A Howard County student’s arrest on campus for murder charges last week caught local school officials by surprise — state education officials don’t want to see that scenario repeated.
The state school board voted Tuesday to require schools to share information among themselves about violent students amid outcry after Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes said he had no clue about the 17-year-old suspect’s criminal past when the student transferred from Anne Arundel County.
Tracee Octavious Parker was taken into custody Oct. 15 at Howard High School after he was linked to the killing of 26-year-old Kendrick McLellan, who was found shot dead in his car in Columbia, Maryland, earlier this month.
Mr. Parker, who is being charged as an adult in the case, was already wearing an ankle monitor in connection to a 2023 attempted murder that left a victim paralyzed. Police said they found a loaded, fully automatic gun in his backpack when he was caught at the school.
“We must 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,” State Superintendent Carey Wright said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We will continue to review laws and regulations to ensure that our school leaders have the information that they need to keep school buildings safe.”
The new policy requires schools to share information about students who are charged with several serious crimes, including murder, arson, armed carjacking and sexual offenses.
The concerns reached Annapolis, as Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, backed revisiting the state’s policy during a Monday press conference.
“It’s a system that we inherited, but when you have a student who moves from one jurisdiction to another jurisdiction, there needs to be a way for the new jurisdiction to be able to be notified about that,” Mr. Moore said. “We plan on working with all of our partners to ensure that loophole gets closed because I’m very frustrated by what we saw in that situation.”
Lawmakers who represent parts of Howard County also pushed Ms. Wright to make the changes in a letter sent the day before the meeting.
State Sens. Clarence Lam and Katie Fry Hester, as well as Delegate Courtney Watson — all Democrats — wrote to the state superintendent that the “unacceptable gaps” in communication between school systems was “extremely concerning.”
“Communication can be critical, and those gaps, those lapses in communication, can really cause significant risk and harm,” Mr. Lam told Baltimore CBS affiliate WJZ-TV. “We saw that in this instance.”
Pressure has mounted on Mr. Moore to oust Vincent Schiraldi, the state’s top youth justice official, after a string of violent incidents involving juveniles in Maryland.
That includes a September shooting in Baltimore County that left a man hospitalized.
The two suspects — a 15-year-old and 16-year-old boy — both have prior arrests, with the 15-year-old linked to an armed robbery that same month and the 16-year-old boy suspected of involvement in active cases in Baltimore city, Anne Arundel and Washington counties.
Most notable was the arrest of a 15-year-old boy last month in connection to a savage assault and robbery of an elderly man in Baltimore.
The caught-on-camera mugging showed the 66-year-old victim get jumped by a group of five people in the Butchers Hill neighborhood, and then have his belongings stolen while he lay unconscious.
The 15-year-old boy was quietly released to a guardian following his arrest, but was taken back into custody the next day. The state hastily updated its detention policy after the boy’s release enraged locals.
State Republicans have sent two letters this month to the governor about booting Mr. Schiraldi from his position as Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services. Last week, a group of Baltimore City residents and civic associations penned their own letter advocating for Mr. Schiraldi’s firing.
Mr. Schiraldi, for his part, said he has received no indication his job is in jeopardy.
“Oh, I’m sticking around. I’ve got no plans on going anywhere,” the secretary said last week. “All I’ve heard from the governor is that he supports the direction we are taking.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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