This has lead to a slow trickle of behaviors becoming accepted, and those behaviors will continue to be allowed until something BIG happens.
So we are being trained on how to take down an assailant, meanwhile, students in our classrooms are our biggest threat.

Okay, what's the Teacher's Union's position on this? Also, what is preventing teachers from calling the cops? I know for sure if some kid became violent in my classroom, I would call the cops. It is within your rights to call the cops if you feel like your safety or a student's safety is in danger. I would say that it's your obligation to call. Who cares what the principal or what the school WANTS you to do.

Well, I know of some colleagues who were discouraged from pressing charges. So again, this is a fear-based environment. I would call the cops in a heartbeat, but I am (and always will be) a big mouth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As MCPS staff I’m going to go with whistleblower too. I hope more step up. I know there are plenty who would speak if the press contacted them directly and gave them anonymity.

OP here, I don't know if "MCPS Whistleblower" is a thing, I am just really frustrated with the direction this county has gone and I don't know how much parents know.
If it is a real thing, count me in. I would love to tell the press what I know. And so would about half of the teachers I work with.
Teachers are fed up.
The county got rid of suspensions a while back because there were a disproportionate amount of black and Latino students suspended and those students, who were already not performing as well as their white and Asian counterparts, were missing a ton of instructional time. The problem is, teenagers aren't dumb. They recognized pretty quickly that there are no consequences for their actions (not just fighting, but also insubordination, bullying, cursing out teachers, absences). This has lead to a slow trickle of behaviors becoming accepted, and those behaviors will continue to be allowed until something BIG happens.
So we are being trained on how to take down an assailant, meanwhile, students in our classrooms are our biggest threat.

Okay, what's the Teacher's Union's position on this? Also, what is preventing teachers from calling the cops? I know for sure if some kid became violent in my classroom, I would call the cops. It is within your rights to call the cops if you feel like your safety or a student's safety is in danger. I would say that it's your obligation to call. Who cares what the principal or what the school WANTS you to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As MCPS staff I’m going to go with whistleblower too. I hope more step up. I know there are plenty who would speak if the press contacted them directly and gave them anonymity.

OP here, I don't know if "MCPS Whistleblower" is a thing, I am just really frustrated with the direction this county has gone and I don't know how much parents know.
If it is a real thing, count me in. I would love to tell the press what I know. And so would about half of the teachers I work with.
Teachers are fed up.
The county got rid of suspensions a while back because there were a disproportionate amount of black and Latino students suspended and those students, who were already not performing as well as their white and Asian counterparts, were missing a ton of instructional time. The problem is, teenagers aren't dumb. They recognized pretty quickly that there are no consequences for their actions (not just fighting, but also insubordination, bullying, cursing out teachers, absences). This has lead to a slow trickle of behaviors becoming accepted, and those behaviors will continue to be allowed until something BIG happens.
So we are being trained on how to take down an assailant, meanwhile, students in our classrooms are our biggest threat.

Okay, what's the Teacher's Union's position on this? Also, what is preventing teachers from calling the cops? I know for sure if some kid became violent in my classroom, I would call the cops. It is within your rights to call the cops if you feel like your safety or a student's safety is in danger. I would say that it's your obligation to call. Who cares what the principal or what the school WANTS you to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As MCPS staff I’m going to go with whistleblower too. I hope more step up. I know there are plenty who would speak if the press contacted them directly and gave them anonymity.

OP here, I don't know if "MCPS Whistleblower" is a thing, I am just really frustrated with the direction this county has gone and I don't know how much parents know.
If it is a real thing, count me in. I would love to tell the press what I know. And so would about half of the teachers I work with.
Teachers are fed up.
The county got rid of suspensions a while back because there were a disproportionate amount of black and Latino students suspended and those students, who were already not performing as well as their white and Asian counterparts, were missing a ton of instructional time. The problem is, teenagers aren't dumb. They recognized pretty quickly that there are no consequences for their actions (not just fighting, but also insubordination, bullying, cursing out teachers, absences). This has lead to a slow trickle of behaviors becoming accepted, and those behaviors will continue to be allowed until something BIG happens.
So we are being trained on how to take down an assailant, meanwhile, students in our classrooms are our biggest threat.

Anonymous wrote:I'm giving names, people. Pay attention.