Major disruption today at Justice HS
There was a major disruption at Justice High School today, causing a big response from the Fairfax County Police Department.
“While we are unable to share specifics, we can tell you that a student experienced a medical emergency in a hallway. Emergency crews responded quickly to assist,” Principal Tiffany Narcisse wrote in an email to Justice families. Many students witnessed the incident, which one parent said was an overdose.
“Police were also called to assist when several students were attempting to disrupt the emergency response.” Narcisse wrote. “This response required us to close a portion of an upstairs hallway for an hour and to hold students in classrooms.”
According to a student who was there, a girl took a pill, possibly fentanyl, in a restroom and collapsed. Other students started yelling for help. By the time first responders arrived, the girl was screaming as they put her on a gurney, yelling that she could walk. Other students were reportedly arrested – possibly for drugs or disruption.
There had been complaints this fall about students offering free pills to their peers. School officials held a public meeting in December to educate the community about fentanyl and other street drugs, but only three parents showed up.
Narcisse encouraged parents to contact her at [email protected] or Student Services Director Christy Hanlon at [email protected] if students are experiencing anxiety about the incident.
Fairfax EMS was buys today. Something similar happened this afternoon at Providence Rec Center. An elderly person had either a heart attack, stroke or a bad fall in the hot tub area of the pool. The Rec Center nor EMS would provide any details at the time. The entire pool was shut down, it was kind of unnerving not knowing if this person survived.
Don’t blame the principal or FCPS. Come on let’s take accountability. Where are the parents? Only three parents showed up to the meeting?!
Meanwhile tiktok and YouTube raises the children.
Justice High School is out of control. There needs to be new leadership. Many high performing students have been pulled from Justice by their parents because of the out of control environment that has accumulated since August. Things were no where this bad when Maria Eck was principal.
The new principal is a strong leader, she is working with a student body emotionally and academically stunted due to the cummulative effects of the pandemic. Drugs are not unique to her leadership or to this high school. I recently was with a group of parents from several FCPS high schools and they all said drugs were a big problem at their schools too. I was a big fan of Eck, but Narcisse is also a terrific leader. I have worked with her on several issues and find her to have a strong point-of-view combined with a collaborative nature. I will sign my first and last name, I am happy to be on the record supporting her.
This is not helpful. Just your opinion.
you think you can do better ??? go for it . education begins at home . so many parents are not involved in their kids lives , education its ridiculous. if you can’t take care of a child and meet their needs go buy a pet rock
oh I just. love all of the armchair quarterbacks here . probably none of you are educators and you have absolutely no clue what teachers and administration are faced with on a daily basis. drugs, guns , violence, fights , kids that have zero respect for authority. so where did the kids get these attitudes? Bad parents or no parents . if parents gave a damn they would be present in their kids lives and know if something is going on with them. they would actually show up to parent teacher conferences and make their kids a priority. this just doesn’t happen . and when bad things happen everyone is so quick to blame the schools . walk a mile in an educators shoes before you start judging
Yes a better principal would have prevented… checks notes… a medical emergancy.
Correct, a better principal would have put firm rules in place about having a medical emergency during school hours. I should also point out the principal does not have a plan in place for incidents like giant lizard attacks or demonic possession.
Jen,
you are an active, community leader and a champion for kids and our public schools. You should be lauded for that. However, the schools (and everything else in Mason district) are at the bottom of Fairfax County’s list for just about everything. Our local schools are terrible. Yes, I said and I mean terrible. They re not safe and they are not good learning environments. The schools in our district tell parents that their kids are doing great and most of us believe them and stop asking questions because FCPS are the “experts.” Parents need to ask more questions and challenge the mediocrity (that is being generous to describe our schools as mediocre). They abandoned our part of the county and pay lip service to supporting our kids. It is tragic. The dysfunction of our schools is masked because so many kids have educated parents so the averages hide the underperformance. Like a lot of parents I pulled my kids from FCPS and more parents would if they had the resources to have a choice. Fairfax County and the FCPS just do not care about us.
Again, you are great champion for the kids and for public schools, but we have to be more candid about the mess they are.
You need to get out of your right wing media bubble. You’re being force-fed blatant mistruths about the state of our schools, then regurgitating them on platforms like this. Even the worst Fairfax County schools are better than the vast majority of schools across the country.
As part of the superintendent’s core planning team, I’ve seen how data on student performance is analyzed not just overall, but by region, pyramid, school-by-school, and other demographics. Officials are absoutely aware that schools in Region 2 and 3 lag behind the rest of the county, and they are working to reverse that. But schools can’t solve every problem. They can’t educate kids, and also make sure they live in safe homes, with reliable access to food and healthcare, with the emotional support they need. This is a problem that is bigger than just our schools.