School Police

At a time when reported violence in Baltimore schools has surged, the police who patrol them told city lawmakers that they're overwhelmed daily and in dire need of more staff and equipment.City Council members heard that sentiment repeatedly as about 15 members of the school police force turned out for a packed six-hour hearing on school violence."Sometimes, I feel like the little Dutch boy with my finger in the dike -- and how long? I'm tired," said John Jones, a 23-year veteran of the school police who serves as community relations officer.

The Howard County Council adopted a $923.5 million general fund spending plan Thursday that increases allocations for schools and police while not raising income or property taxes. The council voted 4-1 to approve the budget, roughly $2.7 million higher than the proposal made a month ago by County Executive Ken Ulman. The dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Greg Fox, the council's lone Republican, who criticized spending practices several times during the two-hour session. Fox wrapped up his remarks after the vote with a display of black, pointy wizard hats, each representing a new fund that he said appears suddenly, as if by magic, every year in the budget while some basic needs go unfunded.

DARRON Wheeler figured he was a cop after spending six months in the police academy and going through 14 weeks of field training. So did Terry Boyce and John Rudisill. But the folks in Baltimore's public schools, the trio contends, didn't think so. Not the teachers. Or the principals. The honchos down at school headquarters on North Avenue? Forget about it. Security guards. That, Wheeler, Boyce and Rudisill say, is how folks in the school system thought of them. Never mind that between the three, more than 300 arrests have been made for crimes ranging from assault to robbery to gun possession to drug offenses.

A school police officer at Pikesville High School was assaulted after responding to a fight in the gym this morning, Baltimore County police said. The fight broke out between two students shortly before 9:40 a.m., said Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. No injuries were reported. Charges are pending against both students, Batton said. alisonk@baltsun.com twitter.com/aliknez

Mayor Sheila Dixon's proposal to merge the city's school police with the larger Baltimore Police Department has hit a snag -- the chairman of the school board strongly opposes the idea, which needs board approval to move forward. About two weeks ago, Dixon said she was involved in "very serious discussions" to combine the forces. But Brian Morris, the school board chairman, voiced opposition to the plan at Tuesday's board meeting and said it was unlikely to win board approval. During an interview yesterday, Morris praised the school police and said they have a crucial role in maintaining order in the schools.

The number of arrests in Baltimore schools dropped 45 percent from the first half to the second half of the school year, city school police say.Officers made 585 arrests in city schools in the four-month period ending Dec. 31, and 320 arrests from January to April, said School Police Chief Leonard Hamm.His report on school crime, released this week, also showed a 10.7 percent drop in school crime, including handgun possession, theft and property destruction.Hamm said no specific changes were made in disciplinary or arrest policies to caused the drop.

About half of the Baltimore school police force -- 42 officers -- will soon receive bullet-resistant vests, according to Larry Burgan, chief of school police.Mr. Burgan said yesterday that Dr. Patsy Baker Blackshear, the deputy school superintendent, authorized the purchase of the vests two weeks ago.Money for the vests was included in this fiscal year's school budget, but the purchases were put on hold when city agencies were forced to cut back on expenses because of dwindling revenue, Mr. Burgan said.

School Superintendent Walter G. Amprey's bodyguard and chauffeur, a school police officer, has been promoted to sergeant in a move that some colleagues contend was unusual and unfair.The veteran officer has advanced amid allegations of favoritism in the school police force, and an announcement that its chief will soon lose her job.School officials confirmed yesterday that a sergeant's position has been created for Officer Ralph Askins, who vied unsuccessfully for promotion in December.The December promotions were challenged, rescinded and redone in a controversy that has led to the ouster of school police Chief Linda Flood Willis, who will defend her record today during a closed personnel hearing of the city school board.

Larry Burgan, chief of Baltimore's school police for 18 1/2 years, was told yesterday that he will be removed from his post at the end of the month, sources told The Sun late last night.Mr. Burgan was told he "would be relieved of his duties" by Superintendent Walter G. Amprey, who has previously said a new style of policing is needed in the schools.School officials said Mr. Burgan was told he will be transferred to an as-yet undisclosed assignment in the school system, one which will allow him to keep his $59,500-a-year salary plus benefits.

About 40 Baltimore school police officers met yesterday to discuss proposed changes in the force, which they say is understaffed and poorly equipped for the dangers in public schools.Cheryl D. Glenn, president of the City Union of Baltimore which represents the officers, said school Superintendent Walter G. Amprey is being asked to assign at least one officer to each of the city's approximately 180 schools."This week's shooting of the officer is the straw that broke the camel's back," said Ms. Glenn, who attended the closed-door meeting.

