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- Press Release – Maryland Center for School Safety Leads Statewide School-Based Incident Tabletop Exercise
- MCSS Promotes the Use of Standard Response Protocols from the “i love u guys” Foundation
- Wear Blue for Human Trafficking Awareness January 11, 2024
- How to Stay Safe During Severe Weather Season
- Show Your Appreciation for School Resource Officers On February 15
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The Many Responsibilities of a Maryland SRO
Maryland’s Safe to Learn Act of 2018 mandates either the assignment of a School Resource Officer (SRO) or adequate law enforcement coverage for each individual school within each of Maryland’s twenty-four local school systems. It is the decision of each local school system to determine how they will fulfill this mandate.
Being an SRO is a challenging and rewarding job because an SRO fulfills four distinct roles within a school community: the Role of Educator, the Role of Emergency Manager, the Role of Informal Counselor, and the Role of Law Enforcement.
In order to prepare them to always be at their very best, the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS) provides SROs and school security employees in Maryland instruction in our intensive and holistic five-day SRO training curriculum. As a result, SROs in Maryland are some of the most dynamic and engaged school safety personnel in the country.
While MCSS regularly trains and provides professional development for SROs across the state, this doesn’t mean there aren’t differences between SROs programs from county to county. Most local school systems provide valuable information about the contours of their SRO programs. For those that do, we’ve assembled direct links to the relevant information you may be looking for in order to learn more about SROs working in schools near you.
| Jurisdiction | SRO Program Links* |
| Allegany | School Resource Officers |
| Anne Arundel | School Resource Officers |
| Baltimore City | School Police |
| Baltimore | School Resource Officers |
| Calvert | School Resource Officers |
| Caroline | School Resource Officers |
| Carroll | School Resource Officers |
| Cecil | School Resource Officers |
| Charles | School Resource Officers |
| Dorchester | School Resource Officers |
| Frederick | School Resource Officers |
| Garrett | School Resource Officers |
| Harford | School Resource Officers |
| Howard | School Resource Officers |
| Kent | School Resource Officers |
| Montgomery | Community Engagement Officers |
|
Prince George’s
|
School Resource Officers |
| Queen Anne’s | School Resource Officers |
| Somerset | |
| St. Mary’s | School Resource Officers |
| Talbot | School Resource Officers |
| Washington | School Resource Officers |
| Wicomico | |
| Worcester |
*List updated June 2023
Teaching Maryland Youth About Preparedness
September is National Preparedness Month, and during the week of September 20 – 26 we focus on “Teaching Youth About Preparedness.”
Often, when family discussions turn to disasters and emergencies, our minds wander to what we’ve recently seen online or on television: breaking news coverage of events that devastate entire communities, states, or even nations. While, yes, events like hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, pandemics, winter storms, and earthquakes are all important to prepare for – especially since they can all happen right here in Maryland – we must also prepare ourselves and our children for disasters that are relatively small in physical scale but huge for those impacted. For instance, a single house fire can be a disaster for a family.
Preparing for an emergency requires time, research, reflection, and refinement. New challenges arise when adding into the mix preparing for an emergency during a time of virtual learning. While this may feel like a daunting task for parents and guardians, engaging in such planning is actually far easier and more effective if we do it regularly. Think of emergency planning like running or lifting weights; they’re harder to accomplish when we do them infrequently. As we engage in these activities more often, we learn more about our strengths and weaknesses and how to improve and grow.
With that in mind, make it a priority to update your family’s emergency plans every season (at minimum) in order to take into account changing natural or human-sparked events both within and beyond our control.
As caregivers, we have to think about the types of emergencies we, our families, our places of business and/or worship, and our homes may experience. We have to consider what we would do in an emergency (evacuate or shelter-in-place), how and where we would go (evacuation routes, transportation methods, and destination selection), what we need to take with us (supplies, medicine, face coverings, equipment), who we may need to provide special care for (elderly, children, those with access and functional needs, pets), and how and with who we will communicate throughout the emergency. Our plans even need to include how we would do all of these things if we were without resources like power, fuel, food, water, and wireless service.
