Around Maryland

Earlier this year, a youth at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center was assaulted by several other kids: kicked in the face and head multiple times, and hit with a trash can and hygiene container as he was lying defenseless on the floor. Meanwhile, staff at the facility were delayed in responding to the assault because they were initially provided with the wrong unit location. The targeted youth was transported to the hospital to treat extensive injuries to his face and eye, as well as missing teeth.

Maryland and Virginia are two of the best places to be a teacher while D.C. is one of the worst, according to a new report. WalletHub ranked Virginia as the third best state for teachers in the nation, with Maryland not far behind in ninth place. In contrast, the District ranked 49th out of 51 total entries. The report looked at two main categories to determine its rankings: “Opportunity & Competition” as well as “Academic & Work Environment.”

Red Cross crews from Maryland are en route to Florida to provide help as Hurricane Ian nears. The Red Cross said it's working night and day to set up the relief operation and ensure tens of thousands of people in the potential path of this storm have access to emergency shelter. Water, cots and food join pallets upon pallets of blankets as part of a shipment of emergency supplies that are crucial to the Red Cross response in Florida. "The Red Cross is staging people and supplies in preparation of potentially housing up to 30,000 people," said Misty Bruce, executive director of the Red Cross Central Maryland Chapter.

Responding to Maryland’s water woes, the Environmental Protection Agency will make $144 million in funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill available to the state for improvements to drinking water systems and wastewater management. The funding includes $76 million being made available now to the Maryland Department of the Environment for distribution to cities and other local municipalities after an outbreak of E. coli contamination earlier this month in Baltimore’s drinking water and what state environmental regulators have called catastrophic failures at the city’s two wastewater treatment plants.

A hum of soothing voices filled a conference room at Baltimore City Public School’s headquarters Sunday afternoon. The murmurs rose from six volunteers who cradled phones on their shoulders as they dialed number after number, trying to reach more than 1,300 families of students who have missed school this year. The Super Outreach Sunday phone bank is a push by district employees to get in touch with students who have 10 or more unexcused absences or have yet to attend school since it started four weeks ago Although Sunday’s phone bank is a first for the district, Baltimore City Public Schools use multiple methods to reach absent students daily.

Silver Spring resident Brian Savoie began setting aside money for his son’s college tuition nearly 20 years ago, when his first-born, Caleb, entered kindergarten. Now, facing a fall semester tuition payment, the Savoie family cannot access all of the money in their account due to a glitch in one of Maryland’s tuition savings programs. Administrators of the Maryland Prepaid College Trust acknowledge the problem. They say that during a switch-over to a new vendor, an audit raised concerns as to whether interest earnings were being calculated accurately. That led to the interest portion of accounts like the Savoies’ to be frozen.