Howard County school leaders discuss solutions for student violence in middle schools
BALTIMORE -- Howard County's school district is trying to fix its problem of student violence at middle schools.
During a quarterly meeting between Howard County Council and the county's Board of Education Monday, the school district brought up the issue, as well as some solutions that are in the works.
Jen Robinson, the Chief Schools Office at Howard County Public School System, didn't get into specific numbers or incidents, but she said middle schools continue to report more incidents.
Robinson and her team analyzes data that comes in from every HCPSS school. There are 20 middle schools in the school district.
"Many more students are making more impulsive behaviors, deciding to use physical actions against their peers," Robinson said. "Rather than using the coping mechanisms that we try to teach both in social emotional lessons, as well as through our counselors."
New cellphone policy a glimmer of hope
The cellphone policy has been a point of discussion at several of these joint meetings. Robinson said social media and cellphone use have only fueled the issue.
The hope is the recently passed cellphone ban can make a change. In a 7-1 vote late January, the Board of Education approved a policy change where all students will have to silence and put away their cellphones during the school day.
Right now, middle school students are allowed to have and use their phones for special events. High school students can use their phones during lunch, in hallways, and in classrooms with teacher permission. Elementary students have to keep their phones in their backpacks.
The new policy goes into effect March 3.
Deb Jung, Howard County Council chair, applauded the move for a stricter policy Monday.
"I believe it will actually make it much harder to have some of that discourse brought up because the kids won't have their cellphones to look at it, to share it, and all those other things," Jung said.
Other solutions
Jacky McCoy, a Board of Education member, suggested changing up the school day.
"So that there's more physical activities, so they can get some of that stress off," McCoy said.
Robinson said her office has already started looking into middle school schedules to see if anything could be done. She adds they're working to do more outreach with families and make sure those families know all of the school district's programs.
"We're learning from our community schools that...the more we engage our families, [the more] they know the opportunities available to them, the more the forces comes and they'll get their students to engage," Robinson said.
Robinson also told Howard County Council and Board of Education members her office continues to work with school district counselors and psychologists, as well as finding ways to bolster social emotional learning programs.
But, she stresses this needs to be a community effort.
"We need this to be all hands on deck, with our families, with our community members. We need everybody to support us," Robinson said.