The good news is that we don’t have to start preparing on our own. There are many fantastic resources available to get your family started on the road to preparedness.
Ready.gov is a great place to start. Here you can find information about how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The website provides information, resources, and examples to help you:
- know your threats/hazards;
- make a plan;
- build a kit;
- learn safety skills; and
- practice, practice, practice.
At school, our children practice emergency drills regularly. Schools conduct various school safety drills to prepare students, teachers, staff members, and the entire school community for various types of incidents.
At home, we check our children’s car seat and seat belt, make sure that they wear their helmet, keep them warm and dry in bad weather, and teach them about what to be extra aware around (stoves, outlets, fireplaces, candles, strangers, the internet). We also check our home smoke detectors regularly (no less than twice a year).
Unfortunately, with work, school, extracurricular activities, virtual learning, and what seems like a never-ending list of responsibilities on our to-do lists, preparing children for disasters at home is often the last thing on anybody’s mind. Many parents and guardians hope that if an emergency hits, their protective instincts will kick in and they will be strong enough to protect their children from any and all negative outcomes. Too often, disasters show us that adrenaline-fueled courage or heroics are not enough. If we make preparedness a priority and find ways to make it fun (maybe even cool and exciting for our teen and tween family members), we can help our children be ready to face an emergency we hope will never come.
Ready Kids: Emergencies and disasters can be scary, but there are ways to help you stay safe before, during, and even after a disaster.
Ready.gov Kids provides resources for parents, guardians, and educators on how to prepare our youth for disasters. They have many excellent resources for all ages including games for the younger ones like “Disaster Master” and resources for teens who want to be preparedness leaders in their communities.
Begin preparing your children today to be ready for almost anything. Emergency planning at home can help improve every child’s preparedness and problem-solving skills, build their resilience, and maybe (hopefully) develop our next generation of Emergency Managers.
Kate Bryan Hession is a mom, safety advocate, emergency manager, and the Executive Director of the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS).
Learning, Working, and Living from Home – Safely – this September and Beyond
The Office Of The State Fire Marshal And The Maryland Center For School Safety Share Important Reminders For All Marylanders
“With individuals of all ages spending much more time at home and engaging in activities that significantly contribute to the home fire problem, we must all recognize where potential hazards exist and what we can do to prevent fires,” stated State Fire Marshal Brian S. Geraci.
According to the National Fire Protection Agency, cooking, heating, and electrical equipment are among the leading causes of home fires year-round. 
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and is responsible for nearly half (49 percent) of all reported home fires involving cooking equipment. Moreover, unattended cooking – when people aren’t keeping a close eye on their cooking – is the leading cause of home cooking fires.
“As many households are now dealing with unusual routines and out-of-the-ordinary circumstances, such as parents assisting their children with virtual learning, there’s greater potential for distracted cooking,” said Geraci.
NFPA statistics show that heating equipment is the second-leading cause of home fires, resulting in 52,050 home fires each year. Electrical distribution or lighting equipment is involved in an annual average of 35,100 home fires.
“As we head into autumn, heating systems are increasingly in use, and in many cases, for more hours than usual since many individuals are learning and working from home full time,” said Kate Bryan Hession, Executive Director of MCSS.
“Individuals of all ages are often using the same outlets or – because of crowded home environments -rarely used outlets to charge phones, laptops, and other digital equipment. Both of these scenarios also present potential fire hazards. We want to ensure that all members of Maryland households put safety first when living, learning, and working from home, and the start of the school year is a perfect time to remind ourselves of how we can do just that.” Hession added.
With this in mind, OSFM and MCSS remind the public to use best practices for staying fire-safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond:
Cooking
- Stay in the kitchen while you are frying, boiling, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
- If you are simmering, baking, or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking.
- Keep anything that can catch fire — oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains — away from your stovetop.
- Ensure all handles are turned inward, away from where someone can grab a hot handle or tip a pan over
- If you have young children in your home, create a “kid-free zone” of at least 3 feet (1 meter) around the stove and areas where hot food or drink is prepared or carried.
