Safe at School? The Baltimore City School Police
How a few questions in December 2014 turned into a years-long effort.
2015: Each year, I track bills introduced by my state representatives in the 43rd District. HB101/SB17 were prefiled in Dec. 2014. The bills sought to expand gun carry powers for the Baltimore City School Police. As a follower of the Baltimore City School Board (BCSB) I revisited the 2015 legislative agenda, certain that no such position had been included. On the bottom of page 9, was a single bullet point:
That single sentence constitutes the only public notice provided prior to the bill’s introduction.
(The Baltimore City School Police force was created in 1991. It is the only sworn school police force in the state. Officers have full arrest powers within city limits. School police are permitted to carry guns, but with restrictions. According to state law “a Baltimore City school police officer whose permanent or temporary assignment is at a school or on school property may carry a firearm on the premises of the school to which the officer is assigned before or after regular school hours on school days and on days other than school days.” Following Sept. 11, 2001, school police began carrying their firearms within school buildings. My understanding is that HB101/SB17 was an attempt to formalize common practice.)
The Baltimore City Delegation heard HB101/SB17 on Feb. 13, 2015. Alongside advocates from the ACLU, Advocates for Children and Youth, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and another parent, I testified against the bills. Testifying in support were BCSB Commissioner (now Chair) Cheryl Casciani, City Council President Bernard “Jack” Young, and (now former) Chief of School Police Marshall Goodwin.
After the hearing, I requested information on school police training, data collection, service for students with disabilities, etc., from the BCSB. On Feb. 19 I received a form letter from Chief Goodwin in response to questions submitted on Feb. 11. I resubmitted my questions as a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request on Feb. 20. It would be over a year — a violation of the MPIA — before I received a response.
On Feb. 24, the BCSB held their first community meeting on expanded carry powers for school police. Almost simultaneously, HB101/SB17 were tabled by the City Delegation, effectively killing the bills.
In March, a redeployment strategy was unveiled (see also, this PowerPoint). The last slide included a bullet point about community meetings in April. Those meetings were delayed until July. In August the BCSB’s Operations Committee recommended no change to policy.
Between the meetings, I submitted MPIA requests for training materials. I was horrified at what I received. A training on professionalism for officers who police children included bellicose language.
The intellectual disabilities training did not include rights afforded to students under 20 U.S.C. § 1415(k). Indeed, in a May 2015 letter to the Maryland General Assembly then CEO Gregory Thornton wrote that the “Baltimore City School Police does not track special education status in its arrest records. Because School Police arrest records are tracked using the system set up by the Baltimore City Police Department, the only way to collect this information would be to manually check each child against the IEPs (Individualized Educational Programs).”
A training on “verbal judo” told officers they could not lose in court. Other training materials are here.
In September, the NAACP-LDF wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice to request that school police be added to the consent decree citing, “[d]ata received by LDF from Baltimore City Public Schools, through a public information act request, show that school police officers have been accused of misconduct and excessive use-of-force on numerous occasions.”
The BCSB approves a budget which spends more on policing than many academic functions. It costs nearly $6000 to equip each school police officer, as this response to an inquiry from the Maryland General Assembly shows:
The legislative platform for the 2016 session takes no position on expanded carry powers.
2016: In March, Officer Anthony Spence is caught on tape slapping a student at the REACH Partnership School while Officer Saverna Bias stood by.
Officer Spence was fired from the Baltimore Sheriff’s Office in 2003. In 2011, his girlfriend, also a school police officer, got a protective order against him after allegations of domestic violence. Yet, he remained on the force.
Officer Spence was not the first Baltimore City Schools Police Officer to retain his job after domestic violence. In 2001, Officer Marlon Lynch received probation before judgment after being charged with second degree assault for beating his girlfriend. The next year, still on the force, Officer Lynch shot and killed a 14 year old behind Leith Walk Elementary/Middle. Lynch was charged with second degree murder after he said his handgun went off during a struggle. He was convicted of manslaugher in 2004 and sued by the boy’s family. A settlement was reached in 2007.
In February, the Baltimore City School Police renewed their MOU with the Baltimore Police Department; it expired February 16, 2019. The MOU compares unfavorably with the detailed documents used in other jurisductions, which include training, communications, data collection, and more; see, e.g., the MOU between Montgomery County Schools and its police forces.
