With Marcus Jones’ quick turnaround last week from retired police chief to chief of security and compliance for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), community members have speculated about how he might manage the contentious subject of officers in schools.
Since his appointment by the county school board, Jones has spoken with Montgomery Community Media (MCM) about how he would approach his new position and “clarify” the role of police. Under the existing Community Engagement Officer [CEO] program, county police officers patrol schools within a cluster and do not remain inside school buildings, but have a workspace near the main office of a cluster’s high school.
“It’s not my specific purpose to go in and try to change the CEO program with the agreement we have with MCPS and the police department,” he told MCM. “But what I am interested in is–and I know this in my role as the chief–there still is … confusion as it relates to the role of police in our schools.”
Jones, who spent nearly 40 years in law enforcement, said he will also work with the county’s new police chief, Marc Yamada, and assess “how we could be more effective with our police officers.” Yamada was sworn in as county police chief on Monday.
In addition, Jones said he would also focus on “revamping and just clarifying” the memorandum of understanding between police and MCPS as it related to the CEO program.
Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, MCPS removed school resource officers–police officers who were stationed at county high schools–and implemented the CEO program the following school year.
Other duties of CEOs include assisting with traffic safety and enforcement around their school clusters and assisting at major school events such as dances and athletic events, according to the memorandum.
The efficacy of the CEO program was debated at Board of Education candidate forums this year and by community members concerned by safety and security incidents in the past year involving weapons found on campus and threats sent to schools.
Following news of Jones’ appointment, several local social justice groups announced their opposition in a Friday press release, saying his former role as police chief “makes him unsuitable for working with students.”
Young People for Progress, the Silver Spring Justice Coalition and Jews United for Justice joined together in the Decriminalize Montgomery County Campaign to oppose the appointment, according to a Friday press release. A coalition of community and civil rights advocacy organizations, the campaign “shares a commitment to advocating for justice, equity, and improved well-being for all residents of Montgomery County,” the release said.
Junee Kim, a rising junior at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg and the president of Young People for Progress, told MoCo360 Wednesday that she was “surprised” by Jones’ appointment and hopes that he is aware that many students feel uncomfortable with police patrolling schools.
“I think he should take into account what students actually want, which is like police-free schools, and maybe more investment into mental health services such as restorative justice,” Kim said.
MCPS defines restorative justice as “a mindset and philosophy toward school climate and relationship building” that focuses on “education, learning from mistakes, identifying and working on the root of the behavior, making deep-level change repairing relationships and restoring students and staff to the environment,” according to the district’s website. The approach steps away from punitive responses to bad behavior and conduct and aims to be preventative and proactive.
A major aspect of Young People for Progress’s focus is advocating for restorative justice and increasing the district’s investment in the programming. Kim and other members of the group are worried that Jones’ appointment will result in increased police presence in schools and the targeting of Black and brown students.
Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, co-founder and co-executive director of Racial Justice NOW–a community organization focused on ending the school-to-prison pipeline in Montgomery County and in the Washington, D.C., region–told MoCo360 Tuesday she did not think hiring Jones is the right move for the district.
Sankara-Jabar, who lives in eastern Montgomery County and has a child at an MCPS high school, said she doesn’t believe police should be involved in schools at all. Racial Justice NOW was a key advocate for the removal of police from schools in 2020, she said.
Ideally, the person who would lead the Department of Security and Compliance at MCPS is someone “who has a keen understanding of childhood development,” Sankara-Jabar said.
“I would argue that the last thing we need is a person that’s looking at kids as criminals,” Sankara-Jabar said. “These are kids that are still growing. We all know about brain development, like, these are kids that need guidance. These are kids that need redirection. These are kids that need investment. Those are the kinds of things that we would hope is the philosophy of someone in that role.”
For Wylea Chase, director of operations and community engagement for the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence, Jones’ appointment shows the district “is really taking safety and security seriously.”
In terms of the speculation surrounding Jones’ approach to clarifying the role of police in MCPS, Chase said the coalition doesn’t have much of a sense of what the new chief’s role will entail and what his intentions are.
“We are hopeful that it will pan out well for all of our students–but, you know, especially, our most marginalized, who have historically had issues with police in schools,” Chase said. “But if he’s looking to clarify that, we’re going to take him at his word and, you know, look to that being a positive.
“We’re not interested in coming out in opposition to something that we don’t even know about yet. So, we would like to err on the side of cautious optimism,” she said.
Brigid Howe, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, shared a similar sentiment.
“I would hope that Chief Jones’ expertise in public safety would help us to really come up with the right kinds of procedures and policies to help keep kids safe,” she said. “You know, whether that is around more professional development for security staff, whether that is ID checks at schools, whether that is, you know, more mental health resources to find problems before they start to happen.”
Howe said the appointment also makes her wonder how it will impact the official relationship between MCPS and the county police department. As Jones works to clarify that relationship, Howe said she “sincerely hopes” he will bring community partners into those conversations and for the new MCPS superintendent, Thomas Taylor, to be open and transparent with community members.
The local teachers union, Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s texts requesting comment Wednesday. Kate Hardwicke, MCEA’s Organizational Specialist for Communications, wrote in a text to MoCo360 Tuesday that union leaders have been attending a conference with the National Education Association in Philadelphia and have been unavailable for comment.
Christine Handy, president of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment via email Wednesday.
Despite some community concerns with Jones’ law enforcement background and mounting questions surrounding his intentions for the role, other county and school leaders have expressed their excitement.
County Council Public Safety Committee chair Sidney Katz (D-Dist. 3) told MoCo360 on Friday that he thinks Jones will be “extremely good” at the job.
“It’s not like they’re bringing in somebody from outside,” Katz said. “He knows Montgomery County and Montgomery County Public Schools. I think they’re very wise to have selected Chief Jones.”
School board President Karla Silvestre said Jones has been “a great partner to MCPS for as long as he has been on the force as chief.
“He’s gonna really hit the ground running. He has great relationships with the community as well as county elected leaders. So, very excited about him starting,” Silvestre said.
Silvestre said safety and security are a “big priority” for the board.
“We want with this new leadership, really, to have them take a look at what we have been doing and then propose some improvements for the opening of schools,” she said, referring to the appointment of Taylor, who started his new job Monday. “[We are] looking forward to hearing his vision, Dr. Taylor’s vision, and then the board, directing [the district] in the ways that we want them to go.”