Heating
- Keep anything that can burn at least three feet (one meter) away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove, or portable space heater.
- Have a three-foot (one meter) “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
- Never use your oven to heat your home.
- Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
- Always use the right kind of fuel, specified by the manufacturer, for fuel-burning space heaters.
- Install and maintain carbon monoxide (CO) alarms to avoid the risk of CO poisoning. If you smell gas in your gas heater, do not light the appliance. Leave the home immediately and call your local fire department or gas company.
Electrical
- When charging smartphones and other digital devices, only use the charging cord that came with the device.
- Do not charge a device under your pillow, on your bed, or a couch.
- Only use one heat-producing appliance (such as a coffee maker, toaster, space heater, etc.) plugged into a receptacle outlet at a time.
- Major appliances (refrigerators, dryers, washers, stoves, air conditioners, microwave ovens, etc.) should be plugged directly into a wall receptacle outlet. Extension cords and plug strips should not be used.
- Check electrical cords to make sure they are not running across doorways or under carpets. Extension cords are intended for temporary use
Finally, it’s vitally important to remember that smoke alarms should be located on every level of the home, in each bedroom, and near all sleeping areas. Test them monthly to make sure they’re working. NFPA also strongly encourages households to develop and practice a home escape plan to ensure that everyone knows what to do in a fire and can escape quickly and safely.
Holistic Approach Produces Safer Schools and Prevents School Violence
A new report from the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office at the Department of Justice (DOJ) highlights critical actions that schools, school districts, and law enforcement agencies can take to improve the overall safety of schools – and not just by preventing school shootings. Ron Pierce of the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS) summarizes and analyzes the report’s findings below.
—-
The School Safety Working Group at the COPS Office was asked to identify ten essential actions that can be taken to prevent school attacks. In doing so, they recognized the importance of a balanced, holistic and multidisciplinary approach to safer school environments that address mental health, personal connections to the community, and physical safety (Page 3).
The ten actions that jurisdictions can take to improve school safety are (Page 5):
| Physical Safety | Emotional Security |
| 1. Comprehensive school safety assessment | 2. School Climate |
| 3. Campus, building, and classroom security | 4. Anonymous reporting systems |
| 5. Coordination with first responders | 6. Behavior threat assessment and management |
| 7. School-based law enforcement | 8. Mental health resources |
| 9. Drills | 10. Social media monitoring |
The report makes clear that a multidisciplinary approach, which emphasizes a balanced set of actions supporting both the physical safety and the emotional security of students and staff is the only way to prevent school violence and mitigate school tragedies.
Such an approach is recommended based on the evidence and lessons learned from countless school emergencies analyzed including past traumatic events such as natural disasters, the death of a student or teacher, and mass school shootings. Research findings from the Federal Commission on School Safety and the U.S. Secret Service were cited frequently in the report to support these recommendations.
It’s worth stating that several states, notably Maryland, recognized the importance of these actions long before this report was written, and have legislated or otherwise instituted them throughout local school systems. With studies showing that in over eighty percent of cases at least one other person has knowledge of a school attacker’s plans, one of the first actions taken in Maryland was the creation of Safe Schools Maryland, an anonymous tip line/reporting system, which launched in 2018 in order to provide a way for anyone to report potential threats against schools or students or report other concerning behavior such as suicidal thoughts or child abuse.
The report noted that one of the important aspects of anonymous reporting systems is that they, “educate all members of the school community on indicators of potential self-harm or violence and how to share this information so officials can intervene before violence occurs” (Page 15).
Other actions taken by Maryland and other states and recognized by this report include mandating school safety assessments and improving school climate through funding for training staff and students on topics such as suicide prevention and trauma-informed care. Additionally, action in the form of grant funding has been made available to local school systems to address gaps in campus and classroom security, including improvements to security systems, staff training, and better door locks for classrooms.
