Worcester County police and some parents want School Resource Deputies [SRDs] placed in private schools, but local officials say they need more information first.
SRDs are sworn police officers assigned to a school to ensure a safe environment. They already serve Worcester County public schools, where their duties include making arrests, responding to incidents, and acting as a liaison between the school and the sheriff’s office.
Baltimore and Howard County Police said they currently do not have police in private schools. The Sun also reached out to Baltimore City and Annapolis officials, who didn’t respond by presstime.
A vote to approve the SRDs was tabled Tuesday, as Worcester County officials said they needed more information.
Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli said he made the recommendation because local police “need to be proactive with the safety of our children.”
“My office is trying to be proactive with deploying assets at all learning institutions within Worcester County,” Crisafulli said. “When a critical incident occurs, there is no distinction between private versus public schools. Nationally, we are seeing tragic incidents across the spectrum of schools. As the Sheriff of Worcester County, I have made it abundantly clear that the safety of our children will always be a top priority of my administration.”
A question of location
Some concerns were raised by county officials about spending resources on additional officers because not all private school students live in Worcester County.
“Regardless of their mailing address, I want all of our children to have a safe and conducive learning environment,” Crisafulli said. “Having a deputy on the campus allows us to hopefully deter any major incidents, or at least eliminate a potential threat rapidly, as opposed to a reactive response from a road deputy.
“The minutes are precious in these incidents. We want to do the best we can to mitigate the chances of danger to our children and school staffing, countywide,” he continued. “These children go to school in Worcester County. When a parent drops their child off at a school, regardless of what type of mandated schooling it is, they have an expectation and right to feel that their child is in a safe environment.”
Half a dozen parents joined Crisafuli’s call for SRDs in private schools during a Worcester County Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
Katie Addis, a member of the Worcester County Board of Education, said, “Now, more than ever, schools of faith and private Christian schools are under attack.”
“We, as taxpayers of Worcester County, should not have to worry that her children will not be safe and protected because we choose to send our children to a different Worcester County school,” she said. “The most equitable thing that you can do is to ensure, across the board, that all children in Worcester County schools are guaranteed the same protection as children in public schools.”
Addis said public schools don’t pay for SRDs – the county does – and suggested the same practice be applied to private schools.
“What you are currently asking private schools to do is discriminatory,” she said.
What does state law say?
Private schools are responsible for their own safety measures, as the state’s public school safety laws do not extend to them.
Parents like Addis argue that it’s not important where a student lives or which school they attend. All students deserve to be safe, they say.
“Do you want that on your conscience, that you had the chance to vote yes for something like this and you voted against it?” she said.
Brooke Pirotte, a local nurse who specializes in gunshot wounds, said time is crucially important during an emergency – and resource deputies can help bridge that gap.
“I’m telling you, there’s not enough time,” she said. “If someone’s showing up to hurt people, we have to worry about it at the trauma center.”
Pirottee said, “it’s not a matter of if, it is a matter of when” there’s a catastrophic incident.
“I think we have the most vulnerable population in these private schools, especially when you see private schools and schools of faith being targeted over the past few years,” she said. “Wherever you fall in the political spectrum, I think everyone can agree [on] saving children’s lives.”
She ended by showing commissioners a photo of one of her recent patients who suffered a gunshot wound to the face.
“Eight months in the hospital. Multiple surgeries … that’s one person. Imagine if that were 60 children. We’re not going to be able to save them all,” she said.
A couple of legal questions
Before the county could make a decision, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic cited advice from the county attorney and said there were “some legal type things that are missing.”
“There has been no criteria put forward as to what would qualify as a private school,” Mitrecic said. “Are these gonna trickle down into nursery schools and daycare centers?”
He said county officials also need to discuss potential insurance liability.
“I don’t think that the Sheriff’s Department has talked to the Attorney General about this [to] see what their part is in this. We also need to know if this has been done in other jurisdictions and how it was done. So, these are all questions that need to be answered before we can actually consider this with any seriousness,” he said.
The attorney general’s office declined to comment on this story.
Crisafulli, meanwhile, said the request was simply about the safety of local schoolchildren, regardless of their residence or income level.
“All these efforts are proactive measures to ensure that our office is doing everything that we can to allow families and children to feel safe and secure while learning. We owe that to our children and families,” he said.
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