News 2-3
Opinions 4-6
Social Justice 7
Centerspread 8-9
Features 10-11
RM students receive threats on Instagram
Fourteen students at RM were targeted in a school shooting threat made in February. The threats were deemed non-credible by MCPS Central Office staff and Rockville police.
249
the number of shooting incidents at K-12 schools in 2021 by Samantha Wu NEWS EDITOR
An online school shooting threat named 14 specific students at RM in February. The threat, which was originally seen on Omegle and then circulated around social media platforms like Instagram, claimed that the writer would shoot up RM in “a few weeks”, though a date was never s p e c i f i e d . School and county administration responded b y investigating
the threat and sending emails and announcements to students and parents. Upon investigation by school administrators, MCPS security officers, Central Office staff and Rockville police, multiple bot-like elements of the threat led officials to consider it non-credible. In terms of content, the wording appeared to be identical to similar threats that have emerged in other counties this year. Of the students named in the threat, there was a mix of full names, first names and Instagram handles, with no specific ordering or capitalizations. Upon closer inspection, all 14 students h a d pub-
lic Instagram accounts with profiles and geotags linking them to Richard Montgomery, and so could have been generated through random online searches. This led investigators to believe that the students named had no real link to the threat. “The same copy and pasted message with different names and different schools has been sent across the country and other MCPS schools, like I see it all the time so it’s become less and less of a big deal,“ one of the students named in the threat, sophomore Sami Saeed, said. In addition, investigators concluded that the message originated from outside of Maryland. “It wasn’t even inside the state, which throws me. Overall it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been,” junior Thomas Domorad said. The shooter promised to livestream the event on Instagram while blasting music, and stated that they would not give up to the police. But the Instagram account that the shooter mentioned was a private account, and its bio was changed to clarify that the account’s actual user did not use Omegle and was not associated with the threats. “When I first saw it, it was like someone sent it to me, and I was like, yo that’s crazy,” Saeed said.
Arts 12-14
Sports 15-16
‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill ignites controversy by Ginger Speer FEATURES WRITER
Imagine that your own school system is telling you that your identity is an inappropriate subject matter and that discussions of it are prohibited or severely limited. Thanks to recent legislation, this is becoming a reality for LGBTQ+ students in Florida public schools. The “Parental Rights in Education” bill, infamously known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has ignited national controversy over its policy regarding LGBTQ+ education. The bill states, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Freshman Manuela Martins Figueiredo notices the double standard present. “To a little girl, a teacher can say, ‘Oh, you have a boyfriend’ and all that. But you can’t say that a little girl can have a girlfriend,” she said. “It’s like, you can talk about the same things in a straight version, but you can’t talk about it in a gay version, which doesn’t really make sense.” Although defenders say that this applies to discussion of heterosexuality as well as other identities, the societal establishment of heterosexuality and being cisgender as a default effectively creates a space where LGBTQ+ identities are linked to the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity in a way that being cisgender and/ o r heterosexual is not. Parents are allowed to sue the school their child at-
tends if they feel that they were exposed to discussions or educated about gender identity and sexual orientation. Proponents of the bill believe that it will allow parents to have more control over their children’s education and will dissuade discussions around “inappropriate adult topics” within the classroom. Signed on March 28, 2022, it will take effect beginning July 1, 2022. Advocates and allies worry about the devastating impact it will have on the rights of LGBTQ+ students and staff.
“Talking about the different types of families that are out there is not equivalent to talking about sex.” - Carolyn Green English teacher Carolyn Greenspon believes the bill poses a great danger to the mental health of those impacted. “This bill, obviously, would restrict the ability for children to come in to class and talk about who their parents are, and who their siblings are, and their family members, and that will absolutely be horrible for their mental health because they won’t be able to be who they are and be themselves and talk about who they are with their classmates, with their teachers, and ask questions,” she said. “Talking about the different types of families that are out there is not equivalent to talking about sex.” The bill will also ostracize students in schools where it is so often vociferously declared that the safety of students is its top priority. DON’T SAY GAY, cont. page 10
THREATS, cont. page 2
GRAPHIC BY EVELYN SHUE
Inside The Tide... News, 2
Daylight Savings Bill
Opinions, 5 Ukraine Conflict
PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNSPLASH
Social Justice, 7
Arts, 12
Mental Health Services
Trader Joe’s
