Around Maryland

During the weeks that Poolesville High School has been under construction, several students have reported nausea, headaches and difficulty concentrating. The students and their parents say the symptoms started in February and are a reaction to fumes being emitted from tar used in renovations. They have asked Montgomery County school officials to pause the work until students’ health concerns are addressed.

From now until the end of April, the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Animal Services Facility and Adoption Center will waive all adoption fees for dogs and cats. It’s all thanks to $50,000 grant from Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit organization with a focus on animal welfare by providing resources to shelters across the country. Marlan Roberts, senior manager of operations at Best Friends, said the surrender rates are increasing at the shelter, and waving the fee was an incentive to get people’s attention.

During the first of two town hall-style meetings Monday, Carroll County Public Schools Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said staff will discuss updated class size estimates based on CCPS budgetary constraints related to implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. In February Board of Education President Marsha Herbert hinted at big changes in how county schools will operate as a result of the Blueprint.

The Allegany County Board of Education approved a $128 million budget Tuesday that will be presented to Allegany County officials for review next week.
School board members approved the budget by unanimous vote at their regular meeting at the Central Office on Washington Street. Larry McKenzie, chief financial officer for Allegany County Public Schools, said “the superintendent’s budget is 1.2% less than last year’s budget.”

A delegation of five Ukrainian doctors visited Baltimore Thursday. As the war in Ukraine rages on, so do the injuries to soldiers and civilians. The doctors hope to learn from trauma experts here so they can modernize care in their country. Dr. Kritis Dasgupta from Good Samaritan Hospital is grateful for the opportunity.

The director of the Baltimore County Department of Correction has responded to the Office of the Public Defender’s Juvenile Protection Division concerns about conditions for young inmates at the Baltimore County Detention Center. Last Monday, March 6th, the Office of the Public Defender sent a letter to BCDC, saying it “fails to comply with the mandates prescribed under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Act (JJDPA) Sight and Sound Separation requirement, Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act.”

Jadet Charriez said he came from a place of drugs and violence. As a child, many of his basic needs, like clothes, food and water, were not met. He remembered getting bags of food for the weekend in elementary and middle school from the group Blessings in Backpack, so he would have something to eat. As he got older, he said, he started selling drugs to financially support his family, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Overall crime in Maryland steadily declined between 2010 and 2020, according to data from Maryland’s Open Data portal and yearly Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), a compilation of crime statistics from Maryland police departments. Yet homicides increased in that same period. Homicides in the state rose to a ten-year high of 573 in 2020, a nearly 35% increase from 2010. The largest year-to-year increase occurred in 2015 when homicides rose to 553, a 52% increase from the previous year.

Charles County Public Schools in Maryland will join a growing number of D.C. area public schools with advanced gun detection technology. Weeks after a number of Virginia schools detailed security screeners that could be coming to schools in Prince William and Alexandria City Public Schools, the Maryland school system announced plans to incorporate artificial intelligence “visual gun detection technology” into their schools.