Keep at it

 

The Howard County Delegation is hearing from citizens this week on proposed legislation for the 2022 session. They will be hearing from me, in writing, in response to Delegate Atterbeary’s bill addressing SRO’s. 

Members of the Howard County Delegation:

I am writing to express my support for Delegate Atterbeary’s School Resource Officers Act of 2022.

The current practice of policing in schools has created a hostile learning environment where Black, Brown, and special needs students are disproportionately singled out. Study after study confirms this: school policing actively diminishes student futures. If focusing on education is our top priority, then addressing the damage done by school policing and making decisive changes to fund appropriately-trained school personnel should be at the top of the list. 

Police haven’t always been in schools and research shows that their presence has not made school environments safer. We have the power as a community to choose something better for our schools and for our children. If we don’t act to address this we are complicit in sustaining educational malpractice in our school system.

All of the students in our schools should matter to us. School policing is harming a specific portion of our school population and we have the responsibility to do better. Schools can be safer and students can have better outcomes if we invest in qualified counselors and student-appropriate practices. Delegate Atterbeary’s bill is crafted to address this issue while ensuring adequate measures for school safety. 

Creating police-free schools will make our whole community stronger. It’s an investment in our children’s future and in our future. I strongly support Delegate Atterbeary’s proposed bill. I urge all of you to give it your support now and during the 2022 legislative session in Annapolis.

You can add your voice as well. The Delegation is receiving written testimony until 5 pm today, Tuesday, November 16th, but the sooner in the day you can send it, the better.

Written testimony should be emailed to the Howard County Delegation Administrator at hoc1@mlis.state.md.us as a PDF document.  The deadline for submitting written testimony is 5 pm on Tuesday, November 16th. However, it is best to submit it as soon as possible so that members have time to review it before the hearing. To make organization and review easier, please title your written testimony using the following format: 

HOCO#1-22_SUPPORT_LASTNAME

Please note that you will need to transform your letter into a pdf and then attach that pdf to an email rather than simply sending your testimony as an email. I’m not so keen on this requirement because it clearly adds one more hoop to jump through. This issue is too important for me to quibble with their process, however.

The eradication of SROs in favor of a more effective and educationally sound approach to school safety will take a consistent commitment from citizens. We need to make our commitment known to our lawmakers at every opportunity because the pressure to maintain the status quo is intense. If we believe in a better way we have to show it. 

Keep at it.