The number of families without a roof over their heads fell even more sharply, down by 42% from last year.

The numbers come from Montgomery County’s annual point-in-time survey, when teams of volunteers and nonprofit groups fan out across the county, documenting the number of people without shelter. The count includes people who are housed in shelters and those found sleeping outside overnight.

Referring to the plunge in the number of homeless families counted this year, Christine Hong, the director of the county’s Services to End and Prevent Homelessness said, “That’s huge.”

“The fact that we how so many people over the last year is truly a result of the SHaRP program and all the work done and the support from our county,” Hong said, referring to the as the primary driver of the reduction in the number of homeless people.

The SHaRP program provides security deposits, the first month’s rent and up to 12 months in rent subsidies to individuals and families.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich also referred to the SHaRP program during on Wednesday.

“By moving families into permanent housing faster, we reduce the trauma of homelessness for children, and we save the taxpayers from the higher costs of the long term emergency shelters we use,” Elrich said.

Elrich wants the county council to keep a one-time boost of $2 million to the program’s funding in the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Without the additional funding, he said, “our capacity to help new families will drop by 68 households; those families will end up right back in our shelters and overflow motels.”

Hong said there’s another area that needs work: The number of chronically homeless people has increased, and she said part of the issue there is a lack of housing available for individual adults.

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Blocker, who grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, became involved in local politics as a teenager, lobbying the Hyattsville City Council and serving as a student member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education.

He graduated from Bowie State University and went on to land the title of deputy legislative director and special assistant to former Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot.

But when Franchot announced his retirement, Blocker said, “I was left to figure out what I was going to do next.”

It was more than the loss of a job, Blocker said, it was a loss of identity.

In the D.C. area, and especially in politics, he said people often default to introducing themselves by using their titles.

“When we start off with the title 鈥� we believe it signals some form of authority or that ‘I belong,'” he said.

Without the title he’d grown accustomed to, “I crumbled,” Blocker said. “I felt like broken glass once I no longer had those positions and no longer had that access.”

After leaving politics, there were several detours 鈥� and some fiscal challenges 鈥� before he went through a weight-loss journey and entered the police academy.

Blocker had already been given his police uniform when, at week 19, he failed to pass the emergency vehicle driving course.

“And I had to leave the academy 鈥� so what did that mean? That meant that I lost the stability that I thought I had,” he said.

It was a devastating blow: “I broke down in tears and I felt like I let my family down and I also felt like I let my agency down because my agency paid for me to be in that academy,” he said.

Once again, he was confronted with the loss of identity and a need to reconnect to a sense of purpose.

But not for long.

Blocker said he had been contemplating launching a podcast for young people for some time. At first, he thought he’d focus on something health-related given his own path to fitness.

But then, he decided to take his own experiences to offer a forum for other young professionals dealing with a challenging job market while they work to determine their own sense of self.

Considering the job losses experienced by tens of thousands of federal workers of all ages, Blocker knew he’d include those voices in his podcast as well.

On launching May 1, he interviews a range of guests about their own experiences, touching on the topics of mental health, faith, careers, identity and more.

The focus of the podcast, he said, is “to not only talk about these issues, but to let other folks know that they’re not alone.”

Blocker said it sounds cliche to remind people that others may be in the same boat, but, “it’s something different when everybody says it out loud: ‘Hey, I’m also struggling and trying to figure out who I am or I’m nervous and I’m scared because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me once I no longer have this job or this position.'”

Blocker already has one season recorded, and for the next season he’ll feature, “experts in job-hunting 鈥� that can hopefully provide practical skills and not just inspiration to help folks out.”

At the same time, Blocker said he’s still on the job hunt.

“That’s why I put my all behind this podcast, because it’s based upon my current and personal real lived experiences,” Blocker said.

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In 2021, Montgomery County shifted from the school resource officer model, where SROs were placed in each high school, to the CEO model that specified that officers would be assigned to a high school, but would also be responsible for security coverage for elementary and middle schools that feed into that high school.

As part of its the Montgomery County school system released results from its survey for recommendations to the CEO program.

According to that survey, about 33% of families favored having an officer in each high school, “all day, every day,” while 28% of school-based administrators agreed. When it came to school-based staff 鈥� other than administrators 鈥� 37.5% favored that approach.

‘Carefully selected’

Lt. Pamela Revels, with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama and president of the 聽said in an interview with 海角社区app that having clearly defined roles for police in schools is vital.

