by Seph Fischer ‘25

Recently, the system of student accountability across MCPS has made a drastic shift. This new set of principles–with “restorative justice” placed first and foremost–do not produce expected results, as is illustrated by the September 1 fight between Walter Johnson and Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School students at a Metro station after a football game. The violence displayed by these students in the released video is disturbing: the fight morphs into an attack, tens of students kick and beat a single student. MCPS has responded to this troubling incident through a series of vague policies, like requiring a school ID to attend football games (despite the fact that the fight occurred off school property), which don’t actually resolve the base issue of misbehaving students, instead hampering well-behaved students. This presents the illusion that MCPS is doing something substantial to combat these incidents.

These incidents aren’t isolated. A violent brawl between Gaithersburg and Northwest high schools erupted in September of last year, too. During the 2021-2022 school year, MCPS’ Safety and Security At a Glance reported nearly 500 instances of deliberate attacks, as well as 800 instances of fighting. Though the number of attacks are similar to the 2019-2020 school year, the number of fights has increased by 150. Whatever the intention of MCPS’ restorative justice programs, the data doesn’t support their effectiveness. When students are not shown correct disciplinary action, they naturally push things further and further until all-out brawls occur at football games.

In 2019, the Maryland state legislature passed House Bill 725, mandating “restorative justice” models in the punishment systems of all the state’s school districts. MCPS embraced this change, stating that, “Montgomery County Public Schools has worked diligently to incorporate restorative justice […] in all of our schools to better serve the needs of our students.” Restorative justice programs promote restrained discipline to resolve conflict healthily and encourage change. However, based on the high–and in some cases increasing–levels of school violence in recent years, this system isn’t working if the aim is to change student behavior. MCPS hasn’t published full data on school violence incidents prior to the 2019-2020 school year, so it’s impossible to tell exactly what effect restorative justice has had since implementation.

Some may argue that MCPS’ recent policy implementations don’t negatively affect those who follow the rules. This new form of justice only makes life better for all students, they might say. Even if one ignores the psychological impact of attending a school in which this behavior is left to happen without any clear consequences, this is simply untrue. While Sherwood and MCPS as a whole has loosened many restrictions and punishments on misbehaving students, it has tightened them for those who are generally good students. Instead of punishing those who use bathrooms for illicit purposes, Sherwood security has begun locking some of them altogether during lunch. For the advancement of our schools and the betterment of education, it is very imperative that Sherwood and MCPS return to policies which punish rulebreakers and allow well-behaved students to rise.