More restrictive cell-phone environments, mandatory IDs and student expectation modules are on the horizon for some Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students as the district starts a new year on Monday.
Marcus Jones, the former county police chief who now heads the MCPS Department of Security and Compliance chief, joined Peter Moran, chief of schools, and Dana Edwards, chief of district operations, to present the new safety and security measures at Tuesday’s county school board meeting.
Safety became a predominant issue in the MCPS community after several incidents last year, including bomb threats, on-campus gun possession and discovery of hate-based graffiti.
Superintendent Thomas Taylor told the board that there’s a “renewed emphasis on school safety.”
“This commitment to safety is not just a statement, it’s a guiding principle,” he said.
Here’s what students and families can expect this school year:
Cell-phone restriction pilot, mandatory IDs, student expectation modules
Some schools will be participating in an “All-Day Away Phone Policy” this year as part of a “comprehensive evaluation” of the current personal device regulation, Stephanie Sheron, chief of strategic initiatives, said. All middle schools and high schools were invited to join the pilot and have until Sept. 2 to sign up.
Schools who are taking part in the program will have a “more restrictive environment” where cellphones are away all day, Sheron said.
As of Aug. 1, high school students are no longer able to access social media including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter on school Wi-Fi, Moran said. The restriction is aligned with the U.S. Surgeon General’s reporting about the harms of social media, Moran said.
Board member Brenda Wolff said restricting social media access is helpful until students switch to using cellular data and recommended possibly looking at implementation issues around the cell-phone policy.
Following a pilot initiative during the 2023-2024 school year at five high schools, a program mandating students and staff to wear IDs all day will be expanded to all high schools by the end of November, according to school board documents.
Moran said 20 out of the 25 high schools were prepared to implement the program.
“The feedback that we received from high school principals that have done this in previous years … that it was very advantageous when students were returning from open lunch,” Moran said.
He also noted that there have been several changes to the student Code of Conduct after an annual collaborative revision process, including reformatting for clarity and grade-level recommendations for some disciplinary actions.
After receiving feedback on student training as well as looking at school climate data, all secondary students will be required to participate in two student expectation modules and lessons administered during their advisory period, Moran said.
Vape detection systems, security cameras in elementary schools
Thanks to $2 million MCPS received through a settlement with the electronic cigarette maker JUUL, vape detectors are expected to be installed in high school bathrooms during the upcoming school year, officials said.
Getting there still requires some work, Jones said, including hiring more security assistants to “support the administrators” when the detectors are alerted. According to school board documents, there are six security assistant vacancies that need to be filled.
The school board approved the $2 million slated for the vape detectors as part of its consent agenda. The County Council needs to approve the appropriation before the detectors can be purchased and installed, according to officials.
Board member Grace Rivera-Oven said she wanted to ensure that vape detectors were the best way to address the problem. “I don’t want us to give a false sense of safety to the community,” she said.
Several schools piloted the use of vape detectors last year. Edwards said the district would be using “best practices” learned from the pilot program when implementing vape detectors across the school system.
In addition, all elementary schools also had security cameras installed over the past year, according to school board documents.
Clarification of Community Engagement Officer (CEO) program
Moran said officials were working on providing clarification as to how the Memorandum of Understanding between police and MCPS regarding the Community Engagement Officer (CEO) program is implemented.
The CEO program was introduced in the 2022-2023 school year after MCPS removed county police officers known as school resource officers from schools the previous year.
Under the existing CEO program, county police officers patrol schools within a cluster and don’t remain inside buildings, although they may be assigned a space in a local high school.
Jones said there needed to be clear expectations for CEOs. That doesn’t mean a focus on officers patrolling the hallways, he said, but making sure officers can work effectively with principals and security staff.
Emergency preparedness
According to school board documents, 21 bomb threats were reported during the previous school year.
Jones said he learned in his previous role as county police chief that many of the threats came from outside Montgomery County, and some even came from out of the state or country.
Jones said he was working to revise response protocols regarding such threats so schools don’t respond with a “knee jerk reaction” and was looking at information to make the best decision to minimize disruption.
According to the officials’ presentation, all schools are expected to complete a minimum of three emergency drills by Sept. 21: shelter-in-place, lockdown and fire drills. By Oct. 25, all schools are expected to complete one parent-child reunification drill and one additional fire drill.