Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous post. The principal should have told the kids there was no threat but has no reason to send an email to parents immediately.

And even if you disagree jumping from there to cutting funds for MCPS is just dumb, or I guess trolltastic

This. I'm shocked that parents are in uproar about this. Take a step back and analyze what happened:

*2 girls decided to be stupid and get drunk before school
*They show up drunk at school and pass out in the bathroom
*Kids found them and reported to admin, 911 gets called
*everyone at the school panics and rumors start going nuts
*Principal sends out a notification at the end of the school day after waiting for MCPS central office to approve the email
*Parents like OP start making calls to cut funds to MCPS.

Since when did parents obtain the right to be notified of health-related information regarding a student who is not their own child? Do principals have to send a school-wide notification if a student has an asthma attack?
If the Principal can't send an email (which I agree is a total bottle neck), then the PTA President's notification that there is no threat to other students should be enough. Geez. How this made news is ridiculous.

The problem is social media and cell phones.

The school's communication policy and structure was built before both of those things. The image of the girls passed out was circulating all over social media and the school.

The school needs to respond in real-time to prevent the rumor mill from swirling.

A response that says: "We're aware that images of two students passed out in the bathroom are circulating, however, the rumors about it being due to a drug or fentanyl overdose are not true. The students in question are being cared for by medical staff and will be dealt with privately and with their parents and MCPS disciplinary measures."

Something like that. You have to cut through the chatter as the authority. Sitting on the sidelines silently allows the worst of the worst assumptions to dominate the conversation. This is 2023, not 2003.

I disagree. It is not the school's job to provide real-time alerts on situations that don't impact their kids in fear of rumors spreading. Parents who are dying to know can easily call the school and even the PTA (if they want to) can send a notification that says, the rumors are not true and that there's no threat at the school.

That's fine that you disagree. Then school leadership will have to deal with the disruption and distraction of the rumor mill swirling unfettered. It's one or the other.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous post. The principal should have told the kids there was no threat but has no reason to send an email to parents immediately.

And even if you disagree jumping from there to cutting funds for MCPS is just dumb, or I guess trolltastic

This. I'm shocked that parents are in uproar about this. Take a step back and analyze what happened:

*2 girls decided to be stupid and get drunk before school
*They show up drunk at school and pass out in the bathroom
*Kids found them and reported to admin, 911 gets called
*everyone at the school panics and rumors start going nuts
*Principal sends out a notification at the end of the school day after waiting for MCPS central office to approve the email
*Parents like OP start making calls to cut funds to MCPS.

Since when did parents obtain the right to be notified of health-related information regarding a student who is not their own child? Do principals have to send a school-wide notification if a student has an asthma attack?
If the Principal can't send an email (which I agree is a total bottle neck), then the PTA President's notification that there is no threat to other students should be enough. Geez. How this made news is ridiculous.

The problem is social media and cell phones.

The school's communication policy and structure was built before both of those things. The image of the girls passed out was circulating all over social media and the school.

The school needs to respond in real-time to prevent the rumor mill from swirling.

A response that says: "We're aware that images of two students passed out in the bathroom are circulating, however, the rumors about it being due to a drug or fentanyl overdose are not true. The students in question are being cared for by medical staff and will be dealt with privately and with their parents and MCPS disciplinary measures."

Something like that. You have to cut through the chatter as the authority. Sitting on the sidelines silently allows the worst of the worst assumptions to dominate the conversation. This is 2023, not 2003.

I disagree. It is not the school's job to provide real-time alerts on situations that don't impact their kids in fear of rumors spreading. Parents who are dying to know can easily call the school and even the PTA (if they want to) can send a notification that says, the rumors are not true and that there's no threat at the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids ODed all the time in my school in the 80s. But they didn’t tell all the parents! We only knew because we’d see the ambulances.

+1. The electives hallway bathroom in my suburban public school in the 90s was an open air drug market, but oh noooo, kids these days!!! Clutch your pearls harder!!!

Where did y'all go to school at? Mogadishu? There were never open drug markets and bathrooms turned into drug dens when I was in high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous post. The principal should have told the kids there was no threat but has no reason to send an email to parents immediately.

And even if you disagree jumping from there to cutting funds for MCPS is just dumb, or I guess trolltastic

This. I'm shocked that parents are in uproar about this. Take a step back and analyze what happened:

*2 girls decided to be stupid and get drunk before school
*They show up drunk at school and pass out in the bathroom
*Kids found them and reported to admin, 911 gets called
*everyone at the school panics and rumors start going nuts
*Principal sends out a notification at the end of the school day after waiting for MCPS central office to approve the email
*Parents like OP start making calls to cut funds to MCPS.

Since when did parents obtain the right to be notified of health-related information regarding a student who is not their own child? Do principals have to send a school-wide notification if a student has an asthma attack?
If the Principal can't send an email (which I agree is a total bottle neck), then the PTA President's notification that there is no threat to other students should be enough. Geez. How this made news is ridiculous.

