Derrick Palmer was a football player at John F. Kennedy High School in Wheaton. He was killed at his home on Heartwood Drive on Saturday afternoon, according to Prince George’s County Police...
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?"..
MCPS parents continue to push for more safety measures after gun incidents | FOX 5 DC
“I’ve seen people who look like grown adults [come into the school] and they were trying to jump my friends,” Acuna said.
After continued concerns for safety and a back-to-back lockdown and shelter-in-place in January, a group of about 25 Kennedy students, staff and families gathered at the school Wednesday night for a session hosted by the PTSA to discuss how to improve safety in the school moving forward. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) leaders, including Marcus Jones, the former county police chief who now heads the MCPS Department of Security and Compliance, also attended...
Kennedy High community looks to MCPS to improve safety in Silver Spring school - Bethesda Magazine
Principal Vickie Adamson sent a community letter sent to the Kennedy High community Thursday, saying students notified security staff at the end of fifth period that “a student may be in the possession of a gun.” According to the school’s bell schedule, fifth period ends at 12:48 p.m. School staff called 911, and the school went into a lockdown at 1:01 p.m., according to the letter.
According to police radio transmissions, Adamson called 911 at 12:56 p.m. after several students reported that they saw a student with a gun in his waistband...
...“These incidents are the culmination of what I have been complaining and advocating about for years,” Ribeiro said. “[There] has been a security problem at the school.”..
Over this past school year several unsettling events have threatened the peace of mind and security of students. In the fall, bomb threats put them on lockdown. In January, a fight broke out at a basketball game and a security guard was injured. Most recently, a knife-wielding former student gained entry into the school while it was in session.
At an April meeting of the Board of Education, English teacher David Gebler told members, “The halls reek of marijuana.”..
https://www.mymcmedia.org/kennedy-high-students-fed-up-with-current-security-issues/
We know that the serious safety and security concerns that have taken place at Kennedy have been an ongoing source of frustration and stress for students, staff, parents and family. We've consistently advocated about the serious safety concerns happening at Kennedy to MCPS leadership, the school board and the County Council. We have now gotten school leadership, MCPS leadership and Councilmember Fani-Gonzalez to pull together a community forum at the school so we can address these concerns in the open, as a community, and hopefully develop a path to some solutions.
At an April 11 Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Board of Education hearing David Gebler told school board members the halls at Kennedy "reek of marijuana."
"Usually drug use occurs in our bathrooms but vaping directly in the halls is becoming popular, and make no mistake, the ever-rising opioid epidemic is in our buildings," he testified.
Gebler described the drug use at Kennedy as "daily, rampant, and repeated."..
John F. Kennedy High School went into a Shelter-in-Place today when a trespasser came onto school grounds during lunch. The trespasser had an altercation with one of the students, and when other students approached the scene, the trespasser brandished a knife. #MCPS pic.twitter.com/S7WN4wjITy
— Allison Papson (@AllisonPapson) April 19, 2024
A verbal and physical fight called “dangerous and unacceptable” by John F. Kennedy High School’s principal began in the stands of a basketball game with Richard Montgomery High School Jan. 18 and continued after the game ended.
Two security officials were slightly injured, and a Montgomery County police officer was pushed.
According to Kennedy Principal Vickie Adamson in a letter sent Sunday to her school community, “a serious incident” occurred at the game, which was held at Richard Montgomery High School...
https://www.mymcmedia.org/security-guards-injured-officer-pushed-at-high-school-basketball-game/
WHEATON-GLENMONT, Md. — A fight between players forced a high school football game to end early on Friday night, according to a letter sent home by the two schools' principals.
The game between John F. Kennedy High School and Northwood High School ended in the first quarter, according to the letter from Kennedy Principal Vickie Adamson and Northwood Principal Johnathan Garrick...
A meeting to address the problem has been pushed back to next month as officials try to address an epidemic of cutting schools...
...District-wide, Montgomery County Public Schools are seeing a 26.2% chronic absenteeism rate across the district and the problem reaches across the economic landscape. For example, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School has a 28.6% absenteeism rate, which is higher than average, while Kennedy High School in Wheaton is at 54.7%...
Montgomery County Public Schools developing plan to address above average truancy rates (fox5dc.com)
As the Parents' Coalition has shown over the years, Kennedy High School students are charged the highest "senior dues."
If any Montgomery County Board of Education members would like to explain why Kennedy High School students have been targeted for these illegal fees, we would be happy to post their explanation.
wj-senior-letter---class-of-2023.pdf (montgomeryschoolsmd.org)
The 16 yr old charged with killing another teen inside the Wheaton Metro station is a tenth grader at Magruder High School. After listening to evidence in a bond review today the judge called the violence a “sad state of affairs”. Emmanuel Simmonds was ordered held without bond. pic.twitter.com/7TZaAWX0i3
— Paul Wagner (@paulcwagner) May 25, 2023
“With great sadness, I must inform you of the unexpected death of a Kennedy High School staff member,” Principal Dr. Joe Rubens wrote in a letter to families Thursday. “Mr. Kofi Frempong, as Coordinator of our schools’ Leadership Training Institute (LTI), was a wellknown member of our community.”
“Mr. Frempong was a loving husband and father. I know you join me in extending our deepest sympathy to the Frempong family,” Rubens wrote.
According to Anne Arundel County Police, 47-year-old Kofi Frempong, of Bowie, was shot and killed by his nephew in a homicide/suicide on Wednesday in Glen Burnie. Police said evidence indicated 27-year-old Daniel Amponsah turned the firearm on himself before officers were able to reach him...
There were no reports of an incident at the school in Silver Spring that day.
According to a letter from Principal Joe Rubens, school staff “worked quickly to cover the images.” He said he was “deeply disheartened” to learn of the vandalism “that included language and references of symbols of hate speech that are harmful and unsettling for many in our community.”..
...Email requests for information to Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery County Police were not returned...
March 25, 2022:
8:30:45 AM "I have a large gas line struck next to an occupied school. We're attempting to evacuate and isolate the area right now." ...1901 Randolph Road, Kennedy High School
8:49:42 AM Gas leak reading in new construction, lowest level: "ppm well over 500."
8:55:39 Buildings clear. Waiting for Gas Company.
*Google Earth image of new construction at Kennedy High School, 2021.
On Feb. 13 and 14, 2020, Jason Salinas, 21, used an internet application to place calls to the school, posing as a woman he sexually assaulted, according to court records.
On May 3, he pleaded guilty to one count of threatening mass violence.
The same day, in a separate case, he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault for incidents in 2018 involving the woman he impersonated...
