Message from the Superintendent: School Safety Follow Up

October 17th, 2024

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The following message was shared by HCPSS Superintendent Bill Barnes to staff, students, families and community on Oct. 17, 2024:

Yesterday I emailed our staff and families with disturbing news that a student had been arrested as a suspect in a recent homicide. Today I was invited by Howard County Police Department Chief Gregory Der to participate in an HCPD press conference. I appreciate Chief Der’s invitation and the opportunity to speak on this critical matter. This is the time for swift and collective action that prioritizes our children and their safety.

To that end, I am convening an active external school safety and security advisory group made up of students, staff members, parents, police, county officials, and other community members to deeply explore the issue of school safety and make recommendations to me and the Board of Education. I also have tasked staff to undergo a comprehensive case review of the 48 students who we are aware of having reportable offenses, or who are detained or committed by the Department of Juvenile Services.

My full remarks are as follows:

On Tuesday of this week, I received notification that no superintendent wishes to receive – that the safety and wellbeing of members of my HCPSS family was potentially in serious jeopardy. As someone who is responsible for the safety and wellbeing of students and staff, and by extension our students’ families, you can imagine that I stand here in a state of extreme frustration and concern.

The situation that existed at Howard High School and led to the events on Tuesday of this week are not acceptable considering the escalation of school violence in our country. I join the voices of our students, staff, families and all those who care for the safety of our most precious resource – our children – to say that we must review every law, policy, regulation, practice and protocol in place across our state and within our school system that impact the safety of our learning spaces. And it is my intent to leave no stone unturned in the areas I can control directly, which are the safety measures and protocols in our school buildings, and our plan for appropriately educating students with known criminal histories. This is the time for swift and collective action that prioritizes the safety of our children and staff.

Simultaneously, I stand here grateful that the event that unfolded Tuesday at Howard High School resulted in no physical harm to any individual at that school. I commend Chief Der and the officers who were on-site for their swift response. I commend Howard High School Principal Steven Fleming and his administrative team, security personnel, and all staff in that building for the remarkable and professional manner in which they led in that space and tended to the needs of our students. I also want to thank our Office of Safety and Security, members of our Crisis Response Team, and school system leadership for being available and on-site to provide support to students and staff at Howard High School. My gratitude for those staff can’t be expressed strongly enough. So, while I am grateful that we are here talking about an event that resulted in no physical harm to students or staff, it feels like we were way too close to this situation resulting in a very different conclusion. And it isn’t hard to imagine what that alternative outcome would have looked like, because we have seen horrific scenes of school violence all across the United States, and in Maryland, over the past two decades.

Let me begin by addressing Tuesday’s event and the release of subsequent information. We knew that we had a student from a neighboring district who was enrolling in our school system and receiving support from the Department of Juvenile Services. We did not know, because no additional information was disclosed to the school system by the Department of Juvenile Services, the history of this student’s prior convictions.

We learned yesterday following the bail hearing of very serious alleged violent offenses in this individual’s past. If this information and data had been available to us before yesterday, I assure our community that I would not have approved a placement at Howard High School for this student. Good decisions are predicated on accurate data. And I now know that there is important data not available to the school system that best informs placement.

Now that we have identified flaws in our current systems, let me talk a bit about how we are going to respond. I want to briefly share the work that has occurred over the first three months of my tenure and then I will share how we will accelerate efforts based on lessons from this week. Over the past three months, we have:

• Reviewed and updated our safety plan at all schools and office buildings;
• Streamlined our school emergency operation procedures to ensure a timely and efficient response in the event of an emergency; and
• Provided significant training between our Office of Safety and Security and school administrators related to threat assessments, search and seizure, drugs, and other critical topics.

Additionally:

• We continuously review and adapt our safety protocols to reflect best practices in collaboration with Howard County Police and the Maryland Center for School Safety;
• School Resource Officers and other security personnel in schools are trained in de-escalation techniques and follow protocols designed to prioritize the safety and well-being of students and staff; and
• Our school system implements a comprehensive approach to safety, which includes physical security measures, staff training, emergency response planning, and student engagement to help students with ways to report possible threats and information.
• Most importantly, relationships are our best security measure and must continually be cultivated to prevent students from feeling the need to bring a weapon into a school or take threatening action. In most cases with students who have had incidents that resulted in arrest, collaboration between law enforcement and judicial agencies, the family, and the school system has worked well.

But these efforts are not enough. We have much more work to do and there are several steps I am announcing today to enhance the security of our school communities:

1. First, over the past few days, I have received emails from community members who have experience in the field of safety and security, and I want to thank them for their offer of help. So, in order to complement our internal security team that is already have in place, I am convening an active external school safety and security advisory group made up of students, staff members, parents, police, county officials, and other community members to deeply explore the issue of school safety and make recommendations to me and the Board of Education. I am charging this advisory group to consider every possibility and put any possible solution on the table. I am also accelerating their work to implement solutions as soon as possible and to make recommendations to be considered as part of this year’s budget process.
2. I have also tasked staff to undergo a comprehensive case review of the 48 students who we are aware of having reportable offenses, or who are detained or committed by the Department of Juvenile Services. I need to make sure that each student is in the most appropriate educational placement, and I will make adjustments accordingly.

I want to conclude my remarks by once again thanking Chief Der, County Executive Ball, members of the Board of Education and the County Council, and others who are rallying in support of the safety of our students and staff in our schools. We need to work together and spend our time identifying the gaps in existing systems that limit my ability to provide education to all students well while keeping our students and staff safe.

I want to repeat that if anybody sees or suspects something that is a threat to school safety, please say something to a school administrator, the School Resource Officer, or directly to the Howard County Police Department. We regularly receive notices on potential threats that are able to be mitigated before they become a danger to the safety of the school community. I am grateful for all those students and family members who have worked with us in these instances. School safety is a total team effort.