Staff members at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School wore the school colors of blue and gold and greeted students Tuesday morning to show Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) leaders that they are united in support of student safety and to ensure their voices are heard, according to B-CC staff members who serve as representatives for the local teachers union.
The solidarity event, with some staff wearing stickers that read “Our school, Our Voice,” followed days of concern that the Bethesda school’s leadership might be sacrificed as an easy solution to a more complex situation and changes would be made without consulting staff, according to the building representatives for the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), the local teachers union.
“We want to be more unified as a community and show that we care about our students after some pretty traumatic incidences,” B-CC teacher and building representative Brian Kramer told Bethesda Today on Tuesday at the school. “I keep seeing some of my kids, former students, and it’s just good to say hi to them, but also recognize that it’s been tough, and that the teachers are there for them, even if up high there’s some drama and problems.”
Concerns about possible changes to the school’s leadership had grown since MCPS leaders and county police held a March 4 community meeting at the school organized by County Councilmember Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1) to discuss school safety. At the meeting attended by more than 100 people, students and parents shared frustration over safety concerns following a Feb. 19 lockdown related to an off-campus fight involving B-CC students and gunfire and a Feb. 25 lockdown related to reports of a gun on campus.
That meeting was held after the school’s PTSA sent a letter dated Feb. 24 to Principal Shelton Mooney and MCPS leaders questioning the district’s response to safety threats. Referencing the Feb. 19 lockdown, the letter signed by PTSA President Laurie Bolt said that “although the parent communications during Wednesday’s lockdown were an improvement over previous lockdowns, the lockdown procedures, as well as actions taken before and after the event, are worrisome.”
Bolt said Monday she wouldn’t be able to respond to Bethesda Today’s request for comment about PTSA safety concerns or the letter.
Several people at the March 4 meeting questioned why B-CC administrators weren’t present, with some claiming their absence meant they didn’t care about the safety concerns of students and families.
The building representatives said they believed Mooney and other school administrators were instructed not to attend the meeting and that MCPS officials later asked Mooney to resign, or step down, from his position. Concern that Mooney might be made a scapegoat led the representatives to organize a walk-in for Tuesday morning to demonstrate staff support and urge MCPS to help the school work on systemic change to improve safety. Dozens of emails of support for Mooney were sent to MCPS leaders, according to Michael Arden, an English teacher and MCEA building representative.
However, in a Monday afternoon email to all Bethesda Chevy-Chase High staff, Mooney clarified that MCPS did not say he would be terminated and he wasn’t asked to resign. He also wasn’t told not to attend the March 4 community safety meeting, saying in his email that he did not attend because he had a prior commitment.
Tuesday morning’s planned walk-in was changed to the unity event held mostly inside the school, according to the union representatives.
In addition to the safety issues raised in the PTSA letter to MCPS and the school board, B-CC’s Black Student Union, Latino Student Union and Equal Justice Initiative had sent a letter to the school’s administrators saying staff and administrators have continuously failed to treat students of color as “human beings” and “children,” according to a copy of the letter provided to Bethesda Today.
“It is often apparent that when they see us, they see the school-wide absences of our demographics and collectively associate individual students as a whole,” the letter said. “Here at B-CC, if you happen to be Black, Hispanic or a minority in general, you are subject to a collective assumption that you are no more than a charity case and part of the ‘safety problem,’ ” the letter said.
The letter said the safety issues are due to the lack of connection between staff and students and can’t be fixed with technology such as metal detectors or weapons detection systems. The letter said the school had a “culture of silence” that allowed student concerns about the behavior of administrators to go unheard.
MCPS spokesperson Liliana Lopez did not answer queries regarding possible issues with B-CC leadership, saying in a Monday email to Bethesda Today that she could only confirm that Mooney was still an MCPS employee and that he is still the school’s principal.
In his Monday afternoon email to staff, Mooney asked them to focus their energy on “a successful and celebratory end of the school year.” He asked staff to provide feedback on safety improvements and to invite B-CC and MCPS administration to classes or club meetings “to talk to your students and learn about their perspectives and experiences.” In addition, he asked staff to stand in hallways to provide supervisions of halls, bathrooms and exterior doors and to “help substitute teachers daily, especially during drills and serious incidents,” among other safety and security steps.
Concerns about process
Arden said there were concerns among staff that pressure on Mooney could have led to quick performative changes in leadership or administrators being used as scapegoats that wouldn’t have led to systemic change.
However, Lyric Winik, a former B-CC PTSA president, said Friday in a message to Bethesda today that for three years, the school has had two lockdowns annually, and there are “significant issues” in the school that remained unaddressed since the fall of 2022.
“I’m not surprised that such a situation might prompt a closer look at any school, it seems fairly standard practice,” Winik said, arguing that the discussion of rumors about Mooney’s job being in jeopardy was inflaming an “already challenging situation.”
In addition to supporting the school’s administration, Arden said staff supports students of color advocating for their concerns and wanted to ensure the issues students raised were addressed in an adequate way.
Kramer said there was an additional concern that leadership changes would have occurred without the input of staff. He noted that the administration wasn’t perfect, and that there were likely valid criticisms but making changes without consulting staff who are directly impacted by school leadership wouldn’t work.
“We just want to make sure that we’re incorporated in all these decisions,” Kramer told Bethesda Today on Tuesday. MCPS central office officials “should talk to us about our school, and we shouldn’t hear rumors and other things through third-hand sources and then scramble to figure it out while we’re already trying to recover from two lockdowns in a row. I mean, our kids deserve better. And I think we deserve better.”
Moving forward, Mooney said he would remain the principal of B-CC.
“MCPS will use the months ahead as an opportunity to continue to provide support to me and our school, and will collect feedback as requested from staff regarding the current culture of the school,” Mooney said in the Monday email.
“To ensure a great end of the school year and a strong path forward, I recommit myself to the work of making B-CC the best high school in MCPS,” he concluded. “I will be engaging with our entire school community to do this work and am requesting that you join me. Together we can make a positive difference.”
