Indecent Exposure Incident at Ridgely Middle Raises Questions about Parental Notification

Five months after the arrest of a man who exposed himself in front of , Jenny Schneidereith is still waiting for the school to formally inform parents about the incident.

The mom of quadruplet daughters said she is frustrated with the lack of notification by the school and wants assurances that parents will be told of future incidents.

Baltimore County Public Schools system officials said that such notification is always left up to the judgment of individual principals, who are under no obligation to alert parents to criminal incidents outside school property.

Schneidereith said she is not happy with the response, especially with the impending release of the man convicted of exposing himself outside Ridgely School.

"Shame on them for not being more proactive," she said.

Schneidereith had just walked her daughters to school on Jan. 6 when she passed a van parked near the school on Lynncrest Road near Welford Court—a high traffic area for students walking to school.

The van had its license plate taped over. Inside, a man was exposing himself.

"I walked by his car and he was doing his thing," Schneidereith said.

The man eventually drove away. Another parent followed the van and was able to get a license plate number after the driver pulled over and removed the tape.

The driver, Donald Warfield, 48, .

Warfield, who lived in the 5200 block of Dewitt Road in Halethorpe, was convicted in March of indecent exposure and sentenced to three years in jail with all but three months suspended. He is expected to be released in late June.

Warfield, a former Baltimore County police officer, was fired from the department for a similar incident in Glen Rock, PA.

Schneidereith said she had hoped the school system would send a notice home to parents about the incident.

Susan Evans, principal at Ridgely Middle School, did not return a call seeking comment.

Capt. Martin Lurz, commander at the Cockeysville Precinct, sent an e-mail to area community associations in January explaining Warfield's actions. Lurz said he also sent an e-mail with the "facts of the situation" to Evans to help quiet rumors that a child had been abducted in the incident.

Lurz said he does not have access to the school's e-mail distribution lists but hoped that his e-mail would have been circulated.

"Our goal was to just get the facts out there," Lurz said. "With kids being involved, parents are going to want to be concerned, and rightly so, about sending their children to school. Even though [Warfield] turned himself in, not everyone knew that."

Schneidereith said the school should inform the community.

"The school decided not to send info home at all," she said. "I felt that was a bad decision."

Schneidereith continues to press her case with school system officials, asking that a notice be sent home telling parents that Warfield is about to be released.

"At this point, I'm so mad with the school system," Schneidereith said. "How can they not share this information with people? ... He's going to be out of jail in June."

Charles Herndon, a county schools system spokesman, said the incident highlights a gray area for school administrators.

"Out gut is to always release information, but there is also a question of how much a school system should be the town crier of the community," Herndon said.

"We understand the need for close communication, frequent communication, with the community," Herndon said. "There are some communities that may want that information and some communities where it would cause alarm. That's why we tell principals they have to make those calls. They know how their communities will react to the news that is shared with them."

In this instance, Herndon said that Warfield "didn't accost a child and didn't flash a child, and students were already inside the building."

Herndon said he understands Schneidereith's concerns and said "police were absolutely right about letting the community know about the incident."

"But should people look to the schools for that information?" Herndon said. "That's debatable."