Montgomery Co, MD: Parents claim SPED students "disrupting, harming" other students

June 9, 2025, ABC7, Arlington, VA: Parents say MCPS isn't preventing special ed students from disrupting, harming kids

https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-county-special-education-students-attack-safety-needs-teachers-parents-concern-mcps-maryland-schools-classrooms-seses-incidents-anxiety-transparency-training-paraeducators-security 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — Some Montgomery County parents tell 7News special education students have grabbed, struck, pushed, and shaken their children at school due to a lack of control over students with special needs.

We heard complaints from several parents. One of them agreed to go on camera and told 7News, special education students attacked both of her daughters.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) parent Alexis Anolik shared photos with us of her three children.

She tells 7News that students in the Social Emotional Special Education Services program have disrupted classrooms at Jones Lane Elementary in Darnestown.

"The teachers that are working with the SESES kids do nothing. For example, the student the other day was acting up and while they were acting up, the teachers were on their phones not watching them," she said.

Her mother said this is what happened to Rayna in October: "Another student had gotten quite upset in the media center and grabbed her from behind, shook her around, threw her into a bookcase, called her a brat and she was so scared about it. It shook her up," Anolik said.

She told us that a week and a half later, the same student grabbed Rayna by her hoodie and threw her on the floor.

Anolik added that no one from the school system initially contacted her about either incident.

She said Rayna is now experiencing anxiety about being in school.

She tells 7News that her younger daughter, Mila, has also faced challenges with special education students.

"Our second grader has been attacked by students in the same program three times and each time we never got a call from the school. So there's a lack of transparency there," Anolik shared.

7News asked David Stein, President of the Montgomery County Education Association, what he thinks needs to be done.

He wouldn’t comment on the cases but told us the county's budget adds more than 150 special education positions in the upcoming school year.

"The budget that we passed provides for a great many more supports, particularly paraeducators for special education students, but also teacher supports and so that's going to be really helpful."

Stein acknowledges that paraeducators and special education teachers could benefit from additional training, which is what the parents we talked to are pushing for.

7News emailed MCPS and asked how the school system is addressing Anolik's complaints..

A representative responded:

"The school has been working with the student’s parents in addressing the family’s concerns.

When an incident occurs, a student safety plan is put into place and the parents of the student it covers are participants in that process.

If mediation or restoration is appropriate, families are made aware of it. Schools continue to maintain open lines of communications with families to ensure that we are taking a proactive approach to meet all the needs of all students. This has also happened during this case.

We continue to work to mitigate these issues and by funding additional special education positions, we anticipate reducing these issues significantly once we are fully staffed.

Anolik told 7News, when she explained to school system leaders what was happening to her daughter, Rayna, they suggested she move her to another school.