By Adam Pagnucco.
Earlier this month, I published a column on security issues at John F. Kennedy High School. In the last two years, the school was the subject of media reports on a mass brawl, epic truancy, a trespasser with a knife, a “gun-involved incident” and a gun-related lockdown. In June 2024, MCPS conducted a Safety and Security Assessment that found numerous security problems at the school. In response to my questions, MCPS sent me a list of corrective actions they were taking, including this one:
Supplemental temporary part-time security staff have been assigned and will remain in place until June 2025.
Recently, I learned that these temporary part-time (TPT) security staff had left the school. I asked Kennedy HS PTSA President Ricky Ribeiro about whether security measures had been pulled back at the school, and if so, how he felt about that. This was his response. (A response from MCPS follows.)
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Hi Adam,
Thanks for reaching out. The main thing that has been pulled back since the Jan. 23 lockdown is the additional security staff. Apparently, they fulfilled the additional security staff request with TPTs, but the TPTs they hired have left for other jobs and/or quit. I’m not sure exactly when these folks quit or left, but it appears to have been recent. This isn’t unusual or really unexpected since many people would likely prefer the stability, benefits and predictability of a full-time job over a temporary part-time one.
In terms of how I feel about it, I feel like MCPS has once again left us out to dry. The explanations given to us have all focused on the budgetary limitations the system faces. This doesn’t change the fact that a promise to increase security staff, which was made to the Kennedy community in alignment with the recommendation of the audit that preceded the most recent lockdown, will go unfulfilled. And while we might get additional staff next school year if Dr. Taylor’s budget recommendation for increased security staff survives the process, there’s no guarantee or clarity about how many of those additional safety staff could or would be redirected to Kennedy. The last publicly available information on the breakdown of Dr. Taylor’s additional safety staff request had only 7 additional safety assistants assigned to the high school level, and I highly doubt Kennedy would get 4 of those 7 assistants.
And so, with no additional security staff to utilize to enhance coverage and surveillance of the learning environment, Kennedy is basically left back where we started. And I don’t know what that means for the overall safety and wellbeing of our students for the remainder of this school year, since we know the additional personnel are sorely needed to provide the coverage that the audit recommended. School-based leadership has said they’re having more success in getting staff buy-in to support security efforts such as hall sweeps and bathroom monitoring, but I don’t think that fills the gap in the same way that additional safety assistants do. Nor do I know how sustainable that is over the long-term as that stretches on for the remainder of the school year. And with Spring Break coming up, who knows how this will all hold. As MCPS knows, behavioral/safety issues in schools tend to spike before and/or after breaks.
In recent conversations with MCPS, they have said there are additional strategies they will be recommending in light of the challenges with security staffing. But we have struggled mightily with school and system-based leadership on getting clarity and specificity on where and how progress has been made in all of the various recommendations and solutions that have been shared with the school community. I will judge whatever new strategies MCPS comes up with in lieu of the additional security staff when I see them, but I don’t think you can strategy your way out of a staffing shortage. There is a lingering sense of frustration within the community around these safety issues and specifically with the loss of the additional safety staff that promises made appear to be promises not kept with MCPS once again.
In a recent meeting around the principal selection process, which we’re currently going through again for the second time in the last four years, several community members voiced frustration that Dr. Taylor himself was not more present and visible and building relationships with the Kennedy community, given the serious safety incidents and leadership challenges we have faced. MCPS talks a lot in general about its philosophy around the importance of building relationships and earning trust and many in the Kennedy community don’t see or feel that in earnest from MCPS itself.
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I also asked MCPS for comment. They sent me this statement earlier today.
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Despite recent temporary staffing changes in our part-time security team, we are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment at Kennedy High School. We have been working to fill these vacancies and are on track to have these team members in place next week.
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A note. Earlier this month, I asked MCPS about whether security assessments had been conducted at other schools, and if so, what costs had been determined for security improvements at those schools. While MCPS gave specific responses regarding Kennedy HS, I did not obtain information on security assessments at other schools.