After a poor evaluation reported in March, CEO Gregory Thornton resigns from Baltimore City Schools in May. Chief Goodwin departs in June, having been on paid administration leave since March.
In April 2016, I receive responses to questions I posed over a year before to Chief Goodwin. In response to “How many officers on the school police force have been dismissed from other law enforcement agencies?” the BCSB replies “We are currently researching this information.” Whether any school police officers currently serving have ever been dismissed from other law enforcement agencies remains unclear.
The 2017 legislative platform takes no position on expanded carry powers for school police.
2017: In April, the consent decree between the Department of Justice and the Baltimore Police Department is finalized. As requested by the NAACP-LDF, Baltimore City School Police are included.
(A personal note: I spend much of 2017 away from advocacy after my then-9 year old suffers an ischemic stroke in May and is hospitalized for a month, followed by months-long intensive outpatient rehabilitation. )
2018: In January, Baltimore City Public Schools issues an RFP for school police consulting services (MDBCS31031684) but cancels it; the Maryland Center for School Safety provides services instead.
Also in January, the Maryland State Department of Education releases the first tranche of data on school arrests. In the 2015–16 school year, Baltimore City School Police arrested 90 students. Of those 89 were Black or African American (99%) and 36 (40%) had identified disabilities; 33 (37%) were 9th graders; and 83 (92%) were poor. Of the 90 arrests, 55 students received no suspension. Only 11 (12%) were expelled.
In June, more than three years HB101/SB17, the BCSB adopts the first set of school police policies.
The School Police Report Card Survey is released in July. A majority of students report that school police are respectful and approachable. However, 56% report feeling like school police did not understand their life outside of school and 51% report that school police use force to deal with conflicts.
In October, the BCSB announce they will reconsider the issue of expanded gun carry, less than six months after adopting the first set of policies. The same month, Sgt. Boatwright, who heads the school police FOP, calls into WEAA and tells listeners that Patterson High School hired armed guards, a claim that CEO Santelises quickly refutes:
The 2019 legislative platform does not include a position on expanding carry for school officers. The budget for school police continues to outstrip many academic functions.
2019: Del. Cheryl Glenn (D-45th) introduces HB31 to expand gun carry for city school police officers.
On Jan. 22, the BCSB hears public comment on HB31. After a contentious meeting, including direct action by the Baltimore Algebra Project, the Board votes 10–0 against supporting HB31. Del. Glenn withdraws the bill.
On Feb. 8, the relative of a student shoots a 56 year old paraprofessional at Douglass High School. The shooter is subdued by the victim who survives.
In the aftermath of the shooting: (1) the BCSB announces it will revisit support for HB31/expanded carry powers at the Feb. 12 Board meeting but that event is cancelled due to inclement weather; (2) the Baltimore Sun publishes an op-ed recommending that city schools not revisit its decision to oppose expanded carry powers; (3) a teacher at Douglass pens an op-ed saying he remains opposed, even after the school shooting; and (4) a second teacher at Douglass pens a heartbreaking, infuriating op-ed on the conditions of city schools in which students are expected to produce and teachers to instruct.
Simultaneously, the head of the school police FOP takes to social media to scorn school psychologists, parents, teachers, and advocates opposed to HB31. He claims opponents are paid advocates who abuse our positions of trust to coerce students.*
Although the BCSB has not met to reconsider its position, Senator J.B. Jennings, who does not represent any portion of Baltimore City, files a bill (SB884) that would require Baltimore City School Police to be armed at all times. I would urge Sen. Jennings to address the arrest rate in his home jurisduction: Baltimore County arrested the 2nd highest number of children amongst the 24 jurisdictions with 393 arrests (second only to Prince George’s County), of which 286 were Black students (83%) while the county school system is 39% Black.
Del. Glenn revives her expanded gun carry bill with the introduction of HB1373.
More than three years after spotting HB101, I did not expect to be regulary attending Board meetings and reading literature on school policing.**
Armed SROs failed to stop active shootings at Columbine, Colorado; at Parkland, Florida; at Virginia Tech; at Santa Fe, Texas; at Marysville, Washington; at Union Middle in Utah; at Santana High School Santee, California, and many others.
