UPDATE - The Worcester County Board of Education has responded to the letter sent by the Worcester State's Attorney. The statement was released on Tuesday, October 17th.
The statement is attached below:
In response to the letter received by the Board from the Worcester County State’s Attorney and the Worcester County Sheriff on September 21, the Board has now met on three separate occasions. After spending hours on the issues raised, it is clear that very little can be presently agreed upon between the Sheriff, State’s Attorney, and our Executive Team. This is unfortunate.
It is important that everyone understand that it is this Board’s opinion that this is not a matter of “truth” vs. “fiction” but rather a clear breakdown in communication between the Sheriff, State’s Attorney, and school system’s Executive Team. This needs immediate attention and correction.
This Board does not agree with the characterization that our schools are unsafe or that there has been consistent unreported violence; this is not accurate. The Board does agree however that there is room for improvement in certain areas of school safety and corrective measures have been implemented already. Additionally, we look forward to capturing further opportunities for improvement at any time as they may arise. Worcester County Public Schools, through the dedicated leadership of Chief Safety Officer Dr. Annette Wallace, has devoted and will continue to devote substantial time and resources to the training and education of faculty and staff on school safety.
This Board recognizes that there may be different philosophical approaches to school safety but what is clear is that amongst the State’s Attorney, the Sheriff, and Executive Team, there needs to be a greater understanding and appreciation for the role that each partner plays and how the differing approaches can co-exist without their individual roles being hindered and without any laws being broken.
The Board’s number one priority is to provide a safe learning environment for the children of Worcester County, and one way to further this priority, relevant to the issue of school safety, is that today I am announcing the formation of a School Safety Task Force. The purpose of this Task Force will be:
- To help facilitate and effectuate strong communication between all partners and to serve as an avenue to discuss and relay concerns that might exist on an ongoing and regular basis;
- To provide an opportunity for a subject matter expert to present to all partners on the nuisances of Maryland School Law and the Federal Law that applies to certain classifications of students and the restrictions and discipline that can be administrated to these students;
- To serve as a liaison to this Board to keep us informed as to all matters concerning school safety;
- To make recommendations to this Board as it may see fit; and
- To initially work through the real and substantive issues contained within the two presentations made to the Board of Education, so any uncertainty and misunderstanding can be eliminated and opportunities for improvement can be implemented.
Board of Education Members Elena McComas, Katie Addis, and Bill Gordy have volunteered to serve on this task force alongside the Superintendent of Schools and/or Chief Safety Officer. In addition, the Board of Education invites the Worcester County State’s Attorney and the Sheriff to be active members of this task force. The Board of Education also believes that one of the initial considerations of the task force should be whether additional members should be added to the task force. It is important that all key players are active members of this group, so its purpose can be fulfilled. We further believe that the Board of Education Attorney should be a non-voting member of this task force to help facilitate and moderate the task force.
We believe this task force is the first next step to help resolve the communication issues that exist and eliminate the varied views on certain specific topics. While in the end the Board acknowledges that differences may still exist and recollections may continue to vary, but one thing is for certain: we all must do everything possible to eliminate the divide that exists and collectively work together to find common ground. The relationships are simply too important to fail.
It was important to the Board that the community be made aware that we have taken this matter very seriously; we have done our due diligence, and we believe that we have found a path forward. We will be responding to the State’s Attorney and Sheriff in a letter in the coming days with more detail, but the Board wished to get this statement released as quickly and as responsibly as possible.
Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli, in response to the above statement, said reopening communication will be key.
"For any partnership to survive and continue and grow and move forward, there has got to be communication," said Crisafulli. "So as I've indicated from the beginning, my office is always open to idea for further collaboration."
The Board of Education plans on sending a response letter to the Sheriff's Office and State's Attorney in the next few days. Sheriff Crisafulli said his office will wait until they receive that letter before making a decision on whether or not to participate in this taskforce.
WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- On Tuesday morning, the Board of Education held a special meeting to review a letter sent by the State's Attorney's Office. The letter outlined a lack of communication between schools and law enforcement.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, so we didn't get much from the BOE. We did however, get a clearer picture as to why the letter was sent and what kind of resolution law enforcement would like to see.
Todd Ferrante, President of the BOE, did allude to what the next week could entail.
"The board met today in order to investigate the information that was presented to us by the state's attorney and sheriff," said Ferrante. "And in its endeavor to investigate all this information thoroughly, we will be reconvening next week in a closed session at 9:00 a.m."
Ferrante said the three page letter did come as a bit of a surprise, but the BOE is taking the matter seriously.
"We are concerned about the school safety and our 6,800 kids that are in our school system everyday, and that is the first and foremost for this school system," said Ferrante.
Kris Heiser, Worcester County's State's Attorney, said the letter came as a last resort. It was sent after several meetings over the last four years with Worcester School's Superintendent and Chief Safety Officer.
It also comes after a new operating procedure for county law enforcement and memorandum of understanding between schools and law enforcement were created.
The memorandum of understanding is an agreement that highlights the respective responsibilities of law enforcement and school staff. For schools, their job, by law, is to report any criminal or delinquent acts. Then it would be up to law enforcement to take the proper action based on the severity of that crime.
"We have really done I think everything that we can on our end to make people aware of the problem and the last thing was to make the board of ed. aware," said Heiser.
According to Heiser, school staff are obligated by state law to notify law enforcement on certain incidents, such as criminal or delinquent acts. In the past and through the beginning of this school year, it was not happening at the frequency higher-ups in law enforcement want to see.
"We're out in the community all the time, people pull us aside and tell us 'hey this happened' or 'hey that happened'", said Heiser. "That's really disconcerting to hear it from 'John Q. Citizen' versus the person that's supposed to and is obligated under the law to be reporting it to us."
The State's Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office said their goal is to be proactive, rather than reactive to issues in schools. Something increased communication could help with.
"When the school principal is continuously interacting with their school resource deputy, that's what proactive law enforcement looks like," said Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli.
Crisafulli said constant interactions between his deputies and school staff can ensure any gaps in security are fixed before something bad happens.
"They can share with each other any type of safety breaches that may have been brought to their attention and if there's continuous communication, that is something that can help to mitigate the safety breaches within the walls of the schools," said Crisafulli.
Crisafulli and Heiser both said they are looking for a response from the BOE that will help both parties move forward.
"A firm plan and a clear message to school officials that, this is the information required to be reported and there's consequences for not reporting it", said Heiser.
Ferrante said the BOE will meet again on Tuesday, October 17th in closed session. We can expect a public statement in an open session directly following that meeting.