Maryland has also offered local school officials training in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). CPTED, which is advocated for by this report as a tool to improve campus safety, is a design concept of manipulating the built environment in a manner that’s proven to reduce both the incidence of crime and fear. The report recognizes the significance of incorporating concepts of campus safety and crime prevention by design when retrofitting aging facilities or constructing new ones.
Studies of school attackers by the U.S. Secret Service showed that while most persons committing attacks on schools had a history of suicidal ideation and depression, many had never received a formal mental health evaluation. This report concludes that in order to prevent violence in schools, students must have access to counselors, psychologists, and social workers who can identify problems early and act immediately to intervene (Page 24). This intervention often takes the form of behavioral threat assessments best carried out by multidisciplinary teams composed of school staff, mental health professionals, and school resource officers (SROs). A plan for local school systems to address behavioral threats is mandated in several states including Maryland.
Among the most crucial actions mentioned in this report relate to school-based law enforcement. This report cites several studies that found that when specially-selected and trained SROs establish trusted relationships with students, these relationships have prevented school shootings (Final Report of the Federal Commission on School Safety). This is recognized and supported by school communities across this country; yet, some jurisdictions in the U.S. have recently responded to political pressure by discontinuing agreements between local police departments and school systems that had provided sworn police officers (SROs) in schools.
SROs in Maryland must be properly selected and trained in areas such as de-escalation, disability awareness, trauma-informed care, constructive interactions with students, and implicit bias. MCSS provides training to SROs and School Security Employees (SSE) throughout Maryland on these and many other student safety-focused topics
The report goes on to say that the value of SROs goes beyond responding to critical incidents because they mentor and educate students and build trust, which can not only have a profound impact on the school’s ability to prevent targeted violence and other harmful behaviors; it can also positively impact the lives of students in many ways (Page 24).
The role of the SRO is so important that Maryland currently appropriates ten million dollars a year in grant funding to support local police departments and school systems that provide SROs and/or provide adequate coverage by sworn law enforcement to public schools throughout Maryland.
Other actions such as coordination with first responders, drills and exercises, and social media monitoring also play a role in preventing school violence and mitigating emergencies. None of these actions, taken in isolation, provide a fail-safe solution. All of these actions affect and build upon each other to become effective strategies.
Improvements to physical safety also improve the emotional security of students and staff by reducing fear in the school environment. Additional mental health resources and steps to improve the school climate will drive down the incidents of bullying and behavioral issues, and will help to prevent school attacks. The presence of one caring adult, whether in the form of an SRO, a school counselor, or a teacher can be the singular difference in whether or not a student struggles, disconnects, and faces increasing challenges or survives, succeeds, and thrives.
MCSS Expert Featured on School Safety Podcast
Michael Rudinski of MCSS
Our very own Mike Rudinski was a featured guest this month on the School Safety Insider Podcast with Ken Trump.
Mike is a school safety specialist in the training and evaluation section of MCSS. In addition to being a subject matter expert in school based policing, de-escalation, and implicit bias among many other areas, Mike is a trainer at heart and a retired sergeant and school resource officer. He is enthusiastic about educating diverse audiences about the role of the SRO in Maryland schools.
In the podcast Mike shares:
- what it’s really like to be an SRO at a large public school
- that – just like all professionals – SROs are real people who are not always perfect
- how important relationship-building is to the success of an SRO and the development of a safe school community
- personal stories about how he became an SRO and his time as an SRO
- why he works hard to educate both SROs and school administrators about spatial empathy and and creating synergies between their professional cultures for the benefit of all students
- details about the role and work of MCSS and the goals of Maryland’s Safe to Learn Act of 2018
Listen to the full podcast below.
Responding to COVID-19, Vaping, and Substance Abuse in Maryland
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already a vaping and substance abuse crisis in America’s schools. That crisis is far from over. Once the pandemic arrived on America’s soil, the role e-cigarette usage played in expression of COVID-19 illness was a topic of discussion for health professionals. Now, thanks to a recent study published by The Journal of Adolescent Health, there is data confirming a worrying relationship between COVID-19 and e-cigarette usage. “Teenagers and young adults ages 13 to 24 who use e-cigarettes are five times more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than their non-vaping peers.”
