Schools, Police Take Action To Reduce Truancy, Fighting Among PGCPS Students

BOWIE, MD — Fights occurring in and out of Prince George's County high schools between teenagers have drawn the attention of police officers, who Wednesday night participated in a video conference call with Bowie High School officials to address the issue.

The police department confirmed there have been several group fights in and around Bowie High School within the past three weeks that have "carried over into the nearby communities." Community members said half a dozen students regularly gather in the courtyard at nearby townhouses, arriving as early as 10 a.m. and staying about an hour, appearing to engage in drug activity.

Prince George's Public Schools has some of the highest school arrest numbers in Maryland. Last year, the Prince George’s County Board of Education voted to reduce the number of security officers with arresting powers inside of schools and replace them instead with one mental health counselor positioned in every high school.

The board voted last year to retain school resource officers after a community poll indicated strong support for them by parents and staff.

A brawl also unfolded recently at Friendly High School between two girls while students watched and recorded the conflict. According to the district, a teenage girl pepper-sprayed another girl, which sparked the fight. Then five other teenage girls joined in.

Bowie High School Principal Joseph Kautzer said during the virtual meeting that the conflicts aren't unique to the city of Bowie, to Prince George's County or even Maryland.

"This is part of a larger trend and Bowie High School is happy to be part of a solution to this trend. We've increased mental health staff and are working closely with students and their families," Kautzer said.

Regarding why students aren't in school, Kautzer said officials will identify who is truant, meet with them, bring in their family, talk about behavior and form an attendance contract. If a student is repeatedly truant, he or she is referred to the county court system for help.

Some students are legitimately out of school for an employment program or other reason, however.

"There are 20 to 25 students who are repeatedly the focal point for this and are causing disruptions. It's hard to figure out what started it but, but usually a relationship is at the heart of these conflicts, someone's boyfriend or girlfriend did something," Kautzer said. "But we can't find the ability to put these conflicts to rest because social media has caused an inability to do that. What would have ended with a fight by the bicycle racks is now spread across social media and drug out for days, if not longer."

Prince George's County Police Chief John Nesky praised Chik-fil-A for sharing information about recent incidents that unfolded at the restaurant and being willing to find viable solutions.

"We're not going to put everyone in handcuffs and take them in. Not everything is criminal in nature," Nesky said. "Think about how many angry people you know. As a nation, we are angry."

To help curb truancy and keep students out of businesses when they should be in the classroom, school officials will work closely with those businesses, to show them what an early dismissal pass looks like.

"If kids skip and don't have a place to go because a business won't let them go there, they're going to be less inclined to be truant. That won't always catch the ones who don't care and will skip anyway, and we can't dictate what businesses will do, but we will continue to work with businesses and address specific issues with the kids and behavior," Nesky said.

Kautzer pointed out that students do have "intentionally ugly looking passes" that stand out to clearly show they have permission to leave early, to stop at Chik-fil-A for lunch or go to the library.

"But I will be knocking on the door of businesses with a flyer and my business card to say that if they see any high school-aged students causing trouble or have any questions or concerns about what they see, if the kids don't have these passes, please let me know," he said.

Kautzer said this small group of students shouldn't define the 2,300-plus students who meet and exceed the expectations set at Bowie High School.

"They are amazing kids and as a society, we need to celebrate them and not give much attention to this, but still address what's criminal or inappropriate," he said.

Bowie High School Assistant Principal Bernnadette Mahoney added that she's seen students have trouble dealing with conflict across the board and across grades.

"Our students are being given conflict resolution lessons during the school day as we try and support them and build in scaffolds. Students need help resolving issues and we're putting a system in place to support them with that," Mahoney said.

Prince George's County Deputy Police Chief Dwayne Preston said during the virtual meeting that police will increase their presence behind the school, too, as the weather warms up, and that the bamboo behind the school has been cut so teens can't hide there.

"We are short-staffed at the moment and spread pretty thin, but we're out there trying to cover as much as we can, so if you see kids hanging out there, we will respond. Just call us. We always appreciate extra eyes and ears," he said.

One Oxon Hill mom spoke with WUSA9 about the fighting among students at Potomac High School where the principal was shoved by a student, an altercation that was captured on a cell phone and shared on social media. An eighth-grader addressed the school board in-person recently about how she feels unsafe in her school because of violence and sexual harassment.

“I want to see them secure the building a little bit more and get these kids, let them be able to go to school in peace,” mom Ashley Allen said.