A Howard County jury also found Weems guilty of using a handgun in the commission of a crime in the violent fatal shooting that was committed “over nothing,” according to Rich Gibson from the State’s Attorneys Office for Howard County...
https://www.mymcmedia.org/man-accused-of-fatally-shooting-richard-montgomery-student-found-guilty/
The mother of a 16-year-old boy who was shot and seriously injured in January at Col. Zadok Magruder High School says he was on life support for three weeks following the incident, and will soon have his 10th surgery.
Authorities allege a 17-year-old boy shot the victim, who was then 15, just before 1 p.m. Jan. 21 in a restroom at the Derwood school. Prosecutors have said the suspect purchased and assembled a privately made firearm, or ghost gun, online, then brought the loaded gun to school knowing that there would be a confrontation...
The Northern Virginia high school will operate on a “modified return” amid the ongoing investigation into a stabbing that killed a student last week.
Those expected to come back in person on Tuesday include:..
According to the Montgomery County Police, the threat has been investigated and documented. Detectives believe there is no credible danger posed to the community and disciplinary action will be handled by Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)...
A modified return to school for @ACHSTitans after the fatal stabbing of a senior last week. Most students will remain home with online schoolwork as @PrincipalTitan says “This year has been far from normal. And, it is important that we do not try to normalize it.” @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/z6yo1oGJG8
— Melanie Alnwick (@fox5melanie) May 31, 2022
On Thursday, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge David Boynton issued his final ruling in the felony case lodged against Steven Alston Jr., 17, of Gaithersburg...
#BREAKING A Montgomery County Circuit Court just ruled Steven Alston Jr.’s case will remain in adult court. Alston is the 17yo suspect charged in the shooting of another student at @MagruderHS in January. @fox5dc https://t.co/HsnUiuWY8X
— Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) May 26, 2022
A group of citizen scientists will soon find out.
Montgomery County is undertaking a project to map out various temperatures of its neighborhoods as a part of a national effort to keep track of heat inequities and find solutions for the county’s urban heat islands...
With the country in the midst of a surge, every day counts. Each EUA application for children under 5 should be considered on its own merits and accorded the urgency of prior EUA submissions for every other age cohort. Every day the review process is delayed means that more children will be infected and put at risk. Furthermore, for many children, Moderna’s two dose regimen may be the only chance they will have to start a new school year fully vaccinated. The FDA must review Moderna’s data, and if proven to be safe and effective, approve without delay. And when Pfizer’s application is ready to submit, review that data urgently as well.
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Protect Their Future is a grassroots group of physicians, parents, and activists advocating to prioritize children in public health policy and have access to COVID-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages on. The organization is calling on health leaders to PUT KIDS FIRST and allow parents and doctors the option to protect children with a safe and effective vaccine.
https://www.protecttheirfuture.org/fda-delay-for-moderna-review
As the global community has raced to understand the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have arisen about how the virus is carried in aerosols, exposure risk in indoor and outdoor environments, how the changes in seasons or climate conditions might affect transmission, and how exposure to air pollution might affect mortality from the virus. This webinar will feature recent atmospheric, climate, and epidemiological research that is contributing to our understanding of the virus transmission, as well as a discussion of how agencies across the federal government are building upon existing efforts to address linkages between environmental conditions and health to understand the pandemic...
More than 2,910 cases have been reported amongst students and staff in the past 10 days, according to MCPS data. So far in May, 12,027 students have quarantined — the second-highest number of quarantined students recorded this academic year, behind the January total of 15,191.
The surge has prompted one school, Sherwood Elementary School, to reinstate its mask requirement after more than 63 students and staff tested positive in recent days — making up over 11% of the school’s population. It’s the highest percentage of COVID cases of any school in the system. MCPS had lifted its mask mandate back in March.
According to the Bethesda Beat, MCPS alerted parents and families last week that classrooms with three or more positive cases in the past 10 days may be asked to resume masking...
https://dcist.com/story/22/05/18/montgomery-county-schools-covid-spike/
Now, at 16, she is leading a class-action lawsuit against an app that has become a mainstay of American teen life — claiming its designers have done almost nothing to prevent the sexual exploitation of girls like her...
Education affects everyone whether you have school age children or not. Be an INFORMED voter to make your choices.
