WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- Higher ups in law enforcement are dissatisfied with the response from the Board of Education regarding communication. The response was to a letter sent by the State's Attorneys Office back in September.
The letter addressed several "violent and disturbing" incidents in Worcester County schools and a subsequent failure by the school system to report them. The most formative action from the BOE was an idea to create a school safety task force.
It did not sit well with State's Attorney Kris Heiser or Sheriff Matt Crisafulli. Heiser said the response was confusing and did not address any direct concerns from law enforcement.
“The response was basically denying that there were any issues that needed to be addressed and so I’m not really sure what a taskforce would be doing then, if schools are safe period, then what do we need the taskforce for?” questioned Heiser.
Crisafulli said he felt the response was lackluster.
"It's a little bit disappointing and at this point we're going to ask them to reconsider their response with the concerns that we have outlined," said Crisafulli.
Their main concern being the lack of communication when it comes to criminal or delinquent acts. Heiser said she did not feel this task force proposed by the BOE would help mend this relationship.
"It's the same people that they're proposing to put on this task force that we've been talking to for four years about all these same safety issues," said Heiser. "We're willing to consider participation in a task force but it's got to be the right people that can actually get the job done."
Who those right people are?
"I can't really answer that I think that would be something that the board of ed. is going to have to think long and hard about," said Heiser.
Moving forward, Heiser and Crisafulli said they want to see an actionable plan.
"The communication aspect is very important and you know we want to see that continue to improve and we just need something tangible," said Crisafulli. "Some specific outlines of what is going to be the corrective measures that they're going to be taking."
Heiser added the breakdown is not between school deputies and staff but stems from the leadership level. We did reach out to Worcester County Schools, who said they are working on a response to these most recent concerns. They tell us we can expect that response later on this week.
