In 2010, an act was passed that required Maryland middle schools to appoint a principal, administrator or police officer as a school safety officer.

Harford County Public Schools opted to acknowledge all middle school principals as safety officers, while other public schools systems have implemented police officers to fulfill the requirement.

"It is up to each individual school system as to who they designate as their safety officer," Teri Kranefeld, manager of communications for Harford County Public Schools, said.

The school safety officer, she added, is responsible for working with law enforcement and the law enforcement liaison, Bob Benedetto, in the event of an emergency, as well as ensure the overall safety of the school.

Another issue for the school system is the matter of funding. While other schools may be able to get police officers, Harford County Public Schools depends on local jurisdictions to hire and provide them.

"We don't control those resources," Kranefeld said.

The Safe Schools Act of 2010 doesn't require that the school safety officer be a police officer, though some school districts have gone that route. When the legislation was first introduced to the school board in March 2010, Harford County Sheriff Jesse Bane spoke in favor of it.

At the time, Bane said he would prefer that the school safety officer be a sworn law enforcement officer, specifically trained to work in schools, but also acknowledged that it would require "heavy" fiscal planning.

In 2010, at least, Bane estimated the annual cost of more resource officers could run between $800,000 and $1.2 million.

Now, as was the case then, middle and high schools share school resource officers. These school resource officers are separate from the school safety officers required by the Safe Schools Act legislation.

Sheriff Spokesperson Monica Worrell echoed Kranefeld's thoughts, saying that it isn't that they don't want school resource officers specifically for middle schools; they just don't have the resources.

Each high school has a designated school resource officer, who also has a corresponding middle school.

Starting this September, a school resource officer will be assigned to the Alternative Education Program in the Center for Educational Opportunity, housed in the former Aberdeen High School building. This school was previously under the Aberdeen Police Department's jurisdiction.

Although school resource officers may not have a permanent office in the middle school, Worrell said, they are the primary responders to incidents there.

In the event a school resource officer is tied up at a high school, she added, patrol units in each sector could respond.

"We're meeting the needs with the resources we have," she said.

The Harford County government funds the sheriff's office and provides it with resources, but according to county spokesperson Robert Thomas, the need for school resource officers in middle schools has not been made a priority.

Harford County Executive David Craig, Thomas said, funds the sheriff's budget based on the items that the sheriff and, in some cases, the school system makes a priority. So far, he added, other items have taken a higher priority.

"Although we see the potential need for additional school resource officers," he said, "they haven't been listed as a high priority by either the school system or the sheriff by this point in time to merit consideration."