The problem is social media and cell phones.

The school's communication policy and structure was built before both of those things. The image of the girls passed out was circulating all over social media and the school.

The school needs to respond in real-time to prevent the rumor mill from swirling.

A response that says: "We're aware that images of two students passed out in the bathroom are circulating, however, the rumors about it being due to a drug or fentanyl overdose are not true. The students in question are being cared for by medical staff and will be dealt with privately and with their parents and MCPS disciplinary measures."

Something like that. You have to cut through the chatter as the authority. Sitting on the sidelines silently allows the worst of the worst assumptions to dominate the conversation. This is 2023, not 2003.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous post. The principal should have told the kids there was no threat but has no reason to send an email to parents immediately.

And even if you disagree jumping from there to cutting funds for MCPS is just dumb, or I guess trolltastic

This. I'm shocked that parents are in uproar about this. Take a step back and analyze what happened:

*2 girls decided to be stupid and get drunk before school
*They show up drunk at school and pass out in the bathroom
*Kids found them and reported to admin, 911 gets called
*everyone at the school panics and rumors start going nuts
*Principal sends out a notification at the end of the school day after waiting for MCPS central office to approve the email
*Parents like OP start making calls to cut funds to MCPS.

Since when did parents obtain the right to be notified of health-related information regarding a student who is not their own child? Do principals have to send a school-wide notification if a student has an asthma attack?
If the Principal can't send an email (which I agree is a total bottle neck), then the PTA President's notification that there is no threat to other students should be enough. Geez. How this made news is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:Time to cut funding to Lyric Winik. Why are Lyric and other parents sending these messed up kids to our schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t we just elected 1/3 of the BOE and appointed new superintendent?

Sadly, the BOE seems to rubber stamp MCPS and not hold the system accountable.

Dr. McKnight was a shoe-in since was a deputy superintendent and then basically guaranteed the main gig when she served as acting superintendent.

The unfortunate thing about school board elections is that most people don't pay attention, so some bad candidates get elected. Until things get so bad that it's time to clean house. Now is that time.

Also, it's time make our BOE full-time.

The unfortunate thing about MoCo school board elections is everyone votes for the most liberal Democrats.

Agree that this is a problem. We keep voting for the same people so we get the same nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick and tired of paying money for this trash:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2023/01/23/b-cc-silence-criticized-after-two-students-found-unconscious-in-school-bathroom/

Kids in MCPS go to school because they are hangout clubs where they can do whatever they want these days with impunity. Kids passed out drunk in BCC is a common occurrence to all of the widespread and out of control drug use in MC public high schools. Everyone already knows the problems are so bad in Moco schools that they have to now completely lock the bathrooms in schools to prevent all of the drug use. Scores continue to decline, discipline is zero, and there is never any accountability. Why does anyone pay taxes for these craptacular results? If all we are paying for are spaces where idiot kids can behave like lord of the flies, time to cut spending to the bone and give tax payers their money back. All of that billions is sure as hell not be used for learning. MCPS continue to go down the tubes.

Why aren't you blaming the 2 students and their parents?

In your mind BCC and the Central Office handled the situation perfectly?

What, precisely, do you think MCPS should have done differently.better in this situation?

Just let parents know what was going on. Easy. There isn’t just one administrator in each high school. There is a whole team. Assign one of the half dozen administrators the job of sending out the pre-written email when there is a lockdown, shelter in place or whatever. It’s all canned so no problem with content. Just click send.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids ODed all the time in my school in the 80s. But they didn’t tell all the parents! We only knew because we’d see the ambulances.

+1. The electives hallway bathroom in my suburban public school in the 90s was an open air drug market, but oh noooo, kids these days!!! Clutch your pearls harder!!!

Where did y'all go to school at? Mogadishu? There were never open drug markets and bathrooms turned into drug dens when I was in high school.

Lol right?! Especially in MCPS? I never heard of it.

What was considered to be a “bad school” back in the ‘90s was one where kids fought a lot, skipped class or smoked cigarettes, but definitely not an open air drug market!

Yes, it's a real challenge to have an "open air drug market" inside a building with few or no windows.

DP here. 1992 MCPS graduate and you have got to be kidding me if you think that smoking weed wasn't prevalent back then; and yes, kids did sell drugs but it was not an open-air market.

And there's no open air market at schools today either. Kids are still doing it in secret. If there is an open air market, it's due to the county residents ill-informed decision to vote for legalizing weed.

PP - yes, my comment was just about the "open air drug market" cliche, which, probably not coincidentally, also has racist overtones.

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous post. The principal should have told the kids there was no threat but has no reason to send an email to parents immediately.

And even if you disagree jumping from there to cutting funds for MCPS is just dumb, or I guess trolltastic

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids ODed all the time in my school in the 80s. But they didn’t tell all the parents! We only knew because we’d see the ambulances.

+1. The electives hallway bathroom in my suburban public school in the 90s was an open air drug market, but oh noooo, kids these days!!! Clutch your pearls harder!!!

