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Ten Dead after Multiple Drug Overdoses in Northeast
The Metropolitan Police Department reported on April 12 that 10 people have died since April 9 from drug overdoses. Seven others required emergency medical assistance after overdosing on the same “bad batch” of drugs distributed in the Ivy City and Trinidad neighborhoods in Northeast.
A spokesperson for D.C. Police confirmed that all of the fatal cases were caused by cocaine that was mixed with fentanyl. Police said naloxone was used on several of the overdose victims which helped to save their lives. The most recent over-
Three former Minneapolis police officers charged with the murder of George Floyd have rejected a plea deal offered by prosecutors. Former officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng face state charges of aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder. A federal jury convicted the trio of violating Floyd’s civil rights earlier this year.
Derek Chauvin, the officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, accepted a federal plea deal in January after state prosecutors won a murder conviction against him last year.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill held a hearing on April 12 to consider a request to allow live video of the upcoming federal trial for the three officers. While details of the plea offer were not disclosed, prosecutor Matthew Frank told the court that each officer was extended the same deal. However, each rejected the offer, Frank said.
Earl Gray, who represents Lane, said it was difficult for his client to cut a deal with federal prosecutors because he hasn’t been sentenced in the federal case. The judge, in that case, has yet to set a sentencing date. Each of the officers remains free on bail pending sentencing. The officers face life in prison following their conviction.
“Nothing will bring George Floyd back to his loved ones but with [the guilty] verdicts, we hope that the ignorance and indifference toward human life shown by these officers will be erased from our nation’s police departments, so no other family has to experience a loss like this,” Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump stated following the jury verdict in the federal trial.
“The Floyd family will have to relive the traumatic disregard for George’s life once again in June when these officers will stand trial in state court. We hope, and we expect, that these officers will once again be held accountable for their lack of humanity,” he said. WI dose deaths harken back to another string of overdose deaths reported in D.C. this year.
On Jan. 28, MPD reported 14 overdoses resulting in nine deaths. The January overdoses were clustered in a Southwest Waterfront neighborhood.
A joint investigation by MPD, the DEA and the FBI determined that a mixture of Fentanyl and cocaine caused those deaths. Two adults have been arrested and are facing drug charges in those cases.
Those who recently died ranged in age from their mid-30s to 60, according to police. WI
Officers in Death of George Floyd Reject Plea Deal At Least 29 Injured in NYC Subway Shooting
At least 29 people were shot or otherwise injured after a lone gunman in a reflective vest and a gas mask threw smoke bombs on a subway car in Brooklyn and began shooting Tuesday morning, April 12. A manhunt remains underway as details continue to emerge in this developing situation and the NYPD has reportedly discovered a U-Haul truck with Arizona license plates in connection with the shooting. Police say the shooting happened on a Manhattan bound N train making express stops just before 8:30 a.m. and that the suspect was seen mumbling to himself before donning the gas mask and removing a canister from a bag before the car began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire with a handgun, striking several people on the train and on the platform at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park. Shell casings were recovered on the train and on the platform along with a handgun that had three extended round magazines. One in the gun jammed, which is believed to have saved lives. While the cameras in the station were inoperable, law enforcement officials were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander's cell phone video. No arrests have been made but NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who remains under quarantine due to his COVID diagnosis, released a video statement. “We're praying for all New Yorkers who were injured or affected by today's attack,” he said. “So far, we know that we have a multiple number of injuries, including victims of gunshot wounds . . . We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized even by a single individual. The NYPD is searching for the suspect at large, and we will find him.” Officials confirmed 10 of the victims, who range in age from 17 to 50, were shot, and five are listed in critical but stable condition. None of the injuries are considered life threatening. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the suspect “cold hearted and depraved” and warned that he remains on the loose and dangerous. WI THE WASHINGTON INFORMER / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM
District Public Schools Continue to Face Difficult Budget Quandaries
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Each year, public school principals in the District craft the budget for the next school year in collaboration with a group of parents, teachers and staff members known as the Local School Advisory Team [LSAT].
The process, which often takes place over the course of two weeks, often reveals the limitations of one-time funding sources and an enrollment-based budget model that LSAT members described as not considerate of students’ socioemotional needs, mid-year enrollment bumps, inflation and increases in teacher union personnel fees.
In regards to student enrollment, some LSAT members said DCPS’ enrollment projections don’t take into account how many families kept students home at the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year. That’s why, at one Southeast-based middle school, LSAT members grappled with how best to prepare for the anticipated enrollment increase that would most likely happen in October and in the spring as students incrementally return to their neighborhood school.