Yet, health professionals aren’t only focusing on the relationship between e-cigarette usage and COVID-19. They are also concerned about the relationship between COVID-19 and substance abuse – namely, opioid usage.
In a recent interview by WTOP News, Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Brendan Saloner believes that life changing situations brought on by COVID-19, such as social isolation, job loss, anxiety, and more can cause individuals to turn to opioids.
WTOP News also interviewed Maryland Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Administration deputy secretary Dr. Aliya Jones. Dr. Jones explained the overdose recovery rate for those abusing and overdosing on opioids is decreasing due to the social isolation. Those using opioids are using alone and thus decreasing the chance for others to revive the overdosed individual with overdose reversal drugs such as Naloxone.
Sadly, Maryland is no stranger to this opioid epidemic. The State of Maryland has created and developed many resources to address this issue. In 2017, Maryland launched their statewide “Before It’s Too Late” effort, which brings awareness to the heroin, opioid, and Fentanyl crisis in Maryland. It is set up to “mobilize all available resources for effective prevention, treatment, and recovery.”
Notably, Queen Anne’s County residents are busting out the color purple for an initiative they call “QAC Goes Purple.” The substance abuse awareness and prevention program empowers Queen Anne’s County youth and community members to ‘Go Purple’ as a sign of taking a stand against substance abuse. The Queen Anne’s County Office of the Sheriff and Queen Anne’s County Drug-Free Coalition, in partnership with the Opioid Intervention Team/QAC Department of Health, Queen Anne’s County Public Schools, Queen Anne County Commissioners and Mid-Shore Community Foundation all worked together to set up the program.
This substance abuse awareness and prevention program promotes education and awareness, including the creation of purple clubs in middle and high schools, through which students learn they do not need drugs or alcohol to meet life’s challenges. Residents and business owners can join the cause by illuminating their homes or business buildings in purple light starting on September 1 and leaving the lights up throughout the entire month. More information on this program can be found on QAC Goes Purple.
Always remember that students throughout Maryland in need of a resource to anonymously report issues related to drug use and abuse can use the State of Maryland’s anonymous 24/7 reporting system: Safe Schools Maryland.
Anonymous reporters can submit their concerns in one of three ways: a free mobile app, the safeschoolsmd.org website, or the toll free number 1-833-MD-B-Safe. Mobile app and website users can submit their tip under the category “Drug distribution, Use, Sale, Abuse.”
MCSS Launches New “Understanding the Role of the SRO” Course
While the term School Resource Officer and acronym SRO date back to the 1950s, the topic of police officers in schools and discussion surrounding the roles they play in an educational environment didn’t make much news until the early 1990s.
Federally, an SRO is defined as a “career law enforcement officer with sworn authority who is deployed by an employing police department or agency in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools.” Yet, those honored to be SROs in Maryland would tell you the position goes beyond a simple one-line definition.
An SRO is a “jack of many trades” depending on the situation. Sometimes an SRO gets to wear his or her “educator” hat and step into the classroom as a guest speaker to share experiences and knowledge from a law enforcement perspective. Such perspectives, often delivered via presentations, augment schools’ typical curricula and give an SRO the opportunity to work one-on-one in the classroom with students. When the SRO performs the role of an educator it helps to build a positive relationship between a member of the community and a member of the police department, which is not always as achievable outside of a school setting. Such relationship-building helps foster a sense of community and collaboration that spreads into the neighborhoods where both students and officers go home each afternoon.
Maryland SROs also serve as informal counselors and can be asked to assist school counselors with mediation efforts. A parent or guardian who has reason to believe his or her student may be involved in illegal activities – such as those relating to drugs or alcohol – may reach out to the SRO for guidance or even assistance in getting the student help.
Yet, perhaps the most important aspect of the SRO acting as informal counselors in our schools is the opportunity to create trust between a student and an officer to the point that students feel they have someone to act as their caring adult in a school setting.