A man raised the suspicions of several people at Villa Cresta Elementary School in Parkville on Monday after reportedly walking the perimeter of the school's property at the time of dismissal with what one witness said appeared to be a shotgun, according to Baltimore County Police. Police later identified the man and determined that he was carrying an unloaded, antique rifle, said Elise Armacost, a police spokeswoman, in a news release Tuesday. Police are unsure whether the rifle was operable, and the investigation continues, she said.

When city school police officer Joseph Baribeault attempted to arrest two combative students at the old Greenspring Middle School, he ended up injured at the bottom of two flights of concrete stairs. Even though the city has acknowledged his disabilities from the incident, he has been left without pay and benefits for being injured in the line of duty — all because members of the School Police Force are classified as civilians in Baltimore's pension system "In July, I got a life-saving award, and months later, I'm on food stamps," said Baribeault, 36, who retired this year because of his injuries after seven years on the force.

Baltimore city school police are working to reconcile insufficient documentation of roughly 300 police reports to meet an annual deadline for the Baltimore City Police Department to submit its annual crime stats to the federal government, school and law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday. In a memo, city police informed school police leaders that more than 300 reports were considered "delinquent," because paperwork had not been filed, or not filed properly. Sources told The Baltimore Sun that roughly half of the reports pertained to Part I offenses, which are considered the most dangerous and are often felonies.

Members of the Baltimore school police union cast a vote of "no confidence" in their police chief last month, pointing to what they said was his lack of responsiveness to their concerns, union leaders announced Thursday. In a letter addressed to city schools CEO Andrés Alonso, Sgt. Clyde E. Boatwright, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5, said that between Oct. 14 and Oct. 21, 84 of 110 officers cast a vote of "no confidence" in Chief Marshall "Toby" Goodwin's ability to run the school system's police department.

A 12-year-old Central Middle School student is facing juvenile charges stemming from allegations that he brought two guns to school and threatened another student, Anne Arundel County police said Friday. In a letter sent to parents Thursday, the school principal said that two students told administrators just after noon that day that they saw a student with what they thought was a gun. A search of the student's locker turned up a loaded BB gun and a unloaded airsoft pistol in a backpack in the locker, the letter said.

A 16-year-old student was cut by an unknown suspect outside Milford Mill Academy on Monday, a Baltimore County police spokeswoman said. The teen suffered a cut to his leg just before noon behind the high school in the 3800 block of Washington Avenue, in northwest Baltimore County. "We believe it was an attempted robbery," police spokeswoman Detective Cathy Batton said. She said the incident remains under investigation and could not say whether another student was involved.

Larry Burgan, chief of Baltimore's school police for 18 1/2 years, was told yesterday that he will be removed from his post at the end of the month, sources told The Sun late last night.Mr. Burgan was told he "would be relieved of his duties" by Superintendent Walter G. Amprey, who has previously said a new style of policing is needed in the schools.School officials said Mr. Burgan was told he will be transferred to an as-yet undisclosed assignment in the school system, one which will allow him to keep his $59,500-a-year salary plus benefits.

The city's school police force might merge with the larger Baltimore department under a plan favored by Mayor Sheila Dixon to help curtail crime by focusing on problem juveniles and an upsurge in gang activity. Dixon said yesterday that she is "in very serious discussions" about combining the forces and is waiting for recommendations from the city police, led by Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, who ran the school police force from 1997 to 2001. A spokesman said Hamm favored the move, which would in essence shift responsibility for the safety of about 180 schools and 83,000 students from the school board -- appointed in part by the governor -- to the city.

A pre-kindergarten student at Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore brought a small gun to school Friday morning, according to school officials. A teacher discovered the weapon and notified administrators who called the school police. School police arrested the mother of the 5-year-old boy, Vernetta Holson-Anderson, 37, of the 6900 block of Blanch Road, at Northwood Elementary, according to a police document. Holson-Anderson was charged with giving a minor access to a firearm, reckless endangerment and having a handgun on her and in a vehicle, the documents said.

A 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted last week while she was walking from her Pasadena elementary school, police said. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the victim was heading home from Lake Shore Elementary by walking through the Riding Woods neighborhood when a man "grabbed her and pulled her into a wooded area," according to a statement Tuesday from Anne Arundel County Police. The assault was reported to police on Sunday. Additional officers are patrolling the area.