“When our parents, our caregivers, guardians, send their young people to school, they are expecting them to come back same way they went 鈥� mentally, physically and emotionally,” she said.

Revels said successful SRO programs keep priorities in focus.

To make sure an officer is suited for the role of an SRO, Revels said they have to be “carefully selected, specifically trained and properly equipped.”

She said that while schools across the country invest in building design and high tech equipment, like weapons detection systems, “you can put all these things in place, but it’s really the human factor that makes the difference.”

An SRO, Revels said, must be patient, supportive and meet students where they are, never forgetting that they’re adolescents.

Revels said that the qualities that officers need to have include “being very flexible, being understanding, being patient, but also being able to perform the ultimate goal” of taking action if the school faces a threat like an active shooter.

Some against the idea of having police in schools challenge the assertion that SROs prevent school violence. But Revels said when students trust the officers, they often share information that the school can use to identify and address problems earlier.

In all cases though, Revels said that the memorandum of understanding that is worked out between schools and police departments must be well-defined and, “educators should know how and what we’re supposed and allowed to do,” to avoid situations where police enforce school discipline.

Asked about where discussions about the status and roles of CEOs in Montgomery County Public Schools are moving, spokesperson Liliana Lopez wrote in an email to 海角社区app, “We are committed to a collaborative process. During our April 21 testimony to the County Council, we addressed the resource constraints identified by both MCPS and MCPD. The Board of Education would need to convene and provide formal recommendations to the Executive and our police partners. To honor the MOU and our partnership with all Montgomery County law enforcement agencies, we will engage our police partners from the very beginning.”

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Robert Butz, of Windridge Vineyard in Darnestown, Maryland, told reporters Wednesday, “There’s no way to sugarcoat it, on the grape side of our business anyway, pretty much 100% of any living tissue was frosted off on that morning of the 21st.”

Butz said since Windridge expanded from growing grapes to moving into wine production, his farm can blunt some of the effect of the April frost.

“In the early days of growing grapes, I was a grape grower, I didn’t produce any wine,” he said, adding that an event like the one that hit the region earlier this month, “I would have lost all my income on grapes for the year.”

But thanks to planning and past harvests, Butz said, “We’ve been preparing for this over the years, and we do have some inventory,” but he added, “That’s going to set us all back and we’ll be working for the next five years to climb out of this event.”

However, Butz said, his business wasn’t hit as hard as many of his neighboring farms who produce peaches, apples and strawberries. Because of the frost damage that devastated those crops, Butz said, “They’re just not going to have those to sell.”

Many Montgomery County farms offer community-supported agriculture, or CSA, deals, where customers sign up for memberships and get weekly or biweekly boxes of produce throughout the growing season. Butz said, those farms “may not have exactly everything that the customer was used to getting in years past. 鈥� But now more than ever, we all of us, need the business.”

Speaking during Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s weekly briefing, Butz urged consumers who enjoy getting fresh produce to continue to buy available produce from local farms.

“Even though one or a couple of things may not be in stock, there’s still tons of great produce,” he said, adding his own farm has past vintage in stock. “Please keep coming out to see us.”

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Friedson outlined his argument for revamping the current Community Engagement Officer program in a letter Monday to County Executive Marc Elrich, Montgomery County Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven, Schools Superintendent Thomas Taylor and Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada.

In addition to returning to the Student Resource Officer model in favor of the current Community Engagement Officer program, Friedson called for additional officers assigned to provide coverage to middle and elementary schools.

Addressing the proposal Wednesday, Elrich said high schools do have officers assigned to them.

“They’re not there the entire day, but they were there for the times that everybody thought were the most important times, when you had a large number of kids,” Elrich said, referencing arrival and dismissal times.

Elrich also said the county’s current staffing at the police department, and the struggle to fill vacancies, would make the task challenging.

“Even if we got up to 50 recruits a year, it would take more than five years,” to get up to the necessary staffing levels, he said.

“I can’t make the decision, and neither can the council, because by state law, this is the decision of the superintendent of schools,” he added. “That is not a decision made by the county.”

Friedson said the current role of Community Engagement Officers is insufficient.

“We have a police officer that is broadly assigned to each high school cluster, which includes every elementary school, every middle school and the high school,” Friedson said.

That model, Friedson said, doesn’t allow for the kind of relationship-building that officers can have when they are dedicated to a single high school full-time.

Citing a recent shooting at Wootton High School, Friedson told 海角社区app it was the second incident that day at Wootton.

