UPDATED: Bar Harbor and Mount Desert School Boards Approve Another Year with a School Resource Officer
Superintendent makes statement on viral fight video
BAR HARBOR AND MOUNT DESERT—Both the Bar Harbor Conners Emerson School Board and Mount Desert Elementary School Board have entered into memorandums of understanding with the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Departments for the continuation of the school resource officer position.
Back on September 9, at the MDI High School Board meeting, Principal Matt Haney announced that Officer Elias Burne had been hired as the new SRO and had already started working on the first day of school.
At the high school, Conners-Emerson, and Mount Desert Elementary School, there is a yearly review of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the school resource officer. There are more informal arrangements in Southwest Harbor, Tremont, and Trenton schools. That school resource officer had no involvement in a recent fight at the high school.
A video of a student altercation as two students leave a school bus at the Mount Desert Island High School has been shared on X (the former Twitter) by John Cardillo and gathered over 4 million views as of Tuesday afternoon. For many national and local posters, the video has called into question the policy and procedure that the high school employs for student fighting and assaults. In the video, administration staff is present during what appears to be the end of the incident.
The Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department was not on scene at the time of the fight, but is investigating it. It is also mentioned in the department’s press releases. The new school resource officer was not on the high school campus at the time of the incident last Friday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Zboray responded to a request for a statement.
“A student fight occurred in front of MDIHS Friday morning. Due to privacy concerns and confidentiality requirements, I cannot legally share more about the incident or anyone involved,” he wrote. “However, I assure you that school officials are taking the matter seriously and are handling it in accordance with our policies and procedures, which are available online.”
Zboray continued, writing, “Every student altercation is different, and administrative staff are trained to intervene by utilizing a range of de-escalation strategies from verbal cues to physical restraint (as a last resort, per Maine law). Every situation provides an opportunity to learn, for both students and staff, and we are always working to improve how we protect all students and staff. I trust our staff to follow their training and use their judgment in the best interests of those involved in these difficult situations.”
On October 9, the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department released a statement about the fights, writing, “On October 4, 2024, at approximately 8:45 A.M. the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department received a report of a juvenile being assaulted on the school bus. A second assault involving the same juveniles occurred at the Mount Desert Island High School once the bus arrived. These assaults are currently being investigated by our agency. The Department is working closely with the Hancock County District Attorney's Office, the Juvenile Community Corrections Office, and the MDI High School. We appreciate the public's patience and understanding as we continue our investigation.”
On Friday, Zboray said that “contact with students is guided by Maine's Restraint and Seclusion Law.” The MDI High School’s policy would be the Restraint and Seclusion Policy.
THE ROLE OF THE SRO
At the Conners Emerson meeting, member Mike Kiers asked about training requirements for the position. Some of it is still in the works and there is a large national training this winter that Burne will attend, Police Chief David Kerns said.
Kerns said that in the end of July, he poked the principals and Zboray about the return of the position. Staff shortages had kept the SRO out of the schools for about 18 months. In mid-August, Kerns wanted to make sure the principals and superintendent were part of the selection process for former SRO Tim Bland’s replacement.
“Criminal activity is criminal activity. Do school administrators take the lead on these things?” Kiers asked.
The memorandum has language that addresses that.
“He will never be involved in any criminal enforcement. We will always call on someone else,” Kerns said, echoing what was said in September about Burne’s role in the school.
“We’re very excited to have Officer Elias at the school,” Conners Emerson Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster said prior to the Conners-Emerson School Committee’s approval of the MOU on Monday. “He’s jumped right in and been really great.”
“Tim Bland has big shoes to fill but Elias Burne is going to be a good fit,” Kerns said.
“Clearly there was an individual that hit the criteria and values that we had as school people,” Zboray said. “This school has the longest relationship with our police department.”
Zboray, MDI High School Principal Matt Haney, Dr. Webster, and Mount Desert Elementary Principal Heather Dorr had extensive conversations about what they felt was needed for the position and their steadfast assertion that just because there was an opening after Bland’s resignation from the force, it didn’t mean they were going to have somebody walk into the door that was appropriate for the position.
The superintendent and three principals firmly believed that they needed somebody who was going to be able to treat this as a resource position, as a relationship building position, as a community building position, and not as a law enforcement position.
The interview committee consisted of Police Chief David Kerns and Captain Chris Wharff of the Bar Harbor/Mount Desert Police Departments, Dr. Webster, Zboray, and Haney.
“With the SRO program, for us, it allows us to have a certain level of community policing and touch a certain part of the community that we don’t always interact with,” Kerns said. “This gives us the opportunity to have that positive role model and mentor(ing) in a school environment.”
He said Bland had been helpful when the high school had a lockdown because he was at the reunification point for students, staff, and loved ones. Those people, he said, saw Bland there and thought, “we know Tim. We trust Tim. It really helped and paid dividends.”
Webster said that Officer Tim was a great resource for strategies and as a sounding board while he served as the school resource officer.
“I want to make sure we give him the best training we can and it may not be law enforcement training,” Kerns said of Burne.
“I can’t think of a better person than Elias,” Yarborough said. “We’re very lucky.”
“We’re very excited to have him,” Kerns agreed.
MOUNT DESERT ELEMENTARY APPROVES SRO MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
After public comment by one staff member and some clarifying conversation amongst the committee and Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department representatives, the Mount Desert Elementary School (MDES) School Committee approved the school resource officer (SRO) memorandum of understanding at its monthly meeting, October 2.
During public comment at the beginning of the meeting, MDES third-grade teacher Cathy Oehmke said that she was “there to speak about the issue of a SRO in MDES. Our district has an antiracism task force and a service promise that claims to interrupt educational inequities one conversation at a time” but that in conversations that she has been a part of concerning the SRO, “I have not heard anyone bring a race-informed perspective. I have heard white staff explain that they are comfortable with police presence and I have heard lots of people say how nice the officer is.”
There is a huge disconnect between a white perspective “and an antiracist systemic analysis of the role that race plays in the unequal experiences of Black and white people and police,” Oehmke explained.
Oehmke urged the committee to not ignore the realities of the experiences of Black communities with violence and killings by police during their discussions of the SRO and to honor the hard work of the antiracism task force.
During approximately 45 minutes of conversation, Kerns and Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Captain Chris Wharf explained the roles, responsibilities, and expectations from and of Burne and addressed concerns from the committee members.
School Principal Heather Dorr explained what SRO Burne has been doing in the school so far this school year, how student and teacher reception has been, and expressed that there are a handful of teachers who still have concerns with an SRO being in the school.
The committee voted to accept the MOU with the police department and the vote was 4-1 with member Katherine Dube being the sole no vote stating that “I am standing up for the people who are opposing.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Maine state law concerning use of physical restraint
Even though it has been widely shared, we have chosen not to share the video of the incident, though it has been widely dispersed, because there are juveniles involved. We hope that you’ll respect our decision.
Similarly, though we do not normally turn comments off on articles, we are because their are minors involved in one portion of this article.
CORRECTION: The original story stated that Cathy Oehmke was speaking “on behalf” of the antiracism task force. She was not speaking on behalf of the task force and this error has been corrected.
UPDATE: At 11:00 a.m., October 9, this story was updated with a statement from the police department.
UPDATE: On October 11, this story was updated with additional information about the Restraint and Seclusion Policy.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.