MD legislators call for better communication between schools after Howard student charged with murder

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Days after police charged a Howard High School student with first-degree murder, Maryland lawmakers on Monday requested that state education officials improve information sharing between schools.

UPDATE: MD school board requires criminal record sharing in wake of Howard student’s murder charge

The 17-year-old suspect, who has been charged as an adult for allegedly killing 26-year-old Kendrick McLellan, whom police found shot to death in a car in Columbia on Oct. 12, had a loaded gun in his backpack when officers arrested him at school on Oct. 15.

Howard County‘s top schools official has since said he was unaware that the teenage suspect had also been charged with attempted murder while he was previously a student in Anne Arundel County. The suspect was under state Department of Juvenile Services monitoring when he transferred to Howard High School, though the school system reportedly didn’t know the seriousness of the offense.

Legislators have said they continue to work with DJS to implement more effective juvenile justice policies, though three lawmakers representing Howard County say there is “immediate action” the Maryland State Department of Education should take.

In a letter to State Superintendent Carey Wright, the lawmakers outlined three actions for the MSDE to “help avoid similar circumstances” and “prevent receiving school systems from making decisions without as much appropriate information as possible.”

Sens. Clarence Lam and Katie Fry Hester and Del. Courtney Watson, all Democrats, requested that MSDE officials instruct the state’s 24 public school systems to share with one another all appropriate information and records for transferring students — including those who transferred within the past year — who have a reportable offense.

The legislators called for the MSDE to update their regulations and require information sharing between school systems when a transferring student has a pending case or conviction.

They also requested that the MSDE recommend ways to improve information sharing between school systems to avoid similar circumstances.

Wright said in a statement to The Daily Record that the MSDE is taking steps to implement the legislators’ first two recommendations and is looking into applicable laws and regulations to ensure that school leaders have the information they need to “make decisions that protect school communities.

“School systems must consider carefully the threat posed to the entire school community by individuals who are accused of criminally violent acts,” Wright said. “I trust our district and school leaders to make the right decisions when they have the necessary information.”

The lawmakers wrote to Wright that they have “deep concerns about system-level failures,” including “unacceptable gaps in communication” between school systems.

They mentioned that Howard County Superintendent William Barnes said the school system wasn’t aware that the suspect had been charged with attempted murder before transferring.

Maryland law requires that police officers contact a student’s principal and local superintendent when they’re arrested for one of several crimes, including attempted murder.

The school system is then required to determine whether it’s necessary to develop a safety plan, which the lawmakers pointed out could include placing the student in “an alternative education setting.”

Local superintendents are permitted — but not required — to share with other school systems information about reportable offenses for a transferring student.

The 17-year-old suspect was reportedly a student in Anne Arundel County at the time of his first charge, so state law required reporting to that system.

“In this case,” the lawmakers wrote, “the lack of information sharing meant that the HCPSS superintendent was not fully apprised before he made decisions about the placement of the student such as how and where to educate the student.”

(This story has been updated.)