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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

80 year old banned from MCPS school

The Gazette reports on an 80 year old neighbor that has been banned from stepping foot on the grounds of Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Apparently, Boardmember O'Neill's exclusion of PIA parents extends to neighbors as well.

...In March, fed up with students leaving litter in her English Orchard Court neighborhood in Silver Spring, Cook carried a bag of the garbage into the high school and unceremoniously dumped it in the lobby. She believed she was returning the contents to their their rightful owners.
Her neighborhood is used as a shortcut by students going to and from fast-food restaurants for lunch and between after-school activities.

"This had been a long-term problem for the past year," said Cook, who headed up the local homeowners association until July when her term expired. "I could never get anyone to respond to me."

...After the March incidents, the principal, Thomas Anderson, had a "no trespassing" order issued against Cook, which prevented her from serving as an election judge at the school during a special election. Cook had been an election judge for the past 20 years...

UPDATE: Gazette Editorial August 5, 2009:
...Cook's unconventional approach should teach the administrators and students at the high school a thing or two about being responsible neighbors...
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 30, 2009 at 12:03 PM

    Are you saying that you don't think a No Trespassing order should have been issued? On two seperate occasions she dumped trashed in a school building. I think that is a little different than parent of a school child (PIA)voicing thier opinions in PTSA or other school meetings. How do you think it should have been addressed?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janis SartucciJuly 30, 2009 at 12:21 PM

    Exactly what "danger" did this neighbor represent to the school or the students that would rise to the level of issuing a no trespassing order?

    Why hasn't the school instituted a program to be a good neighbor and keep the neighborhoods clean? Lots of good community service hours for students here in cleaning up the trash left along the path of students through the community! As the article noted, this was a long term problem that hadn't been addressed by the school.

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  3. freestategalAugust 1, 2009 at 12:28 PM

    The fact that she was head of the neighborhood association AND a long-term election judge speaks for itself. Anonymous, have you ever been an election judge, staying long hours during the election day? Why don't you give it a try. I don't know this woman but clearly she is a Citizen in the true sense of the word. Thoe Board of Educatio reaction as usual is to ban from the premises anyone that dares to think this County operates as a democracy. Now Ms. Cook knows what the rest of us have sadly come to realize, Montgomery County operates as a cronyist banana republic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lyda AstroveAugust 1, 2009 at 2:05 PM

    We had an incident in our neighborhood where some kids walking through the neighborhood from Julius West MS set fire to a big pile of dry fall leaves. Luckily neighbors were home, and were able to start putting water on the pile with a hose before the fire department got there. I called the school immediately to report it, and the response was less than satisfactory. Does the BOE have a policy on encouraging students to be safe and responsible walkers or anything?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janis SartucciAugust 5, 2009 at 10:48 AM

    Cook's unconventional approach should teach the administrators and students at the high school a thing or two about being responsible neighbors.

    From Gazette Editorial
    http://www.gazette.net/stories/08052009/montedi180547_32521.shtml

    ReplyDelete

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