Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is looking to finalize the purchase of vape detectors for high schools in the next four to six weeks and plans to take stronger disciplinary action against students who record and post fights on social media according to district staff.
Several MCPS staff members appeared before the County Council public safety and education committees on Thursday, sharing updates on safety data and measures to address security within the school system.
According to data from Montgomery County police, officers were called to schools 2,698 times from August 2023 to October 2024 and wrote 1,071 reports from those calls. The most common report was for simple assault, followed by “all other calls” and larceny.
Over the same period, 167 incidents resulted in arrests and referrals. In high schools, there were 36 incidents involving the arrest of juveniles, and 62 incidents involving referrals to the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). In middle schools, there were 14 incidents involving the arrest of juveniles and 17 incidents involving referrals to DJS.
Fights and social media
Councilmember Gabe Albornoz mentioned the issue of fights that occur in the schools, noting that students often take videos of the altercations and questioning whether MCPS and police track recordings of assault. Shauna-Kay Jorandby, MCPS director of student engagement and behavioral health, said the recordings are tracked and are considered serious incidents involving an “inappropriate use of technology,” Jorandby said.
During the past academic year, there were 192 serious inappropriate uses of technology, Jorandby said. Fights aren’t the only incident that can count as inappropriate use of technology, but account for the most incidents, she said.
Peter Moran, MCPS chief of schools, said Superintendent Thomas Taylor believes that recording and posting the videos on social media is a serious infraction. Doing so falls under the “disruption to school operations” infraction in the student code of conduct, Moran said, and could be disciplined up to a level five infraction, which removes students from school for an extended period.
“It is something that escalates things out into the community. It causes an incredible amount of anxiety and also makes it very difficult to go through the restorative justice process,” Moran said. “So, we’re definitely moving in a place where we’re handling those in a much more serious matter.”
Vape detector and weapons detection update
Plans to install vape detectors have been in the works for several months now, following a 60-day pilot program involving six high schools last spring. According to a MCPS staff report, the district employed three different vape sensors — Triton, Zeptive and Halo — with varying degrees of success during the pilot program. According to the report, schools chose Halo over the other two companies.
While former county police Chief Marcus Jones, who’s now serving as the MCPS head of security and compliance, said the pilot program showed that one company had the best product, the district still has some concerns about its capabilities. Jones said the district was considering cost-saving measures as well as replacements and warranties before choosing a product.
“We’re working with the vendor now. … We’ve not procured this particular product because we want to make sure that this is the best product moving forward,” he said.
Jones said he’s hoping to have a purchase deal finalized in the next four to six weeks.
Taylor and the school board have discussed the need for weapons detectors, Jones said, but don’t want to rush into a decision. Jones said he’ll be touring school systems that use weapons detectors over the next few weeks.
Looking into the issue is warranted “based upon where we are now in our society, where we’re seeing a large increase of, unfortunately, young people getting their hands on guns,” Jones said. “And sometimes unfortunately … these guns are actually being brought into our schools, so it is definitely a priority of ours to take a good and hard look.”
