Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent and I’m enraged. When will MCPS acknowledge that there is something seriously wrong at BCC? The number of incidents we’ve had this year is not normal, and MCPS needs to take action.

Go to ELRICH right now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BCC teacher here, we haven’t been updated, still on a lockout and only hearing whatever rumors kids are being fed: bombs in basement, same kid from Mon, etc. Any chance any of you could let us know what’s the current status? If Police is still on the premises, etc.

I mean this is the only post we need to prove how completely incompetent MCPS is at communication. If it's Mooney, he should resign (though I do not know if that's true). If MCPS forbids him from communicating with teachers and staff, lets fire the person making that decision.

Why is a teacher still stuck after almost 2 hours? They can't have an announcement or slip papers under the doors as they walk the halls?

They can't send an email? WTF MCPS?? Seriously you suck at this.

Why is it up to kids to provide information?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EVERY PARENt who can, should be outside that school right now!

If it's a bomb threat, I don't think this response makes sense. They are almost always false and usually done by a student or former student who is offsite.

Anonymous wrote:During a lockdown we likely don’t have access to our computers. And WiFi isn’t reliable in all parts of every building, so checking it on a phone may not be possible.
It may not be safe to make regular updates over the PA while a threat or potential threat is ongoing.
When a threat/potential threat is over/deemed not credible announcements are made over the PA to let everyone know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A piece of reassurance I offered my kid is that people who actually want to do harm, don’t generally advertise it—this is most likely designed to create fear and chaos, rather than a legitimate threat. This is someone taking advantage of the fear from earlier this week

Sadly, this is statistically untrue. In fact, the opposite is true. The vast majority of school shooters told someone of their intentions before they did it. This is why the one of the most important and proven school security safeguards is early threat identification and culture in which students have trusted adults to tell them if they heard something, anonymous tiplines, etc. That and keeping guns away from children are the best ways to actually PREVENT school shootings. https://www.everytown.org/issues/guns-in-schools/#what-are-the-solutions

I think the PP is right in that if someone is planning to harm a school full of kids, they’re not going to call the school or police and warn them. Yes, they may tell other kids or post stuff online or whatnot, but these called in threats are rarely anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hear a helicopter circling in downtown Bethesda.

Me again. Now hearing sirens.

I'm prepared to bet that following Monday's "weapon" in the school building (Principal chose to hide the fact that it was a gun and we heard it from the media), Mooney chose to go into lockdown over today's bomb threat so he wouldn't be hauled over the coals by BCC parents twice in the same week.

This isn't about Mooney. MCPS and MCPD call the shots on this stuff. It is absurd to blame him for this stuff. His communication is lacking because MCPS ties his hands about what he can and cannot say. It is ridiculous. He ends up being a fall guy

No, don't give us that crap again. Principals have enormous leeway in how they run their school, and most bomb threats are considered not credible. If Mooney doesn't manage communications and safety correctly, he will push towards a lockdown, and MCPD will say "OK, it's your school".

That is not how any of this works. I wish Dr. Mooney did have more control. MCPS Central Office insists on handling most of this and they do an absolutely horrible job. They are slow, they are incomplete, they are evasive and most importantly - they never prioritize students and staff who are often scared because they have no information.

As parents, we are the ones who must handle communication. Through cell phones in school (not in locked pockets) we can get messages from our kids and we can inform them of what is going on. Remember - BCC will not give students and staff information very efficiently. In 2022, kids and a teacher hid in a kiln for a very long time. Others were stuck in a gym with no intercom. Nobody told them even after it was clear they were safe.

Yes MCPS should do better. YES - BCC and Mooney probably could do better. But let's be real - they don't have the tools, skills or motivation to do so. Make sure you keep your phone with you while your kids are at school and have a good network of other parents who can help you get your kid if you can't get there in an emergency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hear a helicopter circling in downtown Bethesda.

Me again. Now hearing sirens.

I'm prepared to bet that following Monday's "weapon" in the school building (Principal chose to hide the fact that it was a gun and we heard it from the media), Mooney chose to go into lockdown over today's bomb threat so he wouldn't be hauled over the coals by BCC parents twice in the same week.

Which is stupid, because Monday's gun at school could have led to a mass shooting incident, so he should have locked down the school then.
But bomb threats at schools, historically and in this area, have always been bogus - and usually do not lead to lockdowns.

So it's a case of the Principal, yet again, possibly doing something stupid to compensate for doing something even stupider before. Which is par for the course for this Principal, unfortunately.

Oh come on. Mooney can't win. I have no opinion about him because while I get frustrated with almost everything at BCC these days. It appears he has zero control over anything. MCPS won't even let him compose any communication.

If he didn't lock the school down and it was real, I'm sure he couldn't live with himself. He's a good person. Is he effective? I'm not sure. I'm not sure MCPS allows any principals to be effective.

So glad I was able to communicate with my son and go pick him up.

I agree. The people here blaming Mooney clearly don't understand how bureaucracies work. I work in a much smaller organization than MCPS and despite having a leadership role, I cannot communicate to the public with legal and PR types reviewing every single word. There's no way a principal decides how to handle an incident involving weapons.

And to be honest nobody knows for sure who called in this bomb threat and whether it has any link to what happened earlier in the week. And we still don't have any hard facts about that either.

Anonymous wrote:BCC teacher here, we haven’t been updated, still on a lockout and only hearing whatever rumors kids are being fed: bombs in basement, same kid from Mon, etc. Any chance any of you could let us know what’s the current status? If Police is still on the premises, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Apparently is the same person from Monday. They’re negotiating with him on the office or so my students relay to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can hear a helicopter circling in downtown Bethesda.

Me again. Now hearing sirens.

I'm prepared to bet that following Monday's "weapon" in the school building (Principal chose to hide the fact that it was a gun and we heard it from the media), Mooney chose to go into lockdown over today's bomb threat so he wouldn't be hauled over the coals by BCC parents twice in the same week.

This isn't about Mooney. MCPS and MCPD call the shots on this stuff. It is absurd to blame him for this stuff. His communication is lacking because MCPS ties his hands about what he can and cannot say. It is ridiculous. He ends up being a fall guy

No, don't give us that crap again. Principals have enormous leeway in how they run their school, and most bomb threats are considered not credible. If Mooney doesn't manage communications and safety correctly, he will push towards a lockdown, and MCPD will say "OK, it's your school".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is swatting?

I’m a dispatcher. I had one a couple of weeks ago, it’s when someone calls in and makes a fake threat to get a huge police response. Mine pretended he had killed family members at his residence. It was a legitimate address and Police went. The poor homeowners had no idea what was going in.
They call from an untraceable number.

How common is this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is swatting?

I’m a dispatcher. I had one a couple of weeks ago, it’s when someone calls in and makes a fake threat to get a huge police response. Mine pretended he had killed family members at his residence. It was a legitimate address and Police went. The poor homeowners had no idea what was going in.
They call from an untraceable number.