A mother’s fight for a safer Montgomery County

Profile picture of Jai’lyn Jones (Used with permission from Alexis Jones McDaniel)

Montgomery County Police found 17-year-old Jai’lyn Jones’ body behind homes in Germantown, Md on Jan. 24, which led to the opening a murder investigation. Since then, Jai’lyn Jones’ mother Alexis Jones McDaniel opened an Instagram account to spread awareness about her son’s death.

In an interview, McDaniel describes an incident of how Jai’lyn was initially put in Social Emotional Special Education Services that she believes did more harm than good for him. In the story, McDaniel was expecting her 14-year-old son Jai’lyn to come home from middle school at 3:15 p.m., but when he didn’t arrive, she started looking for him.

Soon after, Christopher Wynne, the principal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Wisteria Drive, Germantown, saw her searching for her son  and told her to get in the car because Jai’lyn was in the emergency room.

“You can’t even imagine how I felt. ‘What in the heck is my son doing at the emergency room?’” McDaniel said. “That’s all I was thinking.”

Once she got there, she saw her son terrified and shaken.  

She said a detective told her that nine students ganged up on Jai’lyn and attacked him, leaving bruises all over his body. 

“They would not let him leave. He tried to back up. They had him surrounded,” McDaniel said. “You can see the fear and horror in his eyes.”

After that incident, McDaniel was offered “Social Emotional Special Education Services,” a program that was described as something to help stop her son from getting bullied.

“Instead of putting Jai’lyn somewhere, instead of doing something about the bullying, they put my child in the cluster program,” McDaniel said. “But in the cluster program, those are the same students that he needed protection from.”

From there, McDaniel described how Jai’lyn had been subjected to more bullying and gang violence in the program at Northwest High School that was intended to help him, ultimately leading to his unsolved death.

Beverly Then, a homicide detective at Montgomery County Police Department 5D who is working the investigation on Jai’lyn’s death, says that she has several leads but needs time in order to get a successful prosecution.

“We [the police department] have to be diligent and gather as much evidence and testimony as possible,” Then said. “Me and my shift are working hard to bring his killers to justice.” 

While the homicide is still under investigation, McDaniel has made an Instagram account to raise awareness of her son’s death and the circumstances surrounding it — by posting Jai’lyn’s scarred and mutilated body on the social media platform.

The Instagram account, @justice4jailyn, began posting on Feb. 15, but the account’s biggest post - with over 19,000 likes - features videos of Jones dancing, lying in his casket and a graphic photo of Jones’ face featuring multiple stabs to his face and exposed skull. 

Musician and Montgomery County resident Joseph Walthour said that those images shouldn’t be on the social media platform because it isn’t a news site. And with that, comes problems.

“People could say whatever they want with those photos. Now the killers could have those photos and could do whatever they want with it,” Walthour said.

McDaniel acknowledged that the photos are graphic, but says that they serve a purpose.

“The entire community needed to see that to understand the severity of what it is we’re dealing with, here in the county,” said McDaniel. “I thought that sharing those pictures and putting up that page will help bring some awareness to the violence that’s going on in our community, amongst our children.”

Detective Then could not comment on how McDaniel’s post affected the investigation.

McDaniel said she believes that her son’s death exposes a bigger issue in Montgomery County: gang violence within the community and a problematic program: the Social Emotional Special Education Services.

“I found out when Jai’lyn died that this is not an anomaly. This is what happens in Montgomery County when it’s swept under the rug,” said McDaniel.

According to the website page, the Social Emotional Special Education Services is a program that “seek(s) to enhance the educational experience for children and youth who are experiencing behavioral and emotional challenges so that they can become healthy and productive individuals.”

Amy Snell, a SESES instructor at Northwest High School, declined to comment on how the program is run at the high school, as well as the criticisms McDaniel alleges towards the program.

Detective Then said that as a mother who has a child the same age as Jai’lyn, what happened to him is “a mother’s worst nightmare.”

“What happened to Jai’lyn is despicable. I’ve been a detective for a while and what I saw happen to Jai’lyn was…” Then said.

When asked about potential gang violence in Montgomery County, Shannon Vann, a junior information systems major at the University of Maryland, said that the violence confuses her.

“Sometimes it kind of confuses me because this is an upper-income county,” said Vann. “I can kind of see where the gang violence is, but a lot of the time it happens to young children and young men, especially in these schools.”

Vann also believes that it’s within McDaniel’s right to post the images of her son on Instagram, as a way to shine more light on Jones' story.

In response to this and many other criticisms regarding her usage of graphic images to spread awareness, McDaniel says that she knows.

“They’re right. It shouldn’t be on social media. It is too graphic, but it’s our reality. They are right. It should never happen to a child, especially not in this county,” said McDaniel. “It’s letting us know that we have a job to do. 

McDaniel has organized the “Justice for Jai’lyn” Rally, which is happening on April 30th from 12-2 p.m. at the Black Rock Center for the Arts. The rally will run in conjunction with the “Rally to Protect our Neighborhoods,” which is hosted by Councilmembers Craig Rice and Sidney Katz.

There is currently a $10,000 reward for any tips leading to arrests. Anonymous calls can go to the Montgomery County anonymous tip line at (240)-773-5070 or (866)-411-8477.