By Adam Pagnucco.
Republican Council District 1 candidate Reardon “Sully” Sullivan, a Wootton High School graduate, has released a video attacking Council Member Will Jawando for his support of removing school resource officers (SROs) from public schools. The fact that a Republican like Sully is attacking a progressive Democrat like Jawando is not particularly newsworthy. In fact, I bet Jawando is happy to be criticized by a prominent local Republican. But the video is a reminder that this week’s Wootton shooting is resurrecting the SRO issue just in time for our June primary elections.
First, let’s review Sully’s video, which is embedded below.
Let’s recognize this: Jawando is not directly responsible for removing SROs from schools. Credit (or blame) for that goes to County Executive Marc Elrich, who pulled them out in 2021. But Jawando kickstarted the discussion with a 2020 bill he co-authored with then-Council Member Hans Riemer that would have prohibited SROs from being deployed in schools. In their transmittal memo, Jawando and Riemer stated their case against SROs.
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Over the past four years, almost half of all student arrests were of Black children, a cohort that is one-fifth of the student body. These disparities raise serious concerns about the school-to-prison pipeline. In fact there are broad disparities in how students are treated once they enter the criminal justice system. Black students are nearly 20 times more likely to be held by the Department of Juvenile Services for pretrial detainment for misdemeanor offenses than their white peers. Black students are 85% less likely to be referred for Screening and Assessment Services for Children and Adolescents (SASCA) Diversion Programs for substance abuse and mental health. Black students are 320% more likely to be incarcerated at the conclusion of their trial than white students.
While we know our SRO’s are good people doing the job they have been assigned, there are better research-based approaches to resolving disciplinary problems and more effective ways to use precious county resources. School counselors, nurses, therapists, and security guards are better equipped to help students deal with the challenges that today may result in arrests. We should address behavioral problems early through guidance, mental health support, and restorative justice techniques rather than criminalizing adolescent mistakes.
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Footnotes backing up the above points are included in the memo.
Discussion of the bill along with pressure from progressive groups persuaded Elrich to pull out the SROs in the spring of 2021. Removal of the officers was accompanied by passage of a police department operating budget that abolished 29.5 full-time equivalent positions. SROs were later replaced with community engagement officers, who unlike SROs are not stationed inside schools. Once the police officers were out of schools, Jawando told MCM in the video below that he was “happy” to see them go.
One wonders whether the politics around SROs have shifted since 2021 due to the 2022 shooting at Magruder High School, this week’s shooting at Wootton and growing concern over crime. If a bill to completely remove police officers from schools were introduced today, would it pass through the county council? Would anyone even introduce it?
We will probably not know with regards to this current sitting council, although I do wonder whether Council Member Dawn Luedtke, who supports SROs, will someday introduce a bill mandating their return.
For now, the question is more about politics than policy. Videos from Republicans like Sully are unlikely to bother Jawando. But what happens if one of his opponents in the county executive race – who include fellow Council Members Andrew Friedson and Evan Glass – start raising the issue? A more likely possibility is that an outside group could feature the issue along with police defunding – which Jawando once said he supported – in attack mailers and TV ads. Would such attacks affect the executive race?
We won’t know unless it happens, but for now, I will say this. Once the filing deadline passes, I will ask every executive and council candidate whether they favor the return of SROs to the schools. Let them take a position, whatever it may be. And then let the voters decide.