Harford County came out of this year?s General Assembly session with a few compromises on major initiatives, including a new court program for chronic truants and a modified version of an anti-gang bill.
Harford joined Prince George?s County and several others on the lower Eastern Shore in testing a new truancy court ? giving special attention and counseling to students who chronically skip school.
“If we can influence kids to stay in school, hopefully we can give them a better chance in life,” State?s Attorney Joseph Cassilly said.
The program will offer intervention and counseling for students and parents in an effort to keep them out of the regular court system, Cassilly said.
“You can?t teach to an empty chair,” said Kathy Carmello, who represented the school system in testimony favoring the bill.
Another bill that passed ? though Cassilly said he wished it hadn?t ? was the Maryland Gang Prosecution Act, which had been amended to a point where the Maryland Association of State?s Attorneys no longer supported it.
“Now we have a car with one wheel,” Cassilly said, echoing earlier complaints that reductions in maximum sentences, crimes that would qualify for extra punishment and in which gang members could be pursued had left prosecutors with a bill that would go nowhere.
One bill that came close to passage but failed in the final hours of the session was an initiative by Del. Pat McDonough to create a Permanent Nominating Commission ? a group of citizens and civic organizations that would review and recommend nominees for the school board. Under the bill, the governor would then be required to appoint new board members from those nominees.
Though the House of Delegates and the Senate both passed versions of the bill, differences over which organizations would participate couldn?t be reconciled before time ran out in the session, schools spokesman Don Morrison said.