Many times, students just need someone to talk with about their issues in school, at home, or in the community. Maybe it’s a traffic ticket they received on the way to school or maybe it’s the pressure of trying to achieve and maintain strong grades. Or perhaps it’s a friend they are concerned about who said something the night before that has them really worried.
In all of the above situations and then some SROs are more and do more than just police in schools. They are part confidant and part emergency manager; afterall, they assist schools in preparing for what could be their worst day. And while we would like to believe those days will not happen, SROs work tirelessly to make sure that the school has a reasonable and tested plan that will prepare school faculty, staff, and students if such a day does come.
In short, SROs are trained to explore all other avenues of remediation before exercising their law enforcement authority.
These topics and more were discussed in the live, interactive, and virtual “Understanding the Role of the SRO” course, which was held by the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS) and attended by over 200 participants on August 11, 2020.
In just two hours, participants from across Maryland were taught the history and role of the School Resource Officer, foundations of a successful SRO program, common misconceptions even those closest to the SRO have about the role, and how the SRO fits into both the school community and greater community. Course participants had the opportunity to ask questions of their MCSS instructors and interact in real-time with polls, quizzes, and each other.
“After providing training to over 900 SROs last summer, we reviewed evaluations of our SRO training,” Michael Rudinski, MCSS School Safety Emergency Preparedness Specialist in Training and Certification, explained. “The overarching theme was that we needed to provide training for administrators to better understand the role the SRO plays in a school.”
Rudinski, a former SRO himself, his colleague James Hott, a former SRO who is now a School Safety Emergency Preparedness Specialist in Training and Certification at MCSS, Dr. Tarik Harris, a former school administrator who is now a Prevention and Intervention Specialist at MCSS, and their team launched the course together to help school administrators, SRO supervisors, and SROs better understand each other and have spatial empathy for one another.
“Many times, SROs are asked by administrators to do things that they are prohibited from doing. This is because of a lack of understanding,” Rudinski said. “If they better understand one another, ultimately the student and school benefit from the services that each can provide.”
“When teachers, counselors, coaches, support staff, and SROs work collectively, they shape a climate and culture of school safety,” Dr. Harris explained. “They each have the same goal in mind and that is keeping students safe from harm, so learning becomes the outcome.”
After Tuesday’s course, the participants did not hold back their thoughts on how they felt this course benefited them.
“This course was enlightening and demonstrated some of the complexities in placing an SRO in a school,” one participant stated.
“This course is excellent for new (school) administrators,” another participant commented.
Others felt the course shouldn’t be limited to school principals and administrators. “This course (or something similar) should also be presented to students so they are aware of what the role the SRO has in their school building so they feel safe and comfortable,” another course participant explained.
MCSS is currently working on a similar webinar that can be presented to students, parents, and the community. The MCSS Student Focus Group will be viewing the presentation later this month and providing feedback to make the course information resonate with a student audience.
To find out more about this course or other training opportunities MCSS offers, or to request this course for your audience, please visit the MCSS training page.
Finally, MCSS would like to thank our school safety partners for their assistance in the development of this course:
Dan Helton, Montgomery County Police Department
Jon Carrier, Anne Arundel County Police Department
Debbie Toppins, Prince George’s County Public Schools Security
Edgar Batenga, Prince George’s County Public Schools Employee Performance and Evaluation
Cory Easlick, Anne Arundel County Police Department
Kendra Kenny, Allegany County Public Schools Principal
Candy Cannan, Allegany County Public Schools Principal
Lt. William Welch, Charles County Security Officer Former SRO
Baltimore County School Resource Officer Wins 2020 National School Resource Officer of the Year Award
Photo: Courtesy of Baltimore County Public Schools
Baltimore County Officer Danielle Moore was awarded as the 2020 National Association of School Resource Officers Floyd Ledbetter National School Resource Officer of the Year.
Assigned to Overlea High School in Baltimore County in 2018, Moore is known to her colleagues, peers, and her district as someone who makes significant contributions throughout the school and community she serves.