Where did y'all go to school at? Mogadishu? There were never open drug markets and bathrooms turned into drug dens when I was in high school.

Lol right?! Especially in MCPS? I never heard of it.

What was considered to be a “bad school” back in the ‘90s was one where kids fought a lot, skipped class or smoked cigarettes, but definitely not an open air drug market!

Yes, it's a real challenge to have an "open air drug market" inside a building with few or no windows.

DP here. 1992 MCPS graduate and you have got to be kidding me if you think that smoking weed wasn't prevalent back then; and yes, kids did sell drugs but it was not an open-air market.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids ODed all the time in my school in the 80s. But they didn’t tell all the parents! We only knew because we’d see the ambulances.

+1. The electives hallway bathroom in my suburban public school in the 90s was an open air drug market, but oh noooo, kids these days!!! Clutch your pearls harder!!!

Where did y'all go to school at? Mogadishu? There were never open drug markets and bathrooms turned into drug dens when I was in high school.

Lol right?! Especially in MCPS? I never heard of it.

What was considered to be a “bad school” back in the ‘90s was one where kids fought a lot, skipped class or smoked cigarettes, but definitely not an open air drug market!

Yes, it's a real challenge to have an "open air drug market" inside a building with few or no windows.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick and tired of paying money for this trash:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2023/01/23/b-cc-silence-criticized-after-two-students-found-unconscious-in-school-bathroom/

Kids in MCPS go to school because they are hangout clubs where they can do whatever they want these days with impunity. Kids passed out drunk in BCC is a common occurrence to all of the widespread and out of control drug use in MC public high schools. Everyone already knows the problems are so bad in Moco schools that they have to now completely lock the bathrooms in schools to prevent all of the drug use. Scores continue to decline, discipline is zero, and there is never any accountability. Why does anyone pay taxes for these craptacular results? If all we are paying for are spaces where idiot kids can behave like lord of the flies, time to cut spending to the bone and give tax payers their money back. All of that billions is sure as hell not be used for learning. MCPS continue to go down the tubes.

Why aren't you blaming the 2 students and their parents?

In your mind BCC and the Central Office handled the situation perfectly?

What, precisely, do you think MCPS should have done differently.better in this situation?

Just let parents know what was going on. Easy. There isn’t just one administrator in each high school. There is a whole team. Assign one of the half dozen administrators the job of sending out the pre-written email when there is a lockdown, shelter in place or whatever. It’s all canned so no problem with content. Just click send.

The bottleneck isn’t the admin team. It’s central office. They mandate all communications route through them so they can neuter and censor any details as much as possible.

So the delay has nothing to do with the principal having to do both crisis management and community communication, which I agree doesn’t make sense, but central office’s policy of requiring all comms to go through them first.

It's great that the CO has their back and is helping out with these challenging situations to ensure parents are in the loop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sick and tired of paying money for this trash:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2023/01/23/b-cc-silence-criticized-after-two-students-found-unconscious-in-school-bathroom/

Kids in MCPS go to school because they are hangout clubs where they can do whatever they want these days with impunity. Kids passed out drunk in BCC is a common occurrence to all of the widespread and out of control drug use in MC public high schools. Everyone already knows the problems are so bad in Moco schools that they have to now completely lock the bathrooms in schools to prevent all of the drug use. Scores continue to decline, discipline is zero, and there is never any accountability. Why does anyone pay taxes for these craptacular results? If all we are paying for are spaces where idiot kids can behave like lord of the flies, time to cut spending to the bone and give tax payers their money back. All of that billions is sure as hell not be used for learning. MCPS continue to go down the tubes.

Why aren't you blaming the 2 students and their parents?

In your mind BCC and the Central Office handled the situation perfectly?

What, precisely, do you think MCPS should have done differently.better in this situation?

Just let parents know what was going on. Easy. There isn’t just one administrator in each high school. There is a whole team. Assign one of the half dozen administrators the job of sending out the pre-written email when there is a lockdown, shelter in place or whatever. It’s all canned so no problem with content. Just click send.

The bottleneck isn’t the admin team. It’s central office. They mandate all communications route through them so they can neuter and censor any details as much as possible.

So the delay has nothing to do with the principal having to do both crisis management and community communication, which I agree doesn’t make sense, but central office’s policy of requiring all comms to go through them first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids ODed all the time in my school in the 80s. But they didn’t tell all the parents! We only knew because we’d see the ambulances.

+1. The electives hallway bathroom in my suburban public school in the 90s was an open air drug market, but oh noooo, kids these days!!! Clutch your pearls harder!!!

Where did y'all go to school at? Mogadishu? There were never open drug markets and bathrooms turned into drug dens when I was in high school.

Lol right?! Especially in MCPS? I never heard of it.

What was considered to be a “bad school” back in the ‘90s was one where kids fought a lot, skipped class or smoked cigarettes, but definitely not an open air drug market!