“Prior to that, the student brandished the weapon in a threatening way at another student,” Friedson said, adding that had there been a permanent police officer on-site, “Might that shooting have been prevented? We certainly would have been in a much better position to do so.”

In his letter, Friedson called for the school system and police department to “convene and develop a strategy” to make a permanent change to the current program.

海角社区app reached out to Montgomery County Public Schools and the Montgomery County Police Department for comment.

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The state program is designed to get more certified teachers into the classroom, and the money will be used for recruitment efforts.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced Thursday that across the state would be getting $19 million for the program. Other school systems receiving the grant money include Prince George’s County, which is getting the second-largest amount awarded to a single county at $3 million.

Margie Lope Moutsatsos, the director of professional learning for Montgomery County Public Schools, said the answers a problem many school districts are facing: a shortage of people entering the education field as licensed teachers.

Lope Moutsatsos explained where the hiring emphasis is directed.

“We’re really looking at focusing on shortage areas or high-needs teaching areas with this grant, and getting folks certified to teach in areas where we have high need, like special education, like the sciences,” she said, adding there will be funding for those seeking dual licensure in elementary and special education.

The targets for the program, as the name Grow Your Own suggests, are staff who currently work in schools, but don’t hold a teacher’s license. That could include para-educators, Lope Moutsatsos explained.

“We hope to get around 200 folks through licensure with this grant,” she said.

In Montgomery County, one of the goals will be getting more men in front of classrooms. Lope Moutsatsos said the hope is that more men will enter teaching, “so that kids see themselves in the teaching population.”

She added, with a diverse student population, the county is hoping to make sure that “our diverse student population is taught by a diverse teacher population.”

Among the perks being offered through the grants to bring current school staff members into the future teacher pipeline are free or discounted tuition, books and licensure exams. Teacher candidates will also be provided with substitutes, allowing them to take coursework during the workday instead of nights and weekends.

Lope Moutsatsos said many current school employees have families: “So one of the reasons they haven’t gotten the degree is because they can’t afford not to work.”

The hope is to have as many as 80 candidates in the program by this fall, she said.

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Wanzer, who friends said had been in ill health recently, died Friday at the age of 63.

Naseema Shafi, CEO of an organization that has been active in legal and medical care in the LGBTQ+ community for decades, told 海角社区app that Wanzer was a passionate and kind advocate.

“It’s such a big wound in our hearts that she’s gone,” Shafi said.

Shafi said that while Wanzer was instrumental in advocating for the rights of the transgender community, her work pushed governments, agencies and nonprofits to ensure they provided the kind of care that’s based on meeting human needs.

Wanzer’s message, Shafi said, was that everyone needs “to be treated with dignity, respect and kindness and love. You have to affirm people’s experiences 鈥� they are real 鈥� and SaVanna made us think about that all the time.”

Shafi said Wanzer’s warmth and humor made people want to work with her.

“She just overcame every barrier in front of her,” Shafi said. “She had just a really gentle way of pulling us forward. And I think she did that in lots of different settings.”

Earline Budd has been working in the field of transgender rights in D.C. for decades and said it hurts to know she will never again hear Wanzer’s voice.

Wanzer led the effort to make sure D.C.’s transgender community was recognized with the formation of Capital Trans Pride and D.C. Black Trans Pride.

“She went out of her way to make sure that provisions and different things are made available for trans people,” Budd said, highlighting the addition of certain Capital Pride events. “She was very instrumental in making sure that we had a place at the table and that we were included.”

Even as Wanzer’s health worsened, Budd said, she was looking ahead and was still thinking of others.

“I mean, she literally would jump out of a hospital bed and come to an event,” Budd said, noting Wanzer will be remembered for her eagerness to support others.

Amy Nelson, senior director of legal services at Whitman-Walker Health, recalled that in 2012, the organization launched its name and gender change legal clinic.

“SaVanna was one of the first volunteers and was there every month to welcome clients, to welcome volunteers and make sure that things went smoothly,” she said.

While people may not be familiar with Wanzer’s name, because she was so often working behind the scenes, Nelson said, “because of her work, the name-change process is more streamlined, it’s easier to access.”

“There’s more open conversation about the medical and legal needs of trans people, and there’s more space for bridge-building,” Nelson added.

Nelson said Wanzer worked very closely with elected officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Council.

On Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about Wanzer’s passing, calling her “a fierce advocate and a beloved leader.”

