Maryland lawmakers consider bill to ban juvenile rapists in schools, after FOX45 report

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WBFF) — Lawmakers are taking action following a Project Baltimore investigation that found a 15-year-old rapist attending classes inside a Maryland Public School.

The General Assembly has just over two months left in session to pass legislation that would prevent this from happening again.

In 2024, there are not many political issues that unite Republicans and Democrats. But a recent Project Baltimore investigation is prompting outrage on both sides of the aisle.

“I was sickened, I was angered, I was disgusted,” said Delegate Nino Mangione, a Republican representing Baltimore County.

Project Baltimore recently spoke with Mangione and Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore City.

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“As a parent, as any parent, immediately it was this sense of horror and hard to understand,” Ferguson told Project Baltimore.

The two lawmakers had strong reactions when Project Baltimore first reported that a rapist was taking classes inside Patterson High School in Baltimore City.

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The student is 15 years old. In late December, he entered a plea to second degree rape in Harford County. At the same time, Fox45 News discovered, he was facing an additional second-degree rape charge from an alleged 2022 incident in Baltimore County. Yet, in January, he was allowed back in a Baltimore City School, and because he’s a juvenile, the school system could not legally alert other students or their parents.

“I think this is probably the single most important thing I can be a part of in Annapolis. This is about protecting children,” said Mangione.

The day after FOX45 News broke the story, Mangione requested a bill be drafted to prevent this type of situation from happening again.

Maryland’s constitution guarantees a public education for all students. Currently, under state law, a juvenile sex offender who is not on the sex offender registry cannot be removed from a school unless there’s an “imminent threat of serious harm to the health and safety of other students and staff.”

Mangione says that if a child is already convicted of a serious crime, that should constitute an imminent threat. Mangione’s proposed bill would create a list of juvenile offenses, including second-degree rape, that would bar a student from attending school in person. Instead, other educational options would be made available, such as virtual learning or homeschooling.

Senate President Ferguson could not comment on Mangione’s proposed legislation because it’s still being drafted. But Ferguson said he’s conducting his own investigation to find out how a rapist could end up in a public school in the city he represents.

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“If there's a 15-year-old that has a convicted second-degree rape, something's not going well. And there is a real, serious, major intervention that is necessary, because the last thing in the world that can happen is to see it happen again,” said Ferguson.

Ferguson, who is a former Baltimore City teacher, said he plans to gather details from City Schools, the Department of Juvenile Services, and the courts, to find out exactly what led to the student being allowed in Patterson High. And if laws need to be changed to stop it happening again, he plans to change them.

“It's something we really want to understand what's happening. And if there are places where the law has to be adjusted, then we have to do it,” explained Ferguson. “This is something that, I can understand where people, especially the family, the family of the victim, it’s just incomprehensible. And so, we want to see, if there is something that we can do, we want to pursue it.”

The 2024 legislative session ends on April 10. Lawmakers have 65 days.

“This is not a partisan bill,” Mangione told Project Baltimore. “As a matter of fact, I think this is something that all Marylanders can come together and agree on.”

Project Baltimore has reached out to every member of the Maryland legislature asking if they would support legislation that would require parental notification when a juvenile who is found to have committed a sex offense or other violent crime is attending a Maryland public school. Fox45 also asked lawmakers, should parents have been notified that a rapist was attending Patterson High School?

Project Baltimore will stay on this story to provide updates.