An LSAT member who requested anonymity said that, in order to hire more core-subject area teachers and keep class sizes below 25 students, their principal triggered the transfer of a special education coordinator to another school. They did the same for Teacher Leadership Innovation staff members.
The budget for the 2022-2023 academic year also reduces Spanish, music and dance instructor roles to part-time while some staff members, in addition to their primary roles, will have to serve as intervention specialists and instructional coaches.
This happens at a school where nearly 90 percent of the student population has been designated as behind grade level and in need of
5 Theodora Brown, co-chair of McKinley Technology High School’s Local School Advisory Team. (Courtesy photo) intervention services.
“The central office wants us to implement these restorative practices and not have students suspended from school but they don’t give us money to staff those positions,” the LSAT member said. “We have to be super creative in dividing up positions to be able to do that. You need to make judgment calls about what students need, but the budget doesn’t serve those types of students.”
SOME LSATS ARE AT ODDS WITH PRINCIPALS, DCPS CENTRAL OFFICE
DCPS receives local dollars, federal grants and other funds that get disseminated throughout the public and public charter schools. Earlier this year, D.C. Mayor Bowser (D) announced an increase in per-pupil funding of 5.9 percent, or $2.1 billion.
Officials in DCPS’ central office also said the Fiscal Year 2023 budget ensures that public schools don’t receive less than had been allocated to them in years past.
In DCPS’ budget model, the amount allocated to each school depends heavily on enrollment projections. Other factors include the composition of the student population, including special education students and those designated as at-risk and English language learners. Once principals receive their budget allocation, they collaborate with LSAT members to determine how to craft a budget that best meets students’ needs and fulfill their obligations to the DCPS central office.
For the last few years, LSAT members at McKinley Technology High School [MTHS] in Northeast initially found it difficult to engage the budget development process, due to what they described as their principal’s limited availability and DCPS’ penchant for releasing budget allocations late and requesting documents within a short timeframe.
In recounting the events of this budget season, MTHS LSAT CoChair Theodora Brown said team members met with the principal one time during the planning process because of scheduling challenges brought on by the principal’s retirement. They only had a few days, including the weekend of President’s Day, to determine how MTHS spent this year’s school budget and use that information, along with what MTHS LSAT members requested, to make recommendations.
Brown said it remains to be determined if the MTHS LSAT’s recommendations have been infused in MTHS’ budget.
While MTHS doesn’t stand to lose any staff positions next school year, LSAT members still have questions about how Title 1 funds have been allocated. Similar questions have been raised about funding designated for students’ socioemotional supports. Concerns also center on how to mitigate classroom overcrowding and ensure quality instruction.
“We don’t always have access to the data to make the best decisions as an LSAT,” said Brown, a Ward 5 resident and mother of an MTHS alumnus.
“Over the last five years, we’ve managed to work with a principal who initially resisted parental involvement in the budget development process,” Brown added.
“I believed then that she did not take the deliberations of the MTHS LSAT seriously. At the end of the day, it became a guessing game when she’s not providing data to support her positions.” BUDGET Page 9
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APRIL 14 - 20, 2022
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APRIL 14
1775 – The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first American abolition society, is founded in Philadelphia.
APRIL 15
1889 – Social and civil activist A. Philip Randolph, who organized and led the first predominantly Black labor union, is born in Crescent City, Florida. 1896 – Booker T. Washington receives an honorary degree from Harvard University. 1915 – Walter Washington, the first mayor of Washington, D.C., is born in Dawson, Georgia. 1926 – Norma Sklarek, the first Black woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States, is born in Harlem, New York.
APRIL 16
1862 – The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, or simply Compensated Emancipation Act, a law that ended slavery in D.C. by paying slave owners for releasing their slaves, is signed by President Abraham Lincoln.
APRIL 17
1983 – Alice Walker wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel "The Color Purple."
APRIL 18
1966 – Basketball great Bill Russell is named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the first African-American head coach in NBA history. 1977 – Author Alex Haley is awarded the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for his novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family."
APRIL 19
1837 – Cheyney University, one of the nation's oldest Black colleges, is founded in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. 1971 – Walter Fauntroy is sworn in as the first elected Congressional representative from the District of Columbia since Reconstruction. 1978 – Journalist Max Robinson is named as an anchor for ABC's "World News Tonight," becoming the first Black to anchor a network news broadcast.
