Around Maryland

A federal appeals court threw out a Maryland case challenging guidelines that allow schools to create support plans for transgender or gender-nonconforming students and do not require the knowledge or consent of the students’ parents. The decision Monday by the majority in a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit did not address the merits of guidelines written by Montgomery County Public Schools. Instead, it said the parents in the case lacked standing. The judges sent the case back to district court to be dismissed.

Montgomery County Public Schools has retained Baltimore law firm Jackson Lewis to look into “significant allegations of harassment and bullying involving one of our principals,” it said in a statement Monday, referring to allegations involving Joel Beidleman, the former Farquhar Middle School principal accused in a Washington Post report Friday of a years-long pattern of sexual harassment.

D.C. has a lot to offer. Great dining, history, museums and attractions. But when it comes to ground level ozone, the city scores and F with the American Lung Association. The association ranked several parts of the DMV with several regions receiving poor scores. The American Lung Association’s 2023 State of the Air report based the failing score on factors such as the number of days with code orange ozone levels.

Commuters exiting the Jones Falls Expressway are bound to notice a dramatic change in traffic patterns after crews last week added turn lanes at 28th Street and are funneling traffic into one lane heading east. The change is the first of many as the Baltimore Department of Transportation begins a project along 28th Street between Sisson Street and Maryland Avenue aimed at addressing safety concerns for pedestrians and excessive speeds along the thoroughfare that runs through the Remington neighborhood.

CLLCTIVLY, a social change organization committed to supporting Black-led organizations, raised $1,125,707 in 24 hours during its fifth annual day of giving, CLLCTIVGIVE. The program launched during Black Philanthropy Month on Aug. 4. It included a fundraising platform connecting donors and Black-led groups, a speaker series, an awards ceremony and the launch of the Solidarity Awards in conjunction with the Elbow Fund.

Marylanders are among hundreds of volunteers on the mainland who are headed to Hawaii to assist with relief efforts after wildfires. American Red Cross officials told 11 News it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation, but they’re not estimating yet how long they’ll be on the ground for in Maui and across the islands, saying they’ll be there as long as they’re needed. “Our sympathies go out to everyone in Hawaii who are affected by one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in 100 years,” said Stephanie Babyak, with the American Red Cross National Capital and Chesapeake Region.

For 90 seconds that must have felt like an eternity, a young woman implored a 911 dispatcher to rush an ambulance to Brooklyn Homes. “Somebody was shooting, there was like 60 shots let off,” she pleaded as the dispatcher implored her to give a specific street address. “I need an ambulance right now. Can you please hurry up?” That’s when another volley of shots — it seems like dozens more — can be heard.

There is a special kind of stress in finding and paying for day care for your children. Then there is the terror of leaving your child for the first time. But what’s the emotion when you’re told the center you’ve come to rely on shuts its doors? Shock, frustration and sadness, said parents picking up their children on July 28 from the Baltimore Montessori preschool in Locust Point, after they were notified by state education officials that the center’s license was suspended.