Wednesday, February 6, 2019

MCPS caught without surveillance cameras again in Richard Montgomery incidents

Twenty years after Columbine and two years after the Rockville High School rape scandal, Montgomery County Public Schools' leadership has been caught again without adequate security cameras and surveillance at its facilities. Two recent incidents in as many months at Richard Montgomery High School proved that once again. And along with a horrible record of school violence and fighting, teachers and staff sexually assaulting children, massive cybersecurity flaws revealed in a state audit, and a failure to even perform basic background checks on security employees, children attending MCPS schools remain unsafe under the system's current failed leadership.

The RM incidents - rearrangement of cups spelling seniors to instead spell a racial slur in December, and a swastika being painted on the school last month - should have been easily resolved using security camera footage. Police and school officials seem to know the general timeframe in which the incidents occurred. If cameras were in place, it would be a simple matter to look at all movements on the campus between those reference points. The fact that no photos of suspects or vehicles have been released by police by now speaks for itself.

How can this be, in the age of terrorism and mass shootings? The County Council and Board of Education clearly do not have student safety as a top priority, An examination of some of the truly frivolous expenditures by MCPS over the last two years proves that. So, too, did the 2017 County Council security camera procurement scandal, in which taxpayers unwittingly picked up the tab for a 4-camera security system worth less than $1000 for a whopping $22,000, putting the Pentagon's famous toilet seats to shame. Those cameras were for a County government building, not a school, to boot.

We can do better. Leadership, like the bad example and behavior of MCPS-employed adults that filters down to impressionable children in their charge, starts at the top.

8 comments:

  1. The first photo is from March 2017.

    And the sign appears Photoshopped.

    Do you have permission to use the second and fourth photos, given that this is a commercial site?

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    1. 9:31: Welcome to 2019, Grandpa. You've always been envious of my original photo library since 2012. I didn't have to sign up for a photo sharing service. You know the photos and images are just one of many strong points of my news sites, so you try to attack from that standpoint. You missed. Punch yourself.

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  2. Someone painting on the school after hours should be easy to solve using cameras. The person would have to be picked up by some camera on the campus.

    These incidents are reported, but never with any details or follow up.

    Just trying to keep a certain amount of fear out there I guess.

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    1. 10:27: They do leave themselves vulnerable to these incidents being considered hoaxes if they never solve and prosecute them.

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  3. Should I explain what a meme is to 9:39AM or does someone else want to?

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  4. Breaking news...

    Cups Rearranged At Local High School

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  5. So I guess our illustrious blogger would prefer to live under constant surveillance, with cameras everywhere. Sure seems to go against smaller government and individual freedom, when it's convenient to make a point.

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    1. 8:32: Every public and commercial building has such cameras. Why wouldn't schools in the mass shooting era? Do you now agree with me that the new entry process to the County Council building is a violation of the 4th Amendment? Welcome aboard!

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