Gaithersburg and Rockville Councilmembers Yamil Hernández and Adam Van Grack released a joint statement calling for Montgomery County to bring back a modernized School Resource Officer program focused on prevention, accountability, and building trusted relationships within school communities.
The councilmembers cited recent incidents at Wootton, Blake, Bradley Hills, Magruder, and Walter Johnson, including the February 9 shooting at Thomas S. Wootton High School. According to the statement, charging documents in the Wootton case said a student was threatened with a gun in the hallway before shots were fired.
Hernández and Van Grack said Montgomery County’s current Community Engagement Officer model does not provide the same daily presence or relationship-building opportunities as a dedicated school-based officer. They argued that students are more likely to report threats to someone they know and trust, and that staff benefit from having a direct safety partner on-site.
The statement acknowledged the concerns that led Montgomery County to end its SRO program five years ago, including over-policing and the role of officers in schools. However, the councilmembers said the county should now reassess whether the CEO model is meeting current school safety needs.
They called for a new SRO model with rigorous selection standards, specialized training, transparent reporting, student and parent feedback, and a clear process to remove officers who are not a good fit. They also emphasized that officers should not handle routine student discipline.
The councilmembers said Gaithersburg and Rockville officers should play a meaningful role in any new model, citing existing relationships between city officers and students. They called on MCPS, the Board of Education, the County Executive, the County Council, and law enforcement partners to move the discussion “from debate to design, and from design to deployment.”
