Dumbarton Middle School’s principal, Nancy Fink, asked me to post these emails on the Flyer:
Dear Principal Fink,
Last Thursday, our son was approached by four dogs while off their leashes and knocked over by the largest of the dogs on school grounds on his way to school. The dogs in question were not on leashes. This is most typical of residents of Rodgers Forge dog owners.
Your office and Nurse were made aware of his injury on that particular morning and we are most grateful for their concern and care. This photo attached is day 3 and we are pleased with his course of healing.
Maryland law states that dogs are to remain on their leashes and signs posted on your school grounds support this. The morning after this incident, our son stated that the very same owners and their dogs were again off their leashes and our son yelled at the owners to put your dogs back on their leashes. They ignored him.
Do you have any ideas that could stop this from happening again? Maybe the Baltimore County Police could be made aware of this problem and confront these people in the morning hours. It could be mentioned in your monthly newsletter as well to educate and warn parents. God forbid our son or any other student could have been bitten or worse.
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Response from Principal Fink:
Hello, Mr. and Mrs. X. I have communicated often in the past few years with Jay Dunn, the editor of the Rodgers Forge newsletter, about the problem of unleashed dogs and the owners who do not clean up after their dogs. Everyone, including the members of the Executive Board of the association, agrees that this can be a problem. I even have unleashed dogs on the property during the school day. I have spoken to the owners, and they continue to do what they want on “Dumbarton park.”
I suggest that you file a police report OR report this to the Forge Flyer, the daily email newsletter, to let people know that your son was injured by one of the dogs.
Their dogs even attacked our workers when there were renovations and the police were called. The practice continues. I think your filing charges would be the best things. I will call the Towson precinct community resource department on Monday to alert them of the problem, but there is nothing better than a citizen’s involvement, especially if his/her child was injured.
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I asked Principal Fink if she thought it might be possible to have a portion of the grounds fenced off for an enclosed dog park and she said that would have to be discussed with the main offices of Baltimore County Public Schools. Maybe someone wants to take up that cause?
I have turned off the comment feature for this post. It’s getting a little over the top. If someone wants to start a conversation about a compromise — setting up an actual fenced-in dog park in the area or something along those lines — I would be happy to do a new post. kris (at) forgeflyer (dot) com