“Her legacy lives on in the communities she built and the countless lives she touched,” Bowser said.

Nelson said Wanzer was active in all facets of outreach work: “SaVanna used to do a turkey drive so that patients and clients would have something to eat on Thanksgiving.”

Like all the people 海角社区app talked to about Wanzer’s life, Nelson mentioned her humor and warmth.

“I was with SaVanna many days in the end, in the hospital and then the nursing home, and she never lost her sense of humor and she had us laughing when we were on the verge of tears,” she said.

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would strengthen the enforcement of court orders to protect victims, strengthen pretrial detention of domestic violence offenders, enhance accountability for offenders and protect victim and survivor privacy, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser, who announced the legislation Friday alongside U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.

The bill would also make聽repeat violations of temporary and civil protection orders a felony, give more authority to the courts to detain people charged with domestic violence offenses, make unlawful entry a felony in cases where an accused offender enters a home to commit an assault, and create a new crime for particular offenses committed in the presence of a child.

Pirro said she was surprised to learn D.C. did not have a separate charge in cases where domestic violence takes place in the presence of a child.

“We’ve got to make that a crime, because there is no question that the consequences are long-term in terms of that child learning that violence is the only way to resolve conflict in their lives based upon what they are seeing between their parents or intimate partners,” Pirro said.

Pirro also said she’d like to see enhanced sentencing for offenders who strangle their partners.

“Right now, my office has filed 90 felony strangulation cases,” she said, adding that her office was on track to “file 360 before the end of the year.”

Pirro said while strangulation was recategorized as a felony from a misdemeanor 鈥� as a result of the Secure D.C. Act 鈥� the sentencing guidelines remain, in her view, low.

“When someone strangles an intimate partner, they’re 800% more likely to kill that person in the future,” Pirro said.

At the opening of his remarks, Interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said there have been a string of domestic violence cases recently that have ended in murder and/or suicide.

“And just this past Tuesday night, a suspect shot and wounded his former girlfriend and another man, before taking his own life,” Carroll said. “Although violent crime is down, domestic offenses are fueling an increase in assault with dangerous weapons, which are up 36%.”

He also highlighted a called “Know DV.”

“We want every resident to know the signs of domestic violence and know the resources that are available,” he said. “The message to the survivors is clear: know that you are not alone.”

Natalia Otero, executive director of spoke at Friday’s announcement.

“We’ve seen what happens when systems move too slowly, and what it costs survivors when patterns of violence go unaddressed,” she said.

Otero said her organization, D.C.’s only 24/7 crisis intervention agency for domestic violence, has been pushing for years for measures such as those in the Protecting Victims Act of 2026.

She called the proposed legislation “a critical step in supporting survivors and saving lives.”

Referencing a series of lethal domestic violence cases, including that of Dr. Cerina Fairfax, who was killed by her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Otero said, “The general public, once again, has been witness to the devastation that intimate partner violence can cause. It is pervasive and exists across socioeconomic lines and across every neighborhood, and it is our responsibility to solve it.”

Bowser said she will be with members of the D.C. Council, working with them to schedule hearings and quickly move the legislation forward.

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Montgomery County Police say they got multiple calls about a group of teenagers on e-bikes and dirt bikes near Arlington Road and Bethesda Avenue. According to the complaints, the teens were speeding along on sidewalks, driving on the wrong side of the road, nearly hitting pedestrians and blocking traffic.

Police body camera footage shows the teenager being arrested after the group was approached by police on foot, and then sped off toward Elm Street “at a high rate of speed.”

In a news release, police said the teen resisted arrest and shouted racial epithets at the officers. That’s not audible

In the video, the teen is seen being handcuffed and taken out of the street. Then, referring to the dirt bike riders, a woman tells police that “they’ve been such a nuisance.”

The teenager 鈥� who did not have a Maryland driver’s license 鈥� was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, driving an unregistered motor vehicle, reckless and negligent driving along with failure to obey traffic control devices.

The dirt bike that the teen was operating was confiscated and towed.

In Wednesday’s case, the dirt bike the 13-year-old was operating should have been licensed and registered and had safety equipment in order to be used on a public roadway, according to Maryland law.

Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson, whose district includes downtown Bethesda, said he had seen the video police released related to the incident. He said the illegal operation of dirt bikes in the area has been “an ongoing issue.”

In an interview with 海角社区app, Friedson said, “I have been in touch with police about it, and it has been an ongoing concern from community members and local businesses.”

