By Governor Larry Hogan
The Baltimore Sun
September 19, 2024
The excitement of back-to-school season has once again been eclipsed by a tragic and familiar reality: the continuing threat of school shootings. There have been nearly 50 school shootings in the United States in 2024 alone. We cannot allow this to become a new normal or fact of life.
Our response to these senseless tragedies must go beyond empty rhetoric and reactive measures. It needs to be proactive, comprehensive and coordinated across all levels of government, law enforcement and school systems.
In Maryland, we took decisive action in 2018 in the aftermath of a shooting at Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County. In that incident, a school resource officer responded within one minute and neutralized the shooter, preventing further injuries. I pushed for passage of the Safe to Learn Act, which expanded resources for schools to add modern safety enhancements and required having school resource officers in place to help maintain a safe environment and ensure a visible security presence. School resource officers are extensively trained — not just in law enforcement, but also in conflict de-escalation, adolescent development and crisis intervention.
The Safe to Learn Act also established the Maryland Center for School Safety and a dedicated school safety tip line. The school shooting in Georgia again showed that people often know beforehand that someone represents a threat, and the tip line is an invaluable resource in identifying those situations. Each year, as awareness of the tip line has grown, it has received more information covering a range of problems — including bullying and cyberbullying. We also expanded mental health services to help identify early warning signs and ensure that students in crisis receive the support they need. That same year, we enacted a red flag law to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the mentally ill.
While our Safe to Learn Act has served as a national model, it has faced severely misguided efforts to repeal its key provisions. Some legislators have attempted to defund or abolish school resource officers entirely. Legislators have tried — and thankfully failed — to defund and abolish school resource officers. Montgomery County — the largest school system in the state — removed officers from its school buildings, only reversing course after a student was found shot inside a school bathroom. And in Prince George’s County, my opponent, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, phased out security personnel in the school system — even as the county faces a surge in youth violence.
We are also suffering the dangerous consequences of new laws that prioritize leniency for juvenile offenders over accountability. Following the recent fatal shooting at Joppatowne High School in Harford County, law enforcement cannot even question the suspect, severely hampering the investigation. This is a suspect who had 10 prior contacts with police over the last two years. Rather than tying the hands of law enforcement, we should be bolstering coordination across agencies and jurisdictions to identify potential threats.
We have to stop allowing politics to get in the way of public safety. After the Uvalde shooting, I worked with a bipartisan group of governors to develop common-sense solutions to protect our schools and communities. Congress should follow that example. In the Senate, I will introduce a federal Safe to Learn Act and work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to build bipartisan support for decisive action on school safety.
While no single policy can completely end this threat and put parents fully at ease, standing by and doing nothing is unacceptable. As with so many challenges we face, the solutions are within our grasp — we just need the political will to implement them. If we fail to act, we fail our children — and that is a failure we cannot accept.
