A middle school student was hit by a vehicle at Patterson Mill after high school let out, while the middle school was still in session. She was reportedly lifted on a body board and transported to the hospital.
Students at the school have reported that the vehicle was apparently driven by a 15-year-old, unlicensed high school student, and that it is owned by a custodian at the school.
The middle school student was in gym class at the time of the accident.
A somewhat cryptic Alert Now call went out to parents Friday night from Principal Wayne Thibeault who said:
“This afternoon at approximately 2:35PM a seventh grade student was struck by a motor vehicle on school property. The student was transported to Upper Chesapeake Medial Center in stable condition. The entire matter is being investigated by the Harford County Sheriff’s Department. The school will continue to investigate the situation and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”
I just visited the 7th grader who was hit by the car yesterday at PMMHS. My daughter is friends with her. She is still in the hospital and will probably go home tonight or tomorrow. Her leg is broken in two places below the knee. She has a six inch plate with six screws holding the fibia together and three other screws in the fibia. According to her mother, the PE students were crossing the crosswalk near the stadium to go out to the fields. The PE teacher saw the Expedition and told the driver to stop, her kids were crossing. He didn’t stop, kept going and he ran over her leg as she tried to get out the way. The gym teacher caught her before she fell all the way down. I was told by the girls brother (who is a junior at PMMHS) that this kid was driving the custodians vehicle and he only had a permit. They have the incident on surveillance. Unbelievable!!!!
Does anyone know what the student was doing with the custodian’s vehicle? Did he not see all of the kids crossing in that vicinity? I hope the girl is going to be okay but it sounds bad. Very sad indeed…
Middle and high schools do not belong together.
yo its my boy kiki i saw it happen all this stuff you sayin is bull!
Is that an example of a PPM education? If so I want my tax money back!
Yo, Kiki’s boy, what’s bull?
What is so cryptic about the Alert Now call? Just another memebr of the anti-Thibeault gang throwing another “dagger” at the principal.
I think it was short sweet and to the point.
Maybe the cryptic call had to do with the fact that the student couldn’t produce a driver’s license, didn’t stop when yelled at, was driving a custodian’s vehicle, and apparently is attending PMMHS on a Boundary Exception because of problems at other schools.
PMMHS is overcapacity and many of those students are attending on Boundary Exceptions – mostly in the middle school. Apparently ANY HCPS employee can send their kid to any school they want. Harford County is one of the biggest employers in this county, and there is no policy on stopping it because it has never been a problem before. Yes accidents do happen but when you have a middle/high school combination it is more important than ever for it to be a “community” school not one that is a dumping ground. Tom, I bet if your kid was this seriously injured, you’d be upset too and wonder why the school is taking in all of these students. If you know the answer, please tell the parents who are upset about this because we can’t get one.
Gee, if any HCPS employee can send their kid to any school they want, than anyone who has a financial interest in HCPS should have the same privilege. (for those who don’t get it – that would be the Harford County taxpayers)
I don’t understand why the student who was driving was still in school. If a student gets into a fight, they are suspended. But if you run someone over then you can stay in school? Maybe there isn’t a policy to cover this.
Great point Phil Dirt and you are right!! It is like President Obama saying how much he values education and important it is, etc. but he and all of the other Washington elite send their kids to private schools. No vouchers and no choice for the “regular folk.”
There is a Boundary Exception Policy for a reason so schools don’t become overcrowded if they are already overcapacity. HCPS heard about the problem back in February and said they weren’t doing anything about it.
When Patterson Mill was opening and people were wanting to stay at Bel Air, I talked to the guy who is in charge of boundary exceptions whose name escapes me. He told me that, and this is NOT a quote, boundary exceptions are one of the few ways the school can reward employees. They really do make sense for say the teacher who wants her child at the school where she teaches.
My concern at the time was that BA was going to be able to cherry pick some of the top kids and I wondered how that would affect PMS. Guess that’s not the problem here. Why would any principal want to have a kid on a boundary exception to take on someone else’s problem? Do principals have any final approval of kids on exceptions?
Understand that it is a good option for people who work in the building but there is no difference between those employees and ones that work somewhere else in the county. An Instructional Assistant at one school could drop her student off on her way to work or something. Just an example but it extends to all employees at all levels – secretaries, custodians, etc. I think too that if there is a priority for who gets first shot at a slot then it should be someone in the building who is a teacher but that isn’t the case.
Flip side of that is when you have student(s) who are problems in a school where that parent is a person of authority. What if that teacher’s kid is bullying another kid? There are some problems inherent with that situation too. Also what if the person leaves and goes to another school. Lots of scenarios to be looked at but when the problem was pointed out in February at a Board meeting, they decided not to do anything right now even though PMMS is over capacity because of boundary exceptions of HCPS employees. Who does have the final say in this matter? Principal is the first person to sign on but there is an appeal process if they say no. I also think if a school is overcrowded because of HCPS employees, then the kids in that school should be able to have first shot to go elsewhere because HCPS is knowingly overcrowding a school.
Kiki’s boy is full of BS. The Harco sheriffs office will confirm what Barb said is exactly what happened. Bank on it. Godchildren with boundary exceptions. Guess that means all of Edgewood and their church relations will be attending PMMS/PMHS next year.
yo he aint fulll of BS he were outside adn saw it happen get your facts straight before you trash people!
James….isn’t it a FACT he has been charged by Harford County Sheriffs department with failure to produce a license and failure to avoid a collision? You might want to check into that.
By the way, perhaps you should return to school so you can learn grammar and spelling.
I second that thought.
Elaine:
Thankfully my child was not injured and I hope the injured student is doing well. Like you I DO have a concern as to the liberal use of boundary exemptions granted by the school system.
The unfortunate incident occurred at approximately 2:35 P.M. As stated in the principal’s phone message (and this involving personal injury) the mattter was under investigation by the HC Sheriff’s Office. For the school to speculate or confirm what you state are the facts in less than 6 hours is unrealistic.
My gripe was with the word criptic. Like Cdev I thought the message was to the point . I have seen first hand at PTA meetings and from posters on this forum that whatever Mr. Thibeault says they will never be pleased.
Tom, just because people question Mr. Thibeault doesn’t mean he can’t do anything to make people happy. It just means that there are some fairly intelligent, vocal people who don’t believe everything they are told. This is a good thing for our schools.
Many of these same parents have been active at Bel Air Middle and High and were not always displeased nor were they always pleased. The difference is, in my very limited experience, that Mr. T. says whatever he thinks people want to hear and he and his people can’t understand why people don’t trust him. I have sat in on meetings and listened to him say things that were not accurate (grades required for certain honors and languarge recommendations) and promise things he could not promise (AP course offerings).
Last year he bragged about how great all the kids’ grades were at PMS. Most of us whose children started at Bel Air saw the grade inflation first hand.
So go ahead and argue about whether the message was cryptic or straight forward. I am sure you are right that it takes some time to get all facts in order, but people want to hear the truth, and judging on past experiences, they often don’t get it out of the PMS front office.