The Prince George’s County Public Schools system has launched a detailed student safety plan to address lapses in vetting, reporting procedures, and incident investigation. The new plan was constructed in response to the alarming number of sexual abuse charges against staff, aides, and contractors within the school system. The multi-step plan began being phased in during November and will continue into summer 2017.
The four areas of focus – Culture and Climate; Reporting and Training; Screening of Employees, Volunteers, Vendors and Contractors; and Curriculum and Counseling – are threaded together in a more cohesive checks and balances system to ensure no potential offender slips into the schools, and any reports of misconduct are dealt with swiftly. In addition to the changes, the County plans to speak to parents about the safety of their children.
“We really understood that we needed to talk with parents who were just as impacted and afraid and concerned because they just didn’t know what to look for, and they didn’t know what the steps were if they wanted to report it,” said Sheila Jackson, director of family and community engagement at Prince George’s County Public Schools.
Through the end of the year, the plan calls for revisions to mandatory training for teachers and staff in reporting suspected child abuse. In January, the Culture and Climate assessments will examine an overall plan for background checks, including for parents who want to volunteer. This will provide screening for all those personnel with access to students. It would create a partnership with a multidisciplinary team representing agencies including the Department of Social Services/Child Protective Services (DSS/CPS), Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD), and the States Attorney Office (SAO).
Jackson said the hope for the program is that parents become aware of the signs of child abuse and look for them not only with their own children, but also their children’s friends.
“My first thought as a parent, you expect schools to know how to keep child predators away from children, but the reality is that with modern technology, and a sense of trust, a lot of Black parents in particular, have just assumed that the person driving the bus, or helping with kids is safe,” Chillum, Md. resident Ulysses Cotton told the AFRO. “The incident with the special needs children being abused has me frazzled, because my grandson is special needs and he cannot communicate like other children to report if something happened to him.”
Cotton said that since his daughter works two jobs, picking up and dropping his grandson off had been entrusted to the school. However, since the reports of teacher aide Michael Patopie being charged with second-degree child abuse, sex offenses, and assault involving two special needs children in Clinton, Md., he has taken on the duties himself.
“It’s as if all of the perverts have come to our schoolyards and no one is paying attention. My family is my responsibility, so I am working with a counselor to help my grandson understand and communicate about someone touching him inappropriately,” he said.