The Washington Post has a complete data set, beginning with the 1998–1999 school year. There is no empirical evidence that an armed SRO has any effect. Nor is there any evidence that gun-free or gun-restricted setting attract shooters. Of the shootings recorded in the database, 12 deaths occured in 44 incidents without an SRO. The data records 129 deaths in 176 incidents with an SRO. (Both counts include the death of the assailant where it occurred.)
The shooter at Douglass High School wasn’t unique. Like so many others described in the FBI’s A Study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States Between 2000 and 2013 (which includes school shooters) he had an active grievance and fairly ready access to a weapon. Of course, just as the FBI notes, the shooter’s grievance “may not have been reasonable or even grounded in reality, but it appeared to serve as the rationale for the eventual attack, giving a sense of purpose to the shooter.”
In urging the BCSB to reconsider expanding carry powers despite empircal evidence and disagreement amongst parents, students, and teachers, the city school police ask “What if?” That’s a reasonable question given how large school shootings loom in our collective imagination despite the extremely low odds of a student being killed by a gun in school: roughly 1 in 614 million. Fear is a reaction I understand all too well. Pediatric stroke risk in healthy children is about 8 per 100,000 but as the parent of one of those 8 it feels so much larger. In the immediate aftermath I probably would’ve recommend any child with a headache and dizziness be stat’d into a CAT scan and MRI.
Humans are mostly pretty terrible at judging risk. After Sept. 11, 2001 many Americans opted out of flying and in favor of driving. According to data from the National Transportation Safety Board there were a total of 331 airplane crash-related fatalities in the US, not including the 9/11 terror attacks, out of 1751 crash events. This is compared to 354 deaths the previous year, out of 1862 events. At the same time, there were 42,000–44,000 driving-related deaths in each of 2000, 2001, and 2002. Driving is many times more dangerous than airline travel but social exposure alters our perception.
Still, fear can’t be the only motivation. The BCSB didn’t move to reconsider school police after the death of a student at Leith Walk in 2002. Or after the sexual abuse of a student by a school officer at Masonville Cove in 2010. Or after the 2014 sentencing of a former school police officer for drug trafficking. Only after the 2015 event at Vanguard Middle and the 2016 event at REACH did the BCSB finally adopt policies governing training, data collection, and oversight.
Why didn’t the BCSB eliminate or curtail school police after each of those serious incidents? My suspicion is that the members intuited that reactionary policy-making is generally bad policy making; that is, the BCSB withheld judgment based a limited number of bad actors.
Will the Baltimore City School Board rush to judgment now? I sincerely hope not. Arming school police is a blunt tool with potentially dire consequences. The Baltimore City School Police are making signficant progress in reducing arrests — down from over 300 in 2014 to under 100 in 2016, increasing training requirements, and improving data collection. Why the FOP would choose to jeopardize nascent community trust with its single-minded pursuit of arming school officers is unclear.
The Baltimore City School Board will re-reconsider its support of HB31 on February 26. I’ll be there. Again.
*I am not a paid advocate. Other than a lift home after a meeting, I have never received renumeration of any kind from any advocacy organization related to Baltimore City Schools. I am not affiliated with IIRP, Akoben, OSI, or any other vendor/contract related to social-emotional learning or restorative practices.
**A small portion of what I’ve considered in advocating for thoughtful policing and disciplinary policies: Who Will Graduate, Disruption of High School Education by Arrest and Court Involvement (2006); Education Under Arrest, Justice Policy Institute (2011); Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline (2012), Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee; Policing School Discipline (2012); Police Officers in Schools: Effects on School Crime and the Processing of Offending Behaviors (2011); School Security Considerations After Newtown, Stanford Law Review (2013); Section III, Juvenile Justice Sourcebook; Preventing School Shootings: The Effectiveness of Safety Measures (2017); Guiding Principles A Resource Guide for Improving School Climate and Discipline Our Girls, Our Future: Investing In Opportunity & Reducing Reliance On The Criminal Justice System In Baltimore; Congressional Research Service, School Resource Officers: Law Enforcement Officers in Schools (2013); JHU’s Firearms on College Campuses: Research Evidence and Policy Implications (2016); Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing, Assigning Police Officers to Schools (2010); Aggressive Policing and the Educational Performance of Minority Youth, American Sociological Review (2019); Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long‐term Education Outcomes, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management; and data from the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and MSDE.
