After Howard student’s arrest, Maryland schools must share students’ criminal records

Superintendents must be notified if new students committed serious crimes while attending their previous Maryland schools, the state school board decided Tuesday morning.

The new rule comes a week after a Howard High School student with a criminal record was charged with first-degree murder. The Howard County superintendent said at a news conference last week that the 17-year-old had transferred from a neighboring school district and that Howard had “no record” of the nature of his offenses.

State education officials did not say what prompted the rule change, an “emergency action” that passed unanimously.

“We’re not going to comment on any specific cases that might make the news,” Josh Michael, president of the state school board, said Tuesday.

But state lawmakers sent a letter to Wright on Monday in response to the charges against the Howard student, calling on the Department of Education, among other things, to ask the 24 public school systems to transfer the records of students with reportable offenses who are transferring school districts or have transferred. last year.

Wright told media on Tuesday that all requests from lawmakers were followed by the new update.

Before the vote, current regulations required law enforcement to notify the school system if one of its students was arrested for certain offenses. It permitted, but did not require, that a school system notify another school system of violations if that student were to transfer. The change now makes this mandatory.

“We need to be as clear and transparent as possible between and across school systems when it comes to sharing information about transfer students who may pose a threat to school communities,” Carey Wright, the state superintendent. “We will continue to review laws and regulations to ensure our school leaders have the information they need to keep school buildings safe. »

The rule only applies to a transfer from a Maryland public or nonpublic school (a state-funded independent school for high-needs students) from school to school and is not intended for students who come to Maryland public schools through independent educational programs, public programs, private schools, or otherwise. This only applies to students who have been arrested for a “reportable offense” (including murder, arson, armed carjacking, and sexual offenses).

School principals must be informed and the information must be submitted as a confidential file to the new school systems.

Approval from state legislatures is required for the emergency regulation to take effect, according to meeting documents.

Last week, Howard County police arrested the 17-year-old at Howard High School with a loaded gun in his backpack and charged him with first-degree murder for the killing of Kendrick McLellan, 26, from Baltimore.

Police later charged a 14-year-old from Severn in connection with the murder. McLellan was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the driver’s seat of a car parked behind an office building in the 8800 block of Center Park Drive in Columbia, a short distance from Howard High School.

The 17 year old was under the supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and wore an ankle monitor in a previous incident in another jurisdiction, police said. Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes said last week that school staff knew they were receiving support from the Department of Youth Services, but did not know any other details. until the bail hearing last week.

The student had already shot someone who is now paralyzed, according to the hearing.

During a news conference Thursday, Barnes said that if this information and data had been available to the school system earlier, he would not have approved the 17-year-old’s placement at Howard High.

“We had no records and we’re not able to get any information from the Department of Juvenile Services, so my frustration is recognizing that there are systemic deficiencies that resulted in this case,” Barnes said at the time.

The Howard shooting didn’t necessarily motivate the regulation change, Wright said, but highlighted the need for it.

“Would we have loved to have done something like this sooner?” Absolutely. I think that goes without saying,” Wright said.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the updated regulations applied to private schools.

Baltimore Banner journalists Maya Lora and Abby Zimmardi contributed to this report.

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