BETHESDA, Md. — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos joined Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to visit an elementary school Thursday. But any talk of vouchers or other academic policies was overshadowed by last week’s news of a rape in a Rockville High School bathroom.
DeVos, a mother of two daughters and grandmother of four girls, said her “heart aches for the young woman and her family.”
“We all have a common responsibility to ensure every student has access to a safe and nurturing learning environment,” she said.
Hogan — who at first had criticized Montgomery County school officials and had suggested they were not providing information to state education officials — struck a more restrained tone Thursday.
“It is an ongoing investigation,” said Hogan, who said he has been in touch with the Montgomery County School superintendent, Dr. Jack Smith.
Smith did not attend the public portion of Hogan’s visit to Carderock Springs Elementary School, but he did meet the governor briefly afterward and the two shook hands.
“I kind of want to let everybody do their jobs,” the governor said. “But you know, I think the school system is taking it seriously; the police are taking it seriously.”
Yet a federal component should be considered at some point, he added.
Earlier this week, Hogan questioned why schools would admit students without knowing their immigration status.
Since then, school officials have been quick to point out that under federal law, they cannot turn away school-age students, regardless of their immigration status. Schools are also under federal mandate to provide education for students 21 and younger.
The two students accused in the rape of a 14-year-old Rockville High schoolgirl — 17-year-old Jose Montano and 18-year-old Henry Sanchez-Milian — are both in the country illegally. Montgomery County police said neither student had any previous contact with police in the county, or to their knowledge, with police in any jurisdiction.
The horrific nature of the rape has generated a heated debate with national implications and comes at a time when the city of Rockville and the state of Maryland are considering measures to keep police from asking about immigration status during interactions with the public in most circumstances.
The nature of the crime has also made the district the target of criticism and threats.
“We’ve had hundreds of calls that are hate-filled, racist and xenophobic. And now we’re starting to receive calls that are threatening, saying that they’re going to shoot up all the ‘illegals’ in our schools,” said Derek Turner, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools.
More police have been stationed at the high school, he said, because of the threats.
Patricia O’Neill, Montgomery County School Board member, said that in her 18 years on the board, there have been many school issues that have generated fierce debate, but nothing like this. “The level of hostility and outrage — and we all feel that outrage — but the threatening nature” of the comments is beyond anything she’s seen before.
Turner echoed that sentiment: “This is a whole new level of vitriol that we haven’t seen before.”
In Bethesda, Hogan decried the hate-filled comments that the schools and other officials have been receiving.
“Hate speech like that is terrible, and it’s not anything that should be allowed,” he said.
