How has Mr. Adelekan held up in Q1?

Quarter one has been an overly eventful start to the school year. With the addition of a new principal, new security, and tons of new policies, Blake felt different.  Something like this: Here’s your recap of the something something…or here’s a breakdown of the big …something

Not far into the year, on September 19,  after the Blake football game against Springbrook ended, as students were exiting, a fight broke out. This fight was significant enough to draw police presence and impacted many groups, including the band and the football team. The fight also had significant media coverage, including the MocoShow and ABC 7.  When the police arrived at the scene of the fight, they then fired pepper ball shots to disperse the crowd, causing many of those. in the vicinity to scatter in a panic. When speaking on the issue, Mr.Adelakhan, Blake’s principal, stated, “It was a mess, there’s no way to sugarcoat it.” What was mostly a “great community event” was shut down right at the end. 

“There was nothing we could do to prevent that fight,” our principal stated, acknowledging the relationship between the different NEC schools. It’s well known that the NEC is connected like no other group of schools in the county. “Many of those kids know each other from middle school, you know?” Mr.Adelakan stated. Parents and students alike had much to say about the incident, and many unsubstantiated rumors spread online about a firearm being present. The impact of the altercations lasted for weeks. Excess security, both band and the football team began taking a different route from the field to their respective areas, and a crackdown on ID checks was all the change made regarding games following the altercation. 

However, that event didn’t seem to be the only challenge that the brand-new principal faced. A week after that fight, a student was found to have a BB gun on Blake’s campus. The school was put on hold as security dealt with the student. Mr.Adelekan expressed his confusion about the necessity of having the weapon on campus, “A BB gun looks like a real gun. Why would you bring that to school?” The school followed the appropriate policy, and the hold was lifted not long before lunch. Even though they happened shortly after, Mr.Adelekan emphasizes that there is no correlation between the two events. 

And last Friday, October 24th, there was an altercation involving 9th and 10th-grade girls at Blake that quickly got out of hand. While security believed that they had the situation under control by ending lunch early and sending students into the building and their classes, the altercation broke out during transition. It was attracting swarms of students very quickly before another hold was placed. After the hold was lifted and at the end of the day, a short, optional staff meeting was held–the third such meeting the principal has had to hold already. 

And if all this wasn’t enough, this week, while transitioning from AC to heat through the building, water leaked through pipes and into hallways in multiple locations. This pipe sent brown, sludge-like water seeping through the D hallway. In response, yet another hold was placed as maintenance stopped the leak and cleaned up the mess. Pictures and videos of the explosion were shared on social media. By the end of the day, it seemed like all students had seen pictures of the damage on Instagram or had it sent to them by friends. 

While some are still skeptical about the arrival of a new principal, it is safe to say that not many principals in Montgomery County are capable of dealing with intense situations with such speed and attention to detail. Additionally, students have taken a liking to him, stating that he is both fair and friendly to his students.