The following offices are up for election in the July 19th Primary Election and these candidates will appear on the ballot:
#BREAKING @mcpnews CONFIRMS for @fox5dc they made an arrest in the murder of Northwest High School student Jai’lyn Jones. His mother posted to Instagram saying DNA does not lie. We will have more soon. https://t.co/B8Yy5EywH5
— Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) May 16, 2022
Silence from the MCPS/Montgomery County Board of Education COVID-19 Advisory Team as Montgomery County Public Schools are in another COVID-19 surge. No advice, no guidance, no updates, no information whatsoever from this super secret advisory team.
But one member of the team took to Twitter to Tweet advice:
Bowen Levy’s parents filed a federal suit against the school system last year, saying its negligence is responsible for their son’s November 2019 death. The family said Bowen had a compulsive condition that caused him to swallow and eat nonfood items.
“Bowen’s death has had an enormous impact on many, but nowhere has that impact been more massive than on his beloved family. We recognize that nothing that occurs from here forward will ever fill the void in their lives,” AACPS said in a statement...
The first thing you notice walking the halls of Holabird Academy is the windows.
A grid above the entryway floods the main corridor with cool light, and classrooms boast nearly floor-to-ceiling views of the surrounding Baltimore neighborhood.
What you won’t notice — what anyone rarely notices in any building — is the air quality.
A state-of-the-art HVAC system hums on the top floor of this gleaming new elementary school, sucking in fresh air that’s run through filters capable of trapping air pollution. Before it reaches classrooms, the air is conditioned and passes through filters fine enough to catch virus-laden particles. Each classroom has a carbon dioxide detector that signals when fresh air is needed, delivering up to eight total air changes per hour...
The Maryland State Board of Education recently changed its graduation requirement for health education. Students must now earn one full credit for graduation; previously, they earned one half-credit. This requirement begins with the Class of 2025. The health education curriculum team in the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Schools is developing a new Health Education B class that all students will take following Health Education A.
The Health Education B course will provide students time to develop health literacy skills, such as decision-making, self-management and advocacy. The course will also delve into health concepts, including mental and emotional health, substance abuse prevention, safety and violence prevention, and disease prevention and control.
Health Education A and Health Education B will be offered as honors-level courses in all high schools. There will no longer be on-level versions of these courses.
Students, including rising ninth grade students, may take Health A in summer school this summer. Health B will be available in the fall of 2022. MCPS health teachers will receive training on the new course this summer.
Online Education Health B will be available through MCPS Student e-Learning outside the school day, in the fall of 2023, and as a central summer school course in the summer of 2024. High schools may offer Health B as part of their local summer school program beginning in summer 2023.
OVERVIEW Many countries have prioritized schools in their COVID-19 pandemic recovery plans, including providing funding to support costs associated with reopening safely. These resources represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity for health-based improvements to school buildings, such as improving indoor air quality (IAQ), which can reduce the risk of airborne infectious disease transmission as well as benefit health and academic performance. Unfortunately, there are reports of schools spending millions of dollars on unproven or largely ineffective air cleaning technologies like ionizers and other measures such as surface disinfection supplies.1-5
School infrastructure has been chronically underfunded, and schools may never see another influx of monies like this. Therefore, it is imperative that pandemic relief for schools be applied to enhancements that are evidence-based, provide longterm value, and do not create additional pollutants that may be harmful to the health of students, teachers, and staff. In this report, we provide a brief overview of the science on ventilation and air cleaning in schools, and then provide a guide on how to direct resources toward building-level public health interventions in school buildings that are best supported by scientific evidence to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission and promote long-term health and academic performance.
Montgomery County Public SchoolsPre-Bid Attendees - RFI 4916 by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd
Previous weekly reports at this link.
Beverly Farms Elementary School Montgomery 4 5/11/2022
Bullis School Montgomery 4 5/11/2022
Rosa M. Parks Middle School Montgomery 43 5/11/2022
St. Andrew's Episcopal School Montgomery 41 5/11/2022
St. Raphael's School Montgomery 7 5/11/2022
Takoma Park Middle School Montgomery 4 5/11/2022
Twinbrook Elementary School Montgomery 5 5/11/2022
Schools listed meet 1 or more of the following criteria:
Classroom/cohort outbreak definition:
1) At least two confirmed COVID-19 cases among students/teachers/staff within a 14-day period and who are epidemiologically linked, but not household contacts; or
School-wide outbreak definition:
2) Three or more classrooms or cohorts with cases from separate households that meet the classroom/cohort outbreak definition that occurs within 14 days; or
3) Five percent or more unrelated students/teachers/staff have confirmed COVID-19 within a 14 day period (minimum of 10 unrelated students/teachers/staff).
Cases reported reflect the current total number of cases. Schools are removed from the list when health officials determine 14 days have passed with no new cases and no tests pending. Archival data is available through the COVID-19 open data catalogue.