“I’m hopeful that this particular incident will be a deterrent 鈥� realizing the police are going to respond,” Friedson said.

The message being sent, he said, is that when dirt bike operators behave recklessly, “you could be caught and you will face consequences. And I think that’s an important message in this case to send to our young people.”

A from Montgomery County’s District 2 commander, which serves Bethesda, included a message to parents urging them to “Know where your kids are, who they are with, and the laws around dirt bikes and mini dirt bikes.”

Police also reminded parents that there are a number of laws that apply to dirt bikes and many are linked to how the bikes are categorized.

Montgomery County Police are urging parents to be careful in buying dirt bikes and e-bikes for their children, and become familiar with the laws that apply to owning and operating them. Any vehicle with an engine of more than 50cc must be registered.

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The Red Line opened to the public in March 1976 with just five stops in central D.C. It now spans 32 miles and includes 27 stations.

Metro documents state that the Red Line’s “aging system presents challenges with safety, reliability, capacity and efficiency.” The documents state that trespassing incidents and human error “are difficult to mitigate with current system design.”

Under the plan, $913 million will go toward Red Line improvements that Metro said will put the system “on the path to providing world-class transit.”

There are plans to seek federal funding in the form of grants that could support the project. The details are part of the proposed fiscal 2027-32 Capital Improvement Plan, which Metro’s Board of Directors unanimously approved Thursday morning.

Debate over automation

Included in the improvements is full automation of the Red Line, which is already significantly automated. Automatic train operation, abbreviated as ATO, controls Red Line trains’ acceleration, deceleration and speed via special equipment on the tracks.

Metro workers said during Thursday’s meeting that ATO is not foolproof, and the system isn’t ready for more automation.

Christopher Terry, a former Metrobus driver who said he鈥檚 worked in rail yards across the system, told the board ATO 鈥済litches continually, and we are there to fill the gaps. Operators are the first line of defense to troubleshoot issues on the railroad.”

While Metro trains were designed to be largely automatic, the use of automated trains was discontinued after a 2009 crash on the Red Line, which killed nine people and injured 80.

Metro returned to ATO systemwide last year for the first time since that crash.

鈥淭he trains have always had the ability to operate in ATO, and the reason why we stopped doing that, or have not initiated it, is because the system is not ready,” said Jackie Jeter, a train operator who previously led ATU Local 689 as the union president.

Further modernization of the Red Line would include installing platform doors that would open only when trains pull into stations. Platform doors are currently used in transit systems in other countries, and even closer to home; they operate similarly to those at Dulles International Airport’s AeroTrain.

Metro officials said the doors would make stations safer and allow for speedier train arrivals and departures. The automation of the Red Line is the first step toward a system-wide modernization, according to Metro.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had 10 people hit already by trains this year 鈥� seven of which have been fatalities, six of which have been on the Red Line,鈥� Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke said.

Clarke added the system has 鈥渁n engineering and technology solution鈥� to address those incidents, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 one of the values of this program.”

Additional automation could also extend to eliminating the need for train operators, who currently control doors, make announcements and monitor track conditions. The union representing rail operators has expressed concern.

鈥淏efore you take the operator off the train, you should be able to look every rider in the eye and guarantee their safety. And today, nobody in this room can do that,” Jampsea Campbell, a union member and Metro station manager, told the board.

Benjamin Lynn with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 told 海角社区app, “The union isn’t opposed to progress. Progress can come in many forms.”

ATU Local 689 represents approximately 8,500 WMATA employees.

“The union thinks that step is premature 鈥� that WMATA should focus first on ensuring the system is at a state of good repair,” he added.

Lynn said there’s roughly $15 billion of needed repairs that have already been identified.

“Job loss is a concern of the union,” Lynn said. “We’re also really concerned about what full automation without a human operator would mean for the safety of the riding public.”

Clarke addressed concerns about job loss during Thursday’s meeting.

鈥淓mployees are a core of what we do at Metro,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are at the start of a process. The Red Line modernization is not about getting rid of employees.鈥�

There will be a plan in place to consider future roles for operators under the modernization plan.

鈥淎round the world, people do this totally differently. Sometimes there鈥檚 train attendants, sometimes there鈥檚 operators, sometimes they are security staff,鈥� Clarke said.

Lynn said that the union would be part of the conversations about exactly what full automation would mean.

