November 17, 2016

CUA Law professor Mary Graw Leary was quoted in a November 16 WTOP article entitled "Prince George's Co. school system to implement student safety plan." See Below

Prince George's Co. school system to implement student safety plan

WTOP
By: November 16, 2016
Date: Dick Uliano
. . .

"The four building blocks, if you will, that they're saying is sort of the framework for how they are going to go, do seem to be important ones," said law professor Mary Leary of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America.
. . .

"There's the legal requirements, but then there's the question of how well is a school system training their employees to understand when it is they need to act," said Leary, a former member of the legal team at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The school system's plan for background checks, including for parents who want to volunteer, seems aimed at screening all those who would have access to students.

"It appears to me that this plan of action has really looked at what the Catholic school system did in the wake of the Catholic church's child sex abuse scandal and part of what they implemented was a very vigorous screening process," Leary said.

Leary says it's impossible to judge the effectiveness of the Prince George's County plan until all the pieces are put in place, but she says it appears to be a good starting point.