By Adam Pagnucco.
Last week, I reported on a joint letter by the principals of Odessa Shannon Middle School, Kennedy High School and Wheaton High School on a “gun-related incident” for which “two students were arrested for their involvement.” Later, the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) issued a press release detailing the arrests of a 15-year old and a 13-year old for two incidents on Glenmont Circle, which is directly behind the 4th district police station. My article included dispatch audio from the incidents.
I followed up in two ways. First, I asked MCPD’s communications office whether the press release was related to the incident reported by the principals. At this writing, I have not heard back.
Second, I filed a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request for records on the case number (240041766) associated with the first incident. That case number is listed on Data.montgomerycountymd.gov as shown in the screenshot below.
On Friday, MCPD refused to supply records in response to my request. MCPD stated:
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act Title 4 of the General Provisions of the Maryland Code Section GP § 4-301, permission to inspect these records is denied. These records are subject to other law: Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Maryland Code, titled “Confidentiality of Records” subtitle “Police Records” Section 3-8A-27 (a)(1), prohibits disclosure of records associated with a juvenile absent a court order. The Courts and Judicial Proceeding Article of the Maryland Code also known as “other law,” supersedes the Maryland Public Information Act.
The information you have requested cannot be released at this time. Per the General Provisions of the Maryland Public Information Act Section 4-351(b)(1), permission to inspect these records is denied. These records are associated with an open case and are investigatory in nature. Disclosure at this time would interfere with valid and proper law enforcement proceedings.
In discussing the incident, MCPS cited federal privacy law and MCPD cited state laws on juvenile police records and active investigations. As a consequence, not much is publicly known about what happened. My questions include:
Did the relevant students attend school that day?
Was the gun cited in the reports brought to school before the incidents? Note that the timing of the first incident occurred one hour after high school release and a half hour after middle school release.
If the answer to both of these questions is no, then MCPS had no significant involvement in the incidents. However, the fact that the three principals commented suggest that there was at least some relevance to the schools.
Finally, are the two arrested students back in school today or will they be at some point in the near future? This is a hard question for MCPS to answer as it impinges on student privacy, but I bet a lot of parents are thinking about this.
One thing I have heard many times from parents is the difficulty of obtaining information about specific criminal incidents involving schools. I am a parent of a student at one of these schools, and from my personal experience, I can see that these parents have a point! Superintendent Thomas Taylor has vowed to increase transparency in MCPS, and I believe him, but this incident challenges his ability to do so.
Council Member Natali Fani-González, whose district includes these three schools, and the state legislators from Districts 18 and 19 have scheduled a public safety town hall on September 25. (You can RSVP here.) Chief of Police Marc Yamada will be in attendance. I hope Chief Yamada will be prepared to discuss this issue at the event.