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The move clears the way for a second council vote May 5 when it would face congressional review before taking effect in the fall.

Council member Janeese Lewis George was among the “no” votes, saying that studies from other cities show that “curfews do not result in fewer instances in youth-involved crime, public disturbances or high-risk behaviors.”

Council member Zachary Parker told his colleagues he would be voting “no” on both the permanent curfew bill and an emergency measure. Parker said the government cannot be a substitute for parents.

“Families and guardians have a fundamental responsibility to guide and supervise their children. I’m going to say that one more time, because it takes a village,” he said.

Council member Robert White, a candidate for delegate to Congress, also voted “no” on the permanent curfew bill.

“How is it that we always have the money to incarcerate and handcuff, but we don’t have the money to prevent (youth crime)?” he asked. “We can’t keep going in this circle and expect anything other than what we have.”

Ward 3 Council member Matt Frumin voted in favor of the bill, saying, “We need to be lifting up these kids, but we also need to be protecting our communities and our kids.”

How curfews are working

During a discussion prior to the vote, Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, who lead the push on the legislation, was asked what evidence there is to show curfews actually work when it comes to public safety and young people.

“The most persuasive evidence that I hear is from parents who’ve reached out to say thank you for giving the police this tool,” Pinto said.

Several times, council members commented on that showed a D.C. police officer pulling two girls off an e-bike and then standing at the top of an escalator at the Navy Yard Metro station calling out, “We’re going to get you!”

Council member Wendell Felder called the images “extremely concerning” and said they should be investigated.

Pinto agreed that the incidents were troubling, and said, “These instances are unacceptable and these cases have been referred to the office of police complaints.”

She added that she would continue to work so curfew zones “are implemented properly and safely.”

While the council gave the initial green light to the permanent curfews, the push to extend the current declaration by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser with emergency legislation failed to advance.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson moved to table the vote on emergency legislation, which would have extended curfew zones for another 90 days and needed nine votes to pass.

Mendelson explained the postponement by saying the curfews are in reaction to “something new and different,” referring to the teen meetups organized on social media that have resulted in hundreds of young people flooding neighborhoods like the Navy Yard.

“We are not alone in this discussion. And by that I mean, there are folks who are not friends to the District who are looking very intently at what we are doing or not doing,” Mendelson said. “I’m not interested in giving them any talking points or ammunition.”

The failure to vote on the emergency measure before the next scheduled legislative session May 5 means that the curfew in place under Mayor Bowser’s declaration will lapse.

Among those opposing the delay was At-Large Council member Anita Bonds, who said, “You know we kick the can, and the can doesn’t move very far, and we kick it again. We continue to put off what we cannot put off.”

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Wright compared the role of teacher coaches to athletic coaching during a virtual call with reporters. Teacher coaches are experienced educators who work with teachers on classroom strategies, not employee evaluations.

“Any athlete will tell you the impact of good coaching on their game,” Wright said. “When teachers have access to strong, high quality, effective instructional coaching, students win.”

Under the plan, the will hire 52 literacy-based coaches, five regional literacy coaches and four regional mathematics coaches.

Among the 52 hires, 35 will be school-based literacy coaches placed across the state.

During the General Assembly session that ended earlier this month, $14.2 million was included in the budget for the plan and to fund those positions.

Wright, who is often credited with bumping up student performance in her previous role as the Mississippi State Superintendent of Education, told reporters, “The research is clear, and other states agree, when teachers have access to a highly effective instructional coach, it has lasting effects on the students of today and those who will follow.”

The placement of the teacher coaches across Maryland will be tied to three factors, including the performance of third graders on the English language arts and mathematics exams of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, also known as MCAP. That will be based on student performance over the past three years.

Another factor used to decide where the teacher coaches will be placed includes the percentage of conditionally licensed teachers among a school’s faculty and staff. Conditionally licensed teachers are educators still completing full certification requirements.

In January, under the Academic Excellence Program, seven literacy coaches were assigned to support teachers in 14 Prince George’s County elementary schools under a pilot program. The additional hiring campaign is expected to add 15 more coaches to the county school system.

“The statewide initiative will be built on that,” Wright said.

Under the plan, “philanthropic funds” would be used and the goal would be to have a total of 22 coaches in Prince George’s County. Philanthropic funding refers to private or nonprofit financial support that supplements state funding.

The Academic Excellence Program is part of Maryland’s strategy to improve education under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a sweeping multi-billion dollar education reform plan. The initial plan was signed into law in 2019, with the plan for implementing the Blueprint passed during the 2020 General Assembly session in Annapolis.

