Joppatowne High School students gave their school the lowest marks out of any other Harford County public high school when it came to feeling safe from violence, bullying and controlled substance use, according to state data released earlier this month.

Along with the Maryland Report Card data, the State Department of Education also released survey data taken during the 2024-2025 school year.

Harford Schools’ survey results showed that Joppatowne students gave the school an average 2.3 points out of a possible 10 in the public safety category. Students gave the school a score of 1 the previous year.

At the beginning of the 2024 school year, Jaylen Prince, 16, shot and killed 15-year-old Warren Grant inside a bathroom at Joppatowne High. Prince was charged as an adult and was convicted of first-degree murder, along with a multitude of firearm charges. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Following the killing, students could not carry large bags inside the school and parents urged the school system to consider installing metal detectors and increasing security at all Harford schools.

Last spring, all high schools, including Joppatowne, installed OpenGate weapons detection systems during sporting events and other activities, not on a daily basis. The detection system uses two mobile 6-foot posts with green and red lights on top. It provides non-intrusive screening to identify potential threats while maintaining student and visitor flow, according to the school system. It eliminates the potential for false alarms caused by things such as metal on a three-ring binder or cellphones.

The Aegis asked Harford Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson why he thought students at Joppatowne rated their physical safety so low in the last two surveys and what he thought could be done so that students in all schools can feel an overall sense of safety, comfort and fairness. Bulson declined to respond to both questions.

Where did other schools rank?

In the 2025 survey, high school students at Swan Creek School, a blended virtual learning program, rated their school as 8.3 in public safety, while high school students at the Center for Educational Opportunity, an alternative school in Aberdeen, rated theirs at 6.7. High schools whose ratings were 3 and under, aside from Joppatowne, included Havre de Grace, 3.3, Aberdeen, 2.6 and Edgewood, 2.4.

MSDE’s survey also asks students to rank their school’s physical environment, which it describes as “if school rules are clear and fair and if good behavior is supported and rewarded.”

For the last two school years, Joppatowne High students have rated the physical environment as 1.

Other schools where students rated physical environment as 3 or under include: Patterson Mill High School (3.5), high school students at the Center for Educational Opportunity (3.7), Bel Air High School (3.3), North Harford High School (3.1), Havre de Grace High School (2.9), Edgewood High School (2.4), C. Milton Wright High School (2.3), Aberdeen High School (1.7), Fallston High School (1.7) and Harford Tech High School (1).

“As the surveys are part of a school’s star rating, we believe they are very important for judging student and staff perception,” said Mike O’Brien, assistant superintendent for educational services. “Just as with student performance outcomes, we target growth for each school on key indicators. The surveys are reviewed, analyzed, and compared with previous years to develop plans to support growth.”

When it comes to feelings regarding feeling safe from controlled substance abuse, Edgewood, Joppatowne, Aberdeen, Patterson Mill and Bel Air high schools all averaged a 1 rating. Fallston High students scored their school a 2.1, while Harford Tech High sat at 3.9.

What is the Student and Educator Survey?

The Student and Educator survey is conducted each spring and asks how students and educators feel about safety, community, environment and relationships. Students in grades 5-11 and all educators take the survey.

The safety category in the survey has four topics and asks students if they feel safe from violence (physical and emotional), bullying and controlled-substance use. The environment category has three topics and asks students about their instructional and physical environment. The community category has two topics and asks students if they are treated equally and if they have the opportunity to participate in all student activities, including the ones that occur outside of the regular school day. Lastly, the relationship category has two topics and asks students about teacher-student and student-student relationships and if their school has a culture of caring and respect.

For each category, participants can rank topics on a scale of 1 to 10.

Star Ratings

Within the Maryland Report Card, most of Harford’s high schools retained their ratings from the previous year. Harford Tech is the only high school to have five stars. Bel Air, C. Milton Wright, Fallston, North Harford and Patterson Mill high schools remain at four stars. Joppatowne High, Aberdeen High, Havre de Grace High and the Swan Creek School kept their three-star ratings. Edgewood increased from two to three stars and the Center for Educational Opportunity went up from one to two.

During a Board of Education meeting last year, Bulson stated he does not like the star rating system. In a statement to The Aegis, he said he’s encouraged by the overall results of the ratings, but struggles with the idea of one rating capturing the complexity of any school.

“Our principals have moved deliberately to improve star ratings through targeted work on improving chronic absenteeism and student outcomes in math and language arts,” he said. “That said, each school is unique and despite very hard work in some places, the percentage of students served in a given school experiencing poverty is still the greatest predictor of ratings.”

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