Barely half of students said they felt safe when they walked into Col. Zadok Magruder High School last year. Magruder is not a chronically underperforming D.C. public school, but a Montgomery County high school where more than 97 percent of its senior class graduated last year, students showed up with a 94.6 percent attendance rate, and every student met state graduation requirements.

Just 55 percent of last year’s Magruder students agreed with the statement “I feel safe in school” in a survey administered by the county’s public school system SEmD a much lower number than the 71.2 percent of Magruder parents who agreed that “My child feels safe at school.” Only 20 percent of students believe their belongings are safe at school and more than 60 percent agreed that “bullying is a problem.”