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“We hear from our residents and faith groups that the world feels less safe,” County Executive Marc Elrich said Monday while announcing the funding. “We are diverse, we are welcoming and we refuse to let hate determine how residents live.”

Montgomery County Council President Natali Fani-Gonz谩lez stood alongside Elrich during the announcement.

“When we say that we are a county that is going to be defending you and protecting you, that also means that you need to put your money where your mouth is, and that is what we’re doing,” she said.

Houses of worship and nonprofits in the county have faced numerous threats, according to Luke Hodgson, director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

“From graffiti, vandalism and arson to intimidation and threats aimed at parishioners or other members, online and phone threats, white supremacist materials distributed at or surrounding their facility, and individuals entering their facilities and threatening them directly.”

Hodgson referred to a 2024 county report that documented 483 hate incidents, 291 of which were related to schools.

“Bias crimes as we know are traditionally underreported, so we suspect there’s even more that are happening out there,” Hodgson said.

Race and religion were among the top targets of hate crimes and bias incidents.

“Most of the incidents motivated by racial bias were anti-Black, while most of the incidents motivated by religious bias were antisemitic,” Hodgson said.

CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington Ron Halber praised county officials for acting to boost the grant money for groups affected by hate incidents.

“This is how local government should work; proactive, responsive and effective,” he said.

Halber said the No. 1 deterrence for attacks to institutions is the presence of security personnel. Halber said it was “absolutely unquestionable” that the tactic helps prevent hate crimes.

Hodgson said there were 49 applicants who signed up for the additional funds to do things, such as boost security staffing or implement security cameras or additional lighting on their properties.

“This investment sends a powerful message,” said Mariam Khan with the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring.

And that message, Khan said, is “that our community matters, and that everyone deserves to feel safe in their place of worship.”

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Mindy Thiel is the executive director of Chesapeake Counseling Associates. Her practice provides services for children affected by domestic violence through the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Family Justice Center. While she’s also worked with children across the state of Maryland, she said in Montgomery County alone, “There are thousands of protection orders that are issued each year.”

“We have children who have witnessed homicides and suicides. We have had children who’ve witnessed attempted murders,” and overall, Thiel told 海角社区app, domestic violence “is incredibly common.”

Thiel said when she explains how common domestic violence is, clients feel less alone.

“How much relief that provides for them is incredible,” she said.

And Thiel said there is no sector of society untouched by domestic violence.

“This is something, we have worked with kids in every zip code, at every income level, various religious, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds,” she said.

One of the reasons the impact of domestic violence carried out by parents, including when it’s directed at their partners, is so damaging, Thiel said, is because, “Our parents are supposed to be our caregivers. Our parents are supposed to be, when we are younger, our means of survival.”

Knowing a parent 鈥� or both parents 鈥� can’t be counted on to provide a safe environment, she said, is damaging.

“It certainly will create this great sense of insecurity,” Thiel said.

In younger children, that can result in clingy behavior and regression. It can also cause sleep issues. Some behaviors around sleep disturbance can include “waking up in the middle of the night, or kids who don’t want to be in a room by themselves sleeping.”

Thiel said she sees instances of kids “who have nightmares or night terrors, and again, all of this actually can apply to adolescents and adults as well. ”

Thiel uses a form of therapeutic treatment called Safe Start designed specifically for children affected by domestic violence. Restoring a child’s sense of security is the focus, Thiel said.

“Just being present, just being able to sit in a room with another adult for a certain amount of time and feel safe 鈥� feel like their psychologically safe and feel like they’re physically safe,” she said.

Another thing Thiel emphasized is even for those clients who have been exposed to extreme cases of domestic violence, “There’s a better life out there.”

“There are many, many clients we’ve worked with who, you know, have gone to college, graduate school, are successful professionals,” and she said, “have started their own families.”

Where to find help

Smita Varia is the program manager at the Montgomery County Family Justice Center at the Sheriff’s Office.

“We’re kind of known as the one-stop shop for domestic violence victims and their families,” Varia said.

Among the services provided, Varia said, are walking people through the process of applying for and getting protective orders, developing safety plans and assisting with basic needs.

“We can help people get into shelter.”

And, she said, the center provides career counseling so that, “if they need a job, to be able to stabilize their home after they leave their partner, we’re able to help them with that as well.”

