Opinion: Don’t Ban Cell Phones Until You, MCPS and BOE, Can Keep Kids Safe and Out of Lockdown

February 21, 2025

Every metric shows that cell phones in school create a toxic learning environment. But what those studies don’t control for is student safety. And MCPS is not a safe school system.

From the horrible images of a student being beaten and having his head curb-stomped in a Whitman bathroom to a beat down of a student inside B-CC with a chair, to the recent off-campus shooting after a fight among B-CC students when they should have been in class, cell phone video is the only proof of true extent of the events. Parents who see the images at least have something concrete to try to help their kids navigate the precarious safety situations at these schools. Not to mention, these videos clearly identify the perpetrators. On Thursday, the Maryland National Capital Park Police announced two arrests: “a juvenile for firearm-related charges stemming from a non- contact shooting” and an adult male for “first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and firearm-related charges.”

Shots Fired Near BCC High School

From video and photos, teachers and students quickly recognized many of the students involved in the Wednesday 10:10 AM group fight near B-CC’s campus, where gunshots were fired and two shell casings were found, no doubt leading to the quick arrest. It also forced B-CC’s administration to admit that its students were involved. And the images, apparently, based on the two separate firearm charges, helped investigators determine that there was not one, but two guns, involved in the incident, as had been widely
speculated in the larger B-CC school community.

🚨 Report: Fight and shots fired video making the rounds on social media. Was at Chase Ave Urban Park and led to a lockdown at BCC High School. https://t.co/5o5pZt3tds pic.twitter.com/pQX2vrsFXm

— MoCo Magazine (@MoCoMag) February 19, 2025

How did this happen?

B-CC school has many doors and essentially has an open-door policy – there’s nothing keeping kids on campus, and they often come and go as they please. School leadership knows the trouble spots – the main office has taken calls for years about students smoking weed and dealing drugs in that part of Bethesda, but MCPS’s official view and policy is that anything that happens one millimeter off its property is not its problem. Students plan their fights, etc. accordingly. They know there are basically no consequences (ask Whitman families what happened after the bathroom fight). This is, after all, a system where last school year, underaged B-CC students who participated in armed carjackings during school hours were back in class the next day, openly bragging to teachers and students about their exploits. Students are also aware of which of their peers have access to guns or even carry them to school. It’s an open secret that too many MCPS school administrators apparently don’t seem to be interested in.

All of this is part of the failure to create any safety culture at MCPS

But instead of working for safe schools, MCPS and individual principals threaten students who film incidents with consequences as severe as the perpetrators – and spend far more time publicly scolding the students who capture these incidents on their phones. Consider this: Based on their actions to date, if MCPS ran MCPD, there would never be a single police body camera anywhere in the force.

Then, there is the ability of students to reach their parents and friends for support. Lockdowns are a way of life for MCPS high schools – from Kennedy High School to B-CC. Students spend hours unable to eat lunch, unable to use the bathroom, and having no news. The only reassurance is the ability to reach out to family and friends. Take away that lifeline, and the anxiety on all sides will be unbearable.

Hopefully, cell phones and student safety will get more than lip service or another scolding when the Board of Education considers this issue. But thus far, both the BOE and Superintendent Thomas Taylor have been mute on school safety, and no one in the community is holding their breath. As one B-CC parent wrote in a group chat: “My primary goal now is for her to make it through her senior year alive.”

We’d all like a better learning environment. However, until MCPS can provide a safe learning environment, cell phones must stay.

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