MCPS parents continue to push for more safety measures after gun incidents
MCPS parents continue to push for more safety measures
Montgomery County Public Schools held a meeting Tuesday night to address concerns about students and gun safety. It comes after two separate gun-related incidents that put Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School on lockdown last month. Montgomery County Public Schools held a meeting Tuesday night to address concerns about students and gun safety. It comes after two separate gun-related incidents that put Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School on lockdown last month.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - Montgomery County Public Schools held a meeting Tuesday night to address concerns about students and gun safety. It comes after two separate gun-related incidents that put Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School on lockdown last month.
While the recent lockdowns happened at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School the impact was felt in the surrounding community leaving parents wanting to know how to prevent another emergency.
This was the fourth safety meeting in two and a half years and that has parents concerned and angry.
A wide array of topics were discussed, from who is responsible for calling a lockdown to where to go for official information.
"That happened at 10 a.m. Why are kids allowed out of the campus at any time of day?" one attendee asked. "Why can’t they stay on campus during school hours?"
"My question is about prevention. I don’t want to hear about next time. I don’t want to be at work, so I can pay taxes and help these beautiful schools and get the message of my child is on lockdown," another parent said.
Officials said they are discussing making B-CC a closed school — not allowing students off campus during school hours — another big question being weapons detection systems.
It’s estimated that it would cost $100 million to install metal detectors at the 25 high schools in Montgomery County.
Chief of Security and compliance for MCPS Marcus Jones - said it's not a simple solution as there has to be proper training and not all schools have the same entrances and staff. but they are currently in discussions on it.
"It is very important. We are working on it. We are also going to another school to give feedback on what are the actual arrangements that they have so that is something that I think we will keep the community as we have done with the board of education and having this conversation as we move this forward," Jones said.
The school system has requested 52 extra security guards in hopes of offering another deterrent for students that might want to bring a gun on campus. There is no timetable for that or the weapon detections to go into place.