Often, people outside the home will call to get help for those affected by domestic violence.

“We get referrals from anywhere 鈥� from doctors’ offices, churches, the police, other agencies and also schools as well, because a lot of times children may show signs where they’re living in an unstable household, where there is conflict,” she said.

Varia said among the behaviors teachers or other adults might see in children witnessing domestic violence, “children who are withdrawing, who have trouble with attachment. So the younger children may revert back to an earlier stage of childhood, where you might see a toddler start crawling again or sucking their thumb as a way of comfort.”

With older children, Varia said, “They may be misbehaving. They may be skipping school. They may not want to be separated from the parent that’s being abused. They may not be sleeping, either because they can’t fall asleep because of the violence that’s happening, or because they are so worried about the violence that may happen, which then in school, translates to maybe falling asleep in school or not being able to concentrate.”

In addition to watching out for children, Varia offered advice for assisting partners who are being abused.

“If you’re worried about somebody, I know that a lot of times, our first gut reaction is to say, ‘Leave the relationship.’ However, unfortunately, the most dangerous time for a victim is when they do try to leave, because domestic violence is all about power and control, and at that point, the abuser feels that they’re losing that power and control. So the violence might escalate.”

Varia said all the services that are offered through the are free to residents. Anyone can walk in and calls are taken between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

In cases where residents need help outside those hours, Varia said people can call 911 or the county’s 24-hour crisis line at 240-777-4000.

Below are domestic violence resources for other counties in the D.C. region.聽

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The events will commemorate the date 鈥� April 16, 1862 鈥� when President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act.

The law abolished slavery in the District. But as the name suggests, it also compensated slave owners for freeing the people they held in bondage.

As a result of the act, Emancipation Act, more than 3,000 formerly enslaved residents of D.C. were freed.

Lincoln went on to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing more enslaved people 鈥� but only those in states that had seceded from the Union.

Years before Lincoln acted, there were efforts to abolish slavery in the District. The says in April 1848, abolitionists William Chaplin and Daniel Drayton hired Edward Sayres, the captain of the Pearl schooner, to carry out an escape plan for 77 enslaved men, women and children.

The three had joined with three freed Black men 鈥� Daniel Bell, Samuel Edmonson, and Paul Jennings 鈥� who are credited with coming up with the plan to bring the large group to freedom by sailing down the Potomac into the Chesapeake Bay, and ultimately north.

While the 77 people were able to slip out of their homes to the schooner moored at what is now D.C’. s Wharf, weather, and by at least one historical account, human actions, would scuttle the plan.

Judlyne Lilly-Gibson, a playwright 鈥� and a former news anchor at 海角社区app 鈥� wrote a play, “The Pearl” that told the story of the ill-fated escape. The play was staged at DC’s Source Theatre in 1992.

Lilly-Gibson drew on historical accounts of a Black freedman, Judson Diggs, being pushed by furious slave owners to tell them where the fugitives were headed.

Lilly-Gibson went to every performance, and she said the moment Diggs gives up the escapee’s plans drew the same reaction, without fail.

“The audience just went ‘Ugh!’ You know, they were so upset.” Lilly-Gibson said.

The Pearl made it as far as Point Lookout in Southern Maryland before a ship carrying a posse bent on capturing the escapees overtook the fleeing vessel.

The enslaved people were captured and returned to the District. They were shackled and paraded through the streets of D.C.

Days of rioting followed, with abolitionists attacked for their opposition to slavery, and many of the escapees people placed back in bondage and sold to plantations in the South.

Abolitionists tried to buy the freedom of some of the original 77 escapees, among them Ellen Stewart, who is described by the White House Historical Association as a teenager and one of former first lady Dolley Madison’s slaves.

Lilly-Gibson said reading the histories of the enslaved people and telling the story of freedom snatched away from the passengers on the Pearl provided plenty of gut punches.

“I was like, oh my God, this is horrible,” she said.

After researching the play, Lilly-Gibson said she looked at D.C.’s landmarks differently.

For example, the figure on top of the U.S. Capitol included the labor of Paul Reid, an enslaved man whose training as an artisan was cited in the casting and mounting of the statue.

“Her name is Freedom. That’s the irony,” Lilly-Gibson said.

While those stories may seem long ago and far away, the days of slavery are just a few generations old. Lilly-Gibson’s grandmother was born in the 1880s.

“Her parents were slaves, and she would tell me stories about, you know, what life was like for them,” she said.

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