Student school board member Sami Saeed is calling out Montgomery County Public Schools for its “slow” pace in addressing student safety concerns.
“We are moving way too slow on school safety,” Saeed said during the school board’s discussion on school safety Thursday. “It’s a non-negotiable–safety–because when we look at it, it’s students’ lives at risk … literally people’s lives are at risk.”
Saeed, whose “Safe Schools Resolution” was approved by the board in November, noted a January 2022 shooting at Col. Zadock Magruder High School in Rockville that left one student critically injured and a school community stunned by the district’s shortcomings in communication and reunification of parents and students.
In his resolution, Saeed proposed actions and policies to improve student safety and school security, including training security staff, creating guidelines for communication after a safety incident, the expansion of a mandatory ID program at all high schools, school bathroom monitoring and addressing student drug use.
“When I made my resolution six months ago, I did that purposely six months ago because I wanted to see the recommendations I had at least be started by this point,” he told the board.
Saeed said he asked students ahead of Thursday’s meeting what they wanted to ask MCPS officials about school safety. The No. 1 question was “Why is nothing being done?” he said.
“Students believe nothing is happening,” he said. “I honestly feel sort of embarrassed a little bit that I told students in October, ‘Guys, there will be change. I’ll update you in April.’ And there hasn’t. And that’s really disappointing to me because students were really counting on this.”
Within the first two months of the current school year and his term as a board member, MCPS has dealt with numerous bomb threats sent to schools, the arrest of a student with a loaded handgun at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, hate-based graffiti and the breakout of fights. In another incident this school year, a was student arrested with a loaded ghost gun at Gaithersburg High School.
At the board meeting, MCPS officials provided the board with an update on the status of safety and security in MCPS. Interim superintendent Monique Felder said the district “undertook a rigorous examination of its protocols practices and infrastructure concerning school safety” and school officials shared updated data on school arrests and incidents.
On April 2, Felder sent a letter to the MCPS community, which aimed to reaffirm the district’s commitment to safety and discipline in schools and address mounting worries regarding student behavior. The letter also shared that MCPS was considering new security and safety tools such as vape and weapons detection systems and mandatory student and staff IDs.
School safety has been at the forefront of community conversations in recent weeks as parents and teachers have been outspoken about their concerns regarding violence, a lack of discipline, student drug use and lack of action from MCPS.
David Gebler, an English teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, and Jordan Masker, a behavior support teacher at Rock Terrace School-–an MCPS school serving special education students-– told the board about their personal experiences with school safety and urged the district for action.
“Our school is now contending with a surge in the frequency and severity of behavior incidents. Incidents including physical aggression towards staff and students, self-injury, running out of the building into the community and bullying have more than doubled since last year,” Masker said.
As of April 5, Rock Terrace had documented more than 1,231 significant behavior incidents with just 79 students enrolled in the school, Masker said. She also said that she has been out on leave three separate times this school year for injuries she sustained supporting students in crisis.
Gebler called out what he said is “daily, rampant and repeated drug use” in MCPS schools.
“Half the time when I leave my English classroom at Kennedy it reeks of marijuana,” he told board members. “Historically, students use substances in the bathroom, but vaping directly in the hall is growing in popularity.”
Gebler also noted that Kennedy High had vape detectors in school bathrooms during the 2022-2023 school year, but they were removed last summer and have not returned.
Saeed also told MCPS officials that safety recommendations presented to the board were already included in his resolution. He said he was disappointed MCPS had not moved more quickly to implement programs such as mandatory student IDs.
“We knew six months ago exactly what we need to do,” he said. “Things like the student ID pilot–we already had that at multiple high schools a year and a half ago. And we come a year and a half later and nothing has moved forward on that. To me that’s unacceptable.”
“I feel embarrassed a little bit because students were really counting on it. Now I have to tell them that nothing has been done yet,” he said.
He said he hoped MCPS would be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to school safety. He called for the board to improve safety-related communication and engagement with families and students and to be more transparent in data reporting.
“We’re saying next year we are going to start. No. Not by next year–now we need to address it,” Saeed said. “These things should have been addressed six months ago and now we’re saying it’s going to be next year.”