Around Maryland

When parents of Carroll Manor Elementary School learned their kids could be redistricted to a different middle school — one they said would split up their community in northeastern Baltimore County — they took action. They organized and created a website, shirts and signs to make clear that sending their children to Pine Grove Middle School in Carney was a nonstarter. They wanted their children to go to middle school with students from Jacksonville Elementary, feeding into Cockeysville or Ridgely middle.

In a closed work session Tuesday, the mayor and City Council reportedly received legal advice for the Rolling Mill project. Under the Maryland Open Meetings Act, government officials may close a meeting according to certain statutory exceptions, such as to gain expertise from their lawyer, in which case the reason that permits the private session must be disclosed to the public.

Two years after becoming sober, Westminster resident Kirstin Haga now helps others deal with the effects of substance abuse. “I never would have believed that’s where I would be,” said Haga, 29, a medical office coordinator at Nimel Mental Health, which serves clients throughout the Baltimore-Washington region. “But I relate to it. … It’s not just a job.” On Thursday, Haga and eight classmates officially graduated from Carroll County’s Adult Drug Treatment Court in a ceremony at Carroll Community College in Westminster.

A federal grand jury indicted Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, 66, of Thurmont, and Robert Justin Krop, 36, of Frederick on Wednesday on charges of conspiring and making false statements to illegally acquire machine guns. The Frederick News-Post consulted a firearms attorney and reviewed firearms laws to more closely examine the charges against Jenkins and Krop.

For 50 years, the Worcester County Developmental Center (WCDC) has helped local people with intellectual disabilities find meaningful employment, gain independence, and increase their self-worth. WCDC’s headquarters is in Newark, and the center also operates seven group homes in Ocean Pines. Executive Director Jack Ferry is an Ocean Pines homeowner. Ferry said the center first opened in September 1973.

Reading the long-awaited report detailing 80 years of child sexual abuse throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, as well as the impending news cycle, can bring mixed, complex feelings to victims reliving their trauma. But with preparation, the catharsis can outweigh the pain, victims’ advocates and survivors say.The report released Wednesday is nearly 500 pages long and tells how 158 clergy sexually abused and tortured more than 600 children and young adults, as  well as how the church covered it up and protected abusers.

A Harford County teacher is not disqualified from serving on the County Council because of his teaching job.  The Maryland Supreme Court, in a four-page order, overturned a lower court decision and ordered the Harford County Circuit Court to enter a judgment that will allow Jacob Bennett to serve on the council while also employed as a teacher in the Harford County Public Schools system.