APRIL 20
1853 – Harriet Tubman begins her work with the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South. 1971 – The Supreme Court rules that busing can be used to integrate schools. 1984 – Influential cabaret singer Mabel Mercer dies in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at 84. 1986 – Michael Jordan (below) sets the single-game playoff scoring record with 63 points in a double-overtime loss to the Boston Celtics. WI
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BY SARAFINA WRIGHT
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a 10-year ban to actor Will Smith for slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars last month. Do you agree with the punishment?
MARLENE DAVIS /
WASHINGTON D.C. It’s fair. But … the torture of regret is the real punishment.
MEKAH HILL /
WASHINGTON D.C. If they had a track record of punishing wrongdoing by everyone, then it would be fair. However, John Wayne, Roman Polanski and Woody Allen all received nothing. So until they start punishing everyone, the answer is no, it’s not fair.
SECY SYLL /
WASHINGTON D.C. Foul, because that punishment was a slap in the face. So whoopie, Will doesn’t have to buy another expressive tux to attend. He’ll have to watch it on TV like most of the common folks. He still can be awarded one, which makes no sense. Someone else will pick it up for him. There should be some kind of repercussion for that embarrassing debacle. Will and Jada should be fined and banned from being able to receive awards.
SHERON FRASER /
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA It was too excessive, heavy-handed, and out of step with a growing tolerance for verbal and physical aggression in the academy ecosystem of media. Also, Will Smith has never done anything worthy of censure. As a first-time offender, he should be given more grace.
Will for sure.
WINIFRED BROWN /
WASHINGTON D.C. Why do people act like he gets a pass for assault just because we love him so much? It was absolutely assault. People go to jail for assault. This is his jail sentence. I do believe he cares, and I do believe it will hinder some financial growth. It will affect his entire family. Prayers for
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Berryville Planning Commission Yields to Advocates’ Pleas; Votes to Halt Demolition
Seeks Additional Input on Historic Homes Owned by Formerly Enslaved Blacks
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Descendants of formerly enslaved Blacks advocated for more time and resources to preserve inherited homes during a Berryville Planning Commission public hearing held in March.
The Commission voted unanimously to seek input from the Berryville Architectural Review Board on “blight” abatement plans for the historic homes built in the late 1600s after emancipation in 1865.
The four log cabin homes are located on a 16-foot-wide road called Josephine Street in Berryville, Virginia. The road is named in honor of a formerly enslaved woman, Josephine Williams, who purchased two of the lots to build homes.
During segregation, the town served as an area where Blacks remained self-sufficient. They established a school, grocery store, gas station, boarding house, restaurant, cemetery, two churches and a Black-owned newspaper called “The People’s Journal.”
The properties located at 12 First Street and 112, 114, and 225 Josephine Street were classified as “blighted” and faced potential demolition due to the appearance of a structurally unsound porch, Architectural Review Board for input. The board makes recommendations to Berryville Town Council and Planning Commission on land-use issues, specifically related to preserving, protecting and enhancing historic architecture located in historic districts.
Josephine has been recognized as a national historic district. The Architectural Review Board will discuss the “blight abatement” plans on April 6.
During the recent public hearing, several community stakeholders spoke in favor of preserving the properties.
Berryville resident Jesse Russell, the descendant of an enslaver, assisted 112 Josephine Street homeowner Donna Richardson who submitted a letter from Bill Wine, an historic preservation specialist, who inspected the cabin’s exterior.
A few of the oak logs used in its construction have decayed over time, the letter showed, adding, “[but] all of the deteriorated logs observed can be repaired.”
Richardson, who drove eight hours roundtrip from Pennsylvania to attend the meeting, told the commission she will “make every effort” to restore the cabin.
Another locally-based archi-
5 Josephine City was established in the 1870’s after the Civil War ended in 1865. Ancestors, as in the woman pictured above, continue to fight for property held by the formerly enslaved. (Candace Dane Chambers/The Washington Informer) deteriorating sill beams and other structural elements, as well as boarded-up doors and windows and a missing gutter and downspout, according to a November 5, 2021 letter sent by Keith Dalton, Berryville town manager. The homeowners received notice that they had until July 1, 2022, to eliminate the blight. If the owners didn’t make the repairs within the timeline, the properties faced demolition and descendants would be billed $10,000 for each demolished house.
Descendants of the homeowners have relocated to nearby states but they drive the distance to make repairs to the unoccupied properties. Despite the commute to the town of Berryville to attend public hearings and repair homes, many continue to advocate for the preservation and restoration of the properties in hopes of preventing them from being demolished.
