South River High School (Maryland)

On August 16, 2010, a South River student varsity football player suffered a serious back injury during a passing drill which confined the player to a wheelchair for at least six months.[6] After another student alerted the school’s football coach Steve Erxleben of the injury, Erxleben instructed players to continue with practice, claiming the injury did not appear to be severe at the time.[7] According to the player injured, Erxleben denied the student athlete ice and later watched as they were carried off the field by two teammates. According to a report following the incident, then-principal William Myers was alerted of the injury by the player’s father four days after the incident.[8] Steve Erxleben was suspended from coaching at South River indefinitely on August 24, 2010 after failing to follow administrative practices reporting the incident.[9][10][11] After an investigation that concluded before the season began, the Anne Arundel County Public Schools superintendent at the time, Kevin Maxwell, announced Erxleben would remain suspended for the first three games of the season until September 20, 2010 for failure to report the incident.[12][13] In December 2010, Erxleben resigned from his coaching position at South River.[8][14] He returned several years later and was named the Baltimore Ravens High School Coach of the Week of the 2021 fall season.[15]

On September 12, 2018, School Resource Officers and administration staff were made aware of a fight in one of the men’s bathrooms where three juvenile males were assaulting another juvenile male. After the students refused to stop assaulting the student, one School Resource Officer deployed oleoresin capsicum spray and began to arrest the three students. One female student entered the bathroom in an attempt to stop the arrest. The female student and the assaulter sprayed with oleoresin capsicum were taken to the hospital for decontamination. The three male juveniles were charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest, and affray, while the female student was charged with hindering a lawful arrest, and disorderly conduct.[16][17]

In 2020, Meredith Susan Barry Martin, a biology teacher at South River, was arrested and charged with five counts of sex abuse of a minor, eight counts of a fourth-degree sex offense involving a person in a position of authority, and two counts of perverted practice, after Martin was reported to be having sexual encounters with a teenage student.[18] Police responded to an initial report of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a student on January 30, 2019, where the Anne Arundel County Board of Education removed Martin from having further contact with children. She remained in her reassigned position until February 5, 2020 when she was taken into police custody.[19]