Baltimore City Public Schools CEO To Discuss Arming School Officers After Frederick Douglass Shooting
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- In two weeks, the Baltimore City Public School Board will host a meeting to discuss questions in the aftermath of the Frederick Douglass High School shooting.
Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools says one of the topics that will be discussed is whether or not to arm school resource officers.
"This is a school board that's willing to not just be tone deaf," she said. "When real incidents happened in real life, and they've already publicly stated that they'll be reviewing policy decisions by arming school police. However, that is a policy decision, and that's what the board is considering."
At the time of the shooting, there was coincidentally a meeting taking place with school police supervisors.
Santelises commended the job of the officers to apprehend the shooter.
"Of course it could have been worse," Santelises said. "I think since Friday, we've been reviewing protocol, and with this incident, we've been running through protocols."
Santelises said that part of the protocol review has been looking at vulnerabilities that the school board did not see.
"We have been taking a very close examination of everything that happened," she said. "More of the focus has been on what vulnerabilities we did not see. By and large, as of now, protocols were followed."
During the shooting, Santelises was not at the scene. But she said that she was making sure students were getting home safely.
"It was a leadership decision, I will totally take that into account next time," she said. "I take that feedback. I wasn't sitting back twiddling my thumbs, I wanted to get over and see the victim, and I wanted to make sure that the staff member and family knew I was keeping tabs on how he was doing."
Santelises said that school shootings are something that the nation will have to grapple with together.
"This is not just a Baltimore City issue," Santelises said. "It's a national issue, and first school shooting in the state that didn't happen in Baltimore. We're going to have to grapple with this as a nation."
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