When junior Alex Acuna walks into John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring to start his school day, he feels safe. But in the back of his mind, he says he’s also thinking that walking into the school means it could be his “last day alive.”
“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.
While the group discussed some changes in the short-term including the addition of four more security staff members in the school, long-term changes may also be on the horizon.
MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s fiscal year 2026 operating budget includes funding for 52 additional security officers for the district. At a budget press conference Thursday, Taylor said adequate staffing, which he hopes to accomplish with increased pay for teachers, will help make classrooms safer.
“Don’t get me wrong, having security assistance, that’s great. A lot of the changes that we’ve made to some protocols and even evaluating and assessing our safety, those things will help,” Taylor said. “One of the best ways that we can be prepared is to have vigilant, highly trained … staff.”
Lockdown, continued safety concerns
Kennedy PTSA President Ricky Ribeiro said safety and security has been an ongoing concern at the school.
“This situation has been allowed to fester for far too long,” Ribeiro told the group Wednesday.
Kennedy High reported 99 serious incidents during the 2023-2024 school year, according to MCPS data. Serious incidents are defined as those involving some harm, risk or threat of harm to staff or students; seriously disruptions to school operations; or those that concern staff or students and could escalate to a community concern or police/legal matter.
Of those, 20 were drug related, 13 were due to physical assaults or attacks, 13 involved a weapon and 12 were for medical assistance. Most other county high schools reported between about 20 to 65 serious incidents that year, according to the MCPS school profiles. Rockville High School also reported 99 serious incidents, ranging from 23 due to calls for medical assistance, 5 for physical assaults or attacks and 12 due to disruptive behavior. Wheaton High School had 84 serious incidents, with 37 related to calls for medical assistance.
“The safety and security for the students at Kenedy is exactly what I would want for my own children, and we haven’t delivered on that promise,” MCPS Chief of Schools Peter Moran told the group sitting in the Kennedy cafeteria.
Ribeiro told Bethesda Today in January that reports of a student with a gun and a shelter-in-place due to a medical emergency on Jan. 23 at Kennedy highlighted ongoing safety issues in the Silver Spring school.
Jones, the head of the MCPS Department of Security and Compliance, shared information about the Jan. 23 lockdown on Wednesday. The lockdown occurred after students notified security staff and administrators that a student may have a gun during lunch time.
After reviewing the lockdown, MCPS staff believe the school should have gone into a lockdown more quickly upon learning that a student may have a gun. Jones told Bethesda Today that there was a 10- to 15-minute delay, but the intention of the staff was to clarify the information they had. Jones said it was initially unclear who the student was or where the student was in the building.
“We need to get [police] here as soon as possible,” Jones said. “It is a high need for us to actually contact 911, at the earliest convenience, and to put our schools in lockdowns at that particular time.”
Jones also acknowledged there were “failures” during the lockdown because there were students “out and about” in the school and students who left the building. During a lockdown, according to MCPS, all students, staff and visitors report to the nearest area with adult supervision.
“This is not the only school that we’ve seen this occur,” Jones said. “It’s very important for us to make sure that our staff is always working with school administrators, so they understand the rules of engagement.”
The Jan. 23 incident spurred a “very lengthy lockdown,” Jones said, as police ensured the building was completely safe. Officers did not find a weapon and determined there was no active threat on campus, according to a Jan. 23 letter from Principal Vickie Adamson.
Students share perspective
At Wednesday’s forum, several students shared how the lockdown, and other safety concerns, made them feel.
Junior Richa Tripathi said it often feels like Kennedy experiences six safety incidents a month, while other schools get six a year.
“We get a lot of these comments like, ‘Of course, you have those incidents, it’s Kennedy,’ ” Tripathi said. “[As if] us being in this specific neighborhood with our specific circumstances should mean that we have to write off events like those as something that’s just a part of our life. I think that’s the most unacceptable part of this situation.”
Kennedy has a majority Hispanic and Black student population, with a roughly 82% free and reduced meal (FARMS) rate, a measure of poverty, during the 2023-2024 school year, according to Kennedy’s school profile.
When incidents do happen at Kennedy, the students said, it’s not as publicized as other incidents in other schools in the county such as the two recent lockdowns at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Bethesda-Chevy Chase has a majority white enrollment and about 30% FARMS rate.
“No one hears about [the incidents] except for us,” Acuna said. “The students here that do hear about it don’t care because it’s just so normalized.”
The students also heavily criticized one safety initiative that’s been put in place this year: the mandatory wearing of IDs in school. Students said the IDs are kept in flimsy plastic holders on lanyards that often break. Students are required to pay to replace a broken holder. The ID policy also isn’t enforced the entire day, they said.
“When you have things like cheap materials … you are showing students that you’re not necessarily taking this policy [seriously],” Tripathi said. “How are students supposed to take a policy seriously when you act as if it’s temporary?”
Safety at Kennedy moving forward
In response to the January lockdown, and the continued concerns and advocacy about safety, Moran said MCPS added four security assistants to the school, utilizing temporary part-time positions to do so. The school also shifted the supervision of safety and security to Principal Intern Deyjah Chappell, due to her experience and expertise, Moran said.
Moran also said the cross-functional teams that Taylor introduced in his fiscal year 2026 budget would be a “game changer.” The teams would include subject matter experts, such as security coordinators, who would focus on individual clusters. This would decrease the security coordinators’ caseload and give more individualized focus on the cluster, Moran said.
Jones noted other safety initiatives underway: high schools are installing vape detectors, the school system is taking a “serious look” at weapons detection systems and he was looking to hire a consultant to conduct safety audits.
However, Moran said what’s most important is to change a school’s culture, or the set of habits and norms that are established within a school.
After one teacher shared that students feel like they can get away with anything because there are no consequences, Moran said there needs to be less gray areas and more consistent responses to behavior.
“We can get all the technology in the world. That’s not what makes you safe. What makes you safe is culture,” Moran said.