These data are updated weekly on Wednesdays during the 10 a.m. hour. MDH is continuously evaluating its data and reporting systems and will make updates as more data becomes available.
Christian Okalebo speaks English and Luganda but not Spanish, which is spoken half the day at Brown Station Elementary School. His parents asked to have him enrolled at the nearby Diamond Elementary School...
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At around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, police responded to a call of a shooting, according to a news release...
Parents now have to pay if they want to know what is in the new health education curriculum.
Parent X (who asked that we not publish his name) submitted a Maryland Public Information Act request to MCPS seeking "the new MSDE high school health A and B curriculum content."
In response, MCPS provided links to documents that don't fulfill his request, but suggested that he could view the curriculum material for a fee of $250 to $5000.
The vaccine company submitted its request for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize its vaccine for children ages 6 months to 6 years old. Right now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends children 5 and older get vaccinated...
The PIA Compliance Board will meet by videoconference on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. to discuss public comments on the regulatory proposal published on March 25, 2022, and other business. To observe this open meeting, click the Microsoft Teams link is below. The agenda is available HERE. For additional information about this open meeting of the Board, or to have an agenda emailed to you when available, please contact Spencer Dove, Administrative Officer, at sdove@oag.state.md.us, or call (410) 576- 6560. Thank you.
Instructions on how to join videoconference open meeting of the Board.
Join on your computer or mobile app Click here to join the meeting
Or call in (audio only) +1 443-529-0364,,776628277# United States, Baltimore
Phone Conference ID: 776 628 277#
If you have trouble joining by video or audio on the day of the meeting, please call (410) 576-6560, or email piaopengov@oag.state.md.us.
https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/Pages/OpenGov/piacb.aspx
Establish a COVID-19 operations advisory committee
The committee will comprise MCPS staff and students, representatives from the employee associations, MCCPTA and community organizations. We will request a DHHS representative to also serve on the committee. Committee feedback will help guide the district’s work in responding to COVID-19 throughout the year.
But what happened to the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Committee? First, they were renamed the Team instead of Committee to allow for the cool acronym of COAT.
COAT began meeting on Thursdays with the first meeting on October 7, 2021.
Then what happened? Nothing.
COAT has never issued any reports, they have never presented to the Board of Education, they have never been heard from ever. Further, Board of Education President Brenda Wolff disavowed interest in COAT.
What we now know is that as soon as COAT began meeting attendees were told that meetings were CONFIDENTIAL.
Apparently the COVID-19 Pandemic is a secret that MCPS administrators and the Board of Education think can be hidden from teachers, staff, students and parents.
The Parents' Coalition has obtained the list of COAT members. 50 members are adults and 6 are students.
27 members of COAT are MCPS employees
10 members are from groups outside MCPS, but with MCPS connections (MCCPTA/PTA etc...)
8 members are from Montgomery County Government
5 members are labeled as medical related
6 members are students - student names are not listed
Meet the Team that isn't telling you what they are doing or recommending during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
Lisa Adkins MCPS
Nicole Allain MCPS
Aggie Alvez MCPS
Kea Anderson
Olivia Bailey MCPS
Gary Bartee MCPS
James Bridgers
Nicole Brown
Anita Chan MCPS
Kate Chance
Wylea Chase
Sonya Chawla Medical - internal medicine
Chris Cram MCPS
Jimmy D'Andrea MCPS
Val DaSilva MCPS
Jeanie Dawson MCPS
Ashwin Dharmadhikari
Robbie Dodd MCPS
Heather Dublinske MCPS
Dana Edwards MCPS
Shawn Ellis
Jane Ennis MCPS
Linda Ferrell MCPS
Joanie Glick
Nina Hagan MCPS
Darlene Harris MCPS
Christi Hay Medical - Pediatrics
Mark Hodge
Stephanie Iszard MCPS
Henrietta Jenkins MCPS
Byron Johns
John Landesman MCPS
Jenny Lazo
Michael Lewis MCPS
Sean O’Donnell
Jackie Quan
Dourakine Rosarion
Claire Rosche Matzzie
Oriole Saah MCPS
Mariana Serrani
Stephanie Sheron MCPS
Cynthia Simonson
Jeff Sullivan MCPS
Crystal Townsend Medical - Healthcare
Melanie Travers MCPS
Prabha Viswanathan Reddy Medical - Pediatrics
Diane Vu
Travis Wiebe MCPS
Kathleen Williams Medical - Healthy Communities
Julie Yang MCPS