Like many SROs in the nation and here in Maryland, Officer Moore contributes to the positive culture of her assigned school. She is the co-coordinator of the female mentoring I.T. Girls of Overlea High School, serves as a member of the school’s student support team, and is a member of the Restorative Practices team.
According to the Overlea High Principal Monica Sample, Officer Moore has “conducted over 100 restorative conferences,” thereby preventing numerous altercations in the school and community.”
Find out more about Officer Moore by reading the press release from Baltimore County Public Schools
Congratulations to Officer Moore from the Maryland Center for School Safety.
Students’ Pandemic Stress Persists into Summer
Sadness and stress resulting from pandemic-inspired closures, social distancing measures, and overall isolation continue for many students now that summer has arrived.
As Arianna Prothero shares in Education Week, too many students are responding to today’s challenges by taking their own lives.
Social isolation is uniquely hard on teenagers, said Rob Coad, a school psychologist and a member of the National Association of School Psychologists’ School Safety and Crisis Response Committee.
“One of their main jobs in life is developing social connections,” he said. “Their job is to differentiate from their parents and establish relationships with peers, and we’re blocking that. They’re missing an important developmental moment.”
Here in Maryland, the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS) is hosting a School Safety Seminar Series this July that will devote two of four virtual seminars to supporting students’ mental well-being both generally and in particular during these extraordinary times. School system staff, school administrators and employees, and school safety partners from across Maryland are invited to attend.
In addition, MCSS reminds all members of the community to utilize the Safe Schools Maryland anonymous reporting system. Whether students are experiencing cyberbullying or are concerned about one or more students capable of self-harm or violence, Safe Schools Maryland, which is administered by MCSS, is anonymously accessible 24/7 by phone at 1-833-MD-B-SAFE (1-833-632-7233), online at safeschoolsmd.org, and by downloading the free app via the App Store or Google Play.
“Though much has changed in recent weeks, Safe Schools Maryland remains available to anonymously report concerns regarding the safety and well-being of all Maryland’s students,” said Kate Hession, Executive Director of the Maryland Center for School Safety (MCSS). MCSS also provides grants and school safety training and support to public, non-public special education, and private schools throughout Maryland.
To increase awareness of the tip line during this difficult time, earlier this year MCSS shared a short public service announcement (PSA) acknowledging students still face numerous challenges, many of which they would normally share with teachers, staff members, or fellow students in-person at school. The full PSA can be viewed at https://youtu.be/cN5KoetBsFM.
“Student safety and student well-being are at the foundation of all that we do. It’s essential to remind students that they are not alone during this period and that we will get through this together,” added Hession.
Finally, in response to the challenges facing so many during this period of uncertainty, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has also published a suite of resources related to COVID-19 and mental health.
Will Social Distancing Lead to Teen Substance Abuse Spike?
During this indefinite period of social distancing many families are already struggling with challenges related to health, finances, and isolation. Now that many students are entering their fourth month of being academically and physically homebound, another potential threat is on the horizon: how teens respond to the stress building up around and inside of them.
As Florida International University recently reported:
The coronavirus outbreak has been a stressful situation for many, which may drive people, including children and teens, to use substances like alcohol or tobacco products in order to cope.
Recent data has shown that people sheltering at home from coronavirus reported significantly higher rates of negative mental health effects relating to worry or stress, compared to those not in social isolation. These effects may be pronounced in households with adolescents, as this group is at a higher risk for mental illnesses such as depression, and do not have the same access to key mental health services during this time.
Here in Maryland, various resources exist to support those struggling with substance abuse.
In the context of school safety, Safe Schools Maryland is a 24-7-365 resource to report anonymously threats to the safety of schools and students; therefore, if you know of a peer struggling with a non-emergency challenge that could put the peer or others in danger, make sure to report the what you know using the anonymous reporting system, which is available by downloading the app (Google Play Store | Apple App Store), completing the web form (click here), or by calling 1-833-MD-B-SAFE / 1-833-632-7233. For emergencies, always call 9-1-1.
Remember, even over the long hot summer, Safe Schools Maryland remains fully operations and is just one more resource available to keep our students and our schools safe.