DJS Secretary speaks about concerns after student on ankle monitor arrested for murder
BALTIMORE -- The secretary of Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services says he's "got no plans on going anywhere" after calls for him to resign following the arrest of a teenager with an ankle monitor at a Howard County school.
The 17-year-old was arrested on Oct. 15 at Howard High School and is facing charges in the murder of 26-year-old Kendrick McLellan, who was found shot to death on Oct. 12 in the parking lot of an office building in Columbia. A 14-year-old was also arrested at a school in Anne Arundel County.
There are online petitions and demands by some lawmakers that Secretary Vincent Schiraldi step down.
"Oh, I'm sticking around. I've got no plans on going anywhere. So far, all I've heard from the governor is that he supports the direction we are taking," Schiraldi said. "He wants young people held accountable. He wants us to improve public safety and wants us to help turn their lives around. It's a balancing act in the juvenile system. It's both accountability and rehabilitation."
What's supposed to happen?
Secretary Schiraldi would not comment on this specific case but spoke with WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren about what is supposed to happen.
"When a young person is arrested for that, the police are supposed to inform the school system," Schiraldi said. "And when a young person is convicted, then it's the state's attorneys that need to inform the schools. DJS is actually prohibited from informing schools."
Student faced attempted murder charges
Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes told WJZ he had no idea a 17-year-old student at Howard High faced attempted murder charges for a violent attack that left a victim paralyzed when he was placed in the school on an ankle monitor under the supervision of the state Department of Juvenile Services.
That student is now charged as an adult with the first-degree murder of a man from Baltimore who police found shot multiple times in his car earlier this month at an office building parking lot near the school.
The 17-year-old was arrested at Howard High with a ghost gun that police said was loaded, had an extended magazine and was modified to be an automatic weapon.
"Do I think that a student who is alleged to have committed first-degree murder should be in our schools? I do not. And my placement decision would have been different and reflected that," Superintendent Barnes said.
Barnes also said, "We did not know because no additional information was disclosed to the school system by the Department of Juvenile Services, the history or nature of the student's prior alleged crimes."
He said school officials only learned the details of the past case by attending the bail review.
"If this information and data had been available to me prior to yesterday, I assure our community that I would not approve a placement at Howard High School," Barnes said.
Confidentiality concerns
Schiraldi noted that DJS cannot share that information under state-mandated confidentiality policies but stressed there is a protocol for a school system to receive the information. "They have confidentiality protection, so the legislature really narrowly prescribed who gets to share what information," Schiraldi said.
"If it's upon arrest, the police should tell them, and if it's upon conviction, the prosecutors should tell them," the secretary said. "But they have a right to know particularly on these more serious reportable offenses. There's no question about it."
Another arrest
A second student, 14, has been charged in the same murder. He was arrested at Chesapeake High in Anne Arundel County without incident. Police were unable to provide details about his prior record.
Under DJS supervision
Statewide, DJS supervises 1,500 students.
In Howard County alone, 48 students have committed what are considered "reportable offenses," which are serious crimes. Some are under the supervision of Juvenile Services.
The superintendent wants a review of every one of those cases.
"In most cases when students have incidents that have resulted in arrest, collaboration between law enforcement and judicial agencies, the family and school system work well, but that was not the case in this instance," Barnes said.
School systems have a state-mandated responsibility to educate these students, but they could be moved to remote learning if administrators find the allegations against them pose a safety concern in the classroom.
"I don't think the law needs to be changed. It already requires schools to be informed on reportable offenses and specifies who is supposed to do that at the different stages," Schiraldi said. "It doesn't happen that much, and when something doesn't happen that much, people need to be reminded."
