Anne Arundel County School Board members called for an investigation this week into the cause of a brawl at Meade Middle School last month.
Board Member Eugene Peterson said he was most alarmed by reports shared during Wednesday night?s board meeting that one of the two students involved in the fight had recently finished a stint at J. Albert Adams Academy, one of the district?s two alternative learning facilities for troubled students.
“We increased the time students could be expelled for 36 weeks,” Peterson said. “If we can send them for 36 weeks, we ought to be doing it.”
Two male students from Severn, ages 14 and 15, started throwing punches at each other during dismissal March 17, police said. School officials broke up the fight only after one of the students tried to punch an administrator and attempted to escape by running through a school bus that was waiting to load passengers, police said.
No one was seriously hurt in the fracas, and no weapons were involved. Both students were charged with second-degree assault and disruption of a school activity; they were released to family members.
Meade Middle School Principal Jacques Smith said the fight was “the worst fight I?ve seen at the middle-school level,” and said he requested expulsion for both students. The incident also renewed calls from parents to bring school resource officers back into the middle schools.
“We had one for about 2.5 years, and that was a loss for us,” Smith said. “I absolutely would like to have a school resource officer back in the school, but I understand it?s a budget issue.”
Peterson said security officers should be present in schools with large populations or with a history of extended suspensions or other disciplinary problems.
“If we were really doing a three- to five-year plan, then we could look at where our deficits are. I do believe we are being short-sighted about the school resource officers in the middle schools.”
County Executive Janet Owens? spokeswoman Rhonda Wardlaw said. “Ultimately, whatever the county funds, it?s up to the School Board to prioritize those funds and decide how to spend them.”
