Around Maryland

The Maryland Supreme Court agreed Thursday that the Baltimore Police Department’s refusal to waive a $245,000 fee for public records of investigations into officers’ use of force was “arbitrary and capricious” and ignored the public’s interest in the files. The unanimous decision is the first time the state’s top court has weighed in on the denial of a public record fee waiver.

Should cameras be placed in special education classrooms? That’s what members of the Board of Education in Frederick County, Maryland, are looking into. Not everyone is on board. According to a recent survey presented by Frederick County Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Mike Markoe, some teachers stated that they don’t think a policy adding cameras to classrooms is the right thing to do.

Some Baltimore schools will change schedules next week amid hot temperatures in the weather forecast, district officials announced Thursday. After the Labor Day holiday on Monday, the district is adjusting schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday for schools that do not have air conditioning.

The Baltimore Police Department claimed “every effort was made to collect any items of evidentiary value” in the 100-page postmortem on the Brooklyn Homes mass shooting. But forensic crime scene experts have said otherwise. Earlier this summer, The Baltimore Banner spoke with several experts who denounced BPD throwing out copious amounts of trash from the crime scene, claiming it resulted in the destruction of DNA evidence that could have been pivotal to a case where police have made little progress identifying and arresting suspects.

When Da’Quane Gilliam started thinking about dropping out of high school in 2019, Roger Shaw of the Baltimore City Public School System started showing up at his house to try to change his mind. The two first met when Shaw saw Gilliam walking across the street from Patterson High after school. Shaw had heard from teachers that he should keep an eye on the teenage ninth grader. Talking on the street that day, Gilliam told Shaw that school wasn’t for him. Shaw replied that he wasn’t going to give up.

Hours after the release of a much-anticipated, scathing probe into this summer’s mass shooting at Brooklyn Homes, Mayor Brandon Scott, public safety and housing officials admitted a series of failings across agencies that left the city unprepared for the gunfire that scattered a block party at the beginning of July.

Caryn York is returning home to lead Baltimore Corps, a social justice and innovation hub, as its next president and CEO. Co-founded by now-Gov. Wes Moore and Fagan Harris, the organization is nearing its 10th anniversary of placing adults and youth in full-time jobs. York, a Baltimore native, succeeds Harris, who became chief of staff to Gov. Wes Moore earlier this year.