Worcester Co. chief law enforcement calling for stronger communication with WCPS

WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – School safety is the topic of conversation in Worcester County as top law enforcement calls on the Board of Education to do more to keep students from harm.

“We don’t just have the appearance of school safety that we have actual school safety,” said Worcester County State’s Attorney, Kris Heiser.

Worcester County Chief Law Enforcement is demanding stronger communication with the county’s Public Schools. They say they haven’t been able to monitor safety concerns when they happen. “If they’re not communicating the way that they should be on a daily basis that would concern me to think that there could be security breaches if they’re not sharing information,” said Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli.

Both Sheriff Matt Crisafulli and State’s Attorney Kris Heiser call it the school’s duty to report safety breaches at any of the 14 schools within the district.”The law requires them to report any delinquent acts committed by juveniles or any criminal conduct that occurs on school property or by students that they become aware of off of school property, that’s all that we’re asking for,” said Heiser. “That communication can help to eliminate the potentials for threats and if we’re not talking, and we’re not collaborating and we’re not sharing information that’s where that piece of information may fall through the cracks, and be that piece of information that could have prevented some type of incident,” said Sheriff Crisafulli.

If school safety incidents are better reported, Heiser says it can prevent issues for that student later in life. “The juvenile justice system is designed for rehabilitation, what we don’t want to see is students committing the same troubled behavior in the schools, and then there aren’t any consequences, and then what we end up seeing later is they turn 18 and now they can be charged as an adult with these offenses. The adult system is not designed for rehabilitation,” said Heiser.  What I don’t want to see is kids who have gotten away with doing this sort of troubling behavior for this long, and then they’re shocked by the time they turn 18 and get a consequence, so we really need to talk to our schools and get on the same page about all of that so that those students are held accountable along the way so they don’t to the point where I’m seeing them in a courtroom. I think that we can do that. I think it just requires a lot of communication,” Heiser explained.

Tuesday, the Worcester County Board of Education met to discuss the concerns. They say they’re reviewing the matter and hope to soon have a solution for the community. “I think it came as a surprise to us, at least the severity of it. We’re concerned about school safety and 6800 kids that are in our school system every day and that is first and foremost for this school system. We haven’t gone through this particular process before but we’re hoping we can get back to the public and make a public statement as quickly as possible,” said Todd Ferrante, President of the Worcester County Board of Education. The Board of Education will meet on Tuesday, October 17th in a closed session.

Sheriff Crisafulli says changes need to be made sooner than later to prevent more serious incidents. “There have been mass causality incidents throughout this country. We do not want that to ever be Worcester County. We do not want that to ever occur here,” said Sheriff Crisafulli.

Sheriff Crisafulli remains confident that the response from the board of education will help them to move forward keeping all students safe. “We have 13 deputies to cover all 14 schools because there are 2 schools that are adjoined together. We have a deputy on each school campus, they are there in the event God forbid of a mass incident but they are also there to guide our students, to be mentors, to be coaches, so they are there to help form these partnerships with our students so that our students can see that the law enforcement officers are here, they’re here, they’re our friends, they’re on our sides, they’re helping to guide us to safety,” Sheriff Crisafulli emphasized.

State’s Attorney Kris Heiser says “All of these things are – it’s overarching it’s more than just safety in the sense of law enforcement sense. It’s safety and this is the future of our community, so let’s keep our communities safe by keeping our schools safe,” Heiser said.