Long: “Better Laws for Reporting Students’ Criminal Activity”

-The following article was submitted by Sixth District Delegate Bob Long about needing better laws for reporting students’ criminal activity-

I was happy to hear that the Maryland School Board enacted temporary emergency legislation that will require school systems to share students’ criminal histories when transferring between schools.

While I am thankful the State is starting to crack down on these juvenile offenders, I believe that more still needs to be done. We need more transparency when a juvenile who commits a serious crime is enrolled in one of our schools.

As I prepare for the 2025 Session, one of my main concerns continues to be juvenile crime. I have been introducing legislation that calls for Reporting Arrests of Students since 2020. It would require law enforcement to notify the State Board of Education, The Maryland Center for School Safety, and the State’s Attorney Office about reportable offenses.

We still need two or three fail safe back up plans to prevent these serious juvenile offenders from being enrolled in our schools without notice. I would rather be cautious than have a local superintendent say they were not notified at all.

Over the past few years there have been multiple incidents of juveniles convicted of assault and other serious crimes attending our schools without our school officials’ knowledge.

Recently, there was a 17-year-old Howard County student who transferred into the district with an attempted murder charge.

This needs to be prevented, and my legislation would allow everyone involved to get notified regarding these cases.

It would close any loopholes of the current process of reporting juvenile crime. It is my duty to protect the students who are at school to learn. We don’t need to put our students, faculty, and staff at risk.  We need to go back to protecting innocent people.