About 40 families still live on Josephine Street in modest bungalows.
Those efforts proved successful after the Berryville Planning Commission public hearing last month. The commission, which makes recommendations to Berryville Town Council and Planning Commission on land-use matters, has decided to ask the Berryville BERRYVILLE Page 39
BUDGET from Page 5
COMMUNITY MEMBERS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT FUNDING SOURCES, INFLATION
Parents who enroll their young ones in Key Elementary School in Northwest espouse their love for public education and Key Elementary’s ability to tend to the needs of all students, especially amid a pandemic that has exacerbated learning loss.
That’s why, since receiving the FY 2022-2023 budget allocation, which includes one-time funds for Key, some of those parents have raised concerns about the eventual loss of those one-time funds and its effects on programming at Key and other schools during the 2023-2024 academic year.
While Key LSAT Co-Chair Jeremy Joseph said that the mayor’s FY 2022 budget allocation, with the inclusion of one-time funds, adequately funds schools during the 2022-2023 school year, he said Key and other schools could face budget shortfalls during the following year once those one-time funds disappear.
Such a situation, Joseph said, would result in the loss of up to eight staff members, which would then cause class sizes to increase to at least 30 students. Without that one-time funding, Key could also lose instructional coaches.
“With Key’s current funding, class sizes are reasonable and we have instructional coaches who work closely with students to help them level up,” said Joseph, the parent of a Key student.
“There’s a math coach and reading coach who also works with teachers and gives them ideas to make sure students reach their full potential. When you start cutting funding so severely, you could lose those interconnected pieces,” he added.
At School Without Walls, located on the campus of The George Washington University, LSAT members continue to advocate against a budget model they said places three teaching positions on the chopping block next year and splits a social worker’s attention between School Without Walls and other public schools.
Though School Without Walls’ funding remains the same, LSAT members said inflation and an increase in Washington Teachers’ Union personnel fees makes it harder to provide programming that attracts students from all of the District’s eight wards. Marion Babcock, a Ward 5 parent and LSAT co-chair at School Without Walls, said a failure to take that into consideration weakens DCPS’ budget equity model, which she commended as well-intended and necessary.
“The funding formula also needs to look at school programming. We have a good program that doesn’t seem to be recognized,” Babcock said.
“We get that we have a bunch of talent [but] we’re holding steady to ensure students are eligible and ready for college,” she added.
“We want to make sure our educational program holds up that end of the bargain. Our program gets $11,000 per student but we lose every year unless parents from all wards make a ruckus.”
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ELECTION from Page 1
recently receiving the endorsement from the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU).
“We are proud to endorse Robert White to be the next mayor of D.C.,” said the Washington Teachers’ Union in a statement on April 12. “Robert is a vocal champion of public education and a consistent presence in public schools where he has listened to and partnered with teachers. We know that as mayor, he will continue to work with teachers to ensure schools are a productive, healthy environment for students and staff.”
White expressed appreciation for the endorsement, saying “as mayor, I will seek out teachers’ feedback and engagement as we work aggressively to make our schools work for every student.”
Markus Batchelor, a former Ward 8 representative on the D.C. Board of Education, said the WTU nod should help White in his bid to unseat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and surpass his other opponents who include Councilmember Trayon White, Sr. (D-Ward 8) and political activist James Butler.
“Robert getting the support of the teachers’ union is super important,” Batchelor told the Informer. “It is something to be taken seriously. Education and the future of the schools is on top of the mind of voters in this city. With 5,000 active and retired teachers working on his behalf, he will be able to send a strong message to voters and standout in basically a three-way race.”
White has also been endorsed by D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, AFSCME District Council 20, DC for Democracy, the DC Working Families Party, Revolution DC and the DC Latino Caucus.
Bowser has been endorsed by Emily’s List according to the campaign website.
Trayon White’s campaign did not mention any endorsements when contacted by the Informer.
In the race for District attorney general, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie received support on April 12 from the Service Employees International Union 32BJ, the Baltimore-Washington Laborers’ District Council, LiUNA and UNITE HERE Local 25.
“We will be working tirelessly in the coming months to elect Kenyan McDuffie as D.C.’s next attor-
5 D.C. Democratic mayoral candidate Robert White, hoping to defeat current Mayor Bowser who hopes to secure a third term in office, has received several key endorsements during his campaign. (WI File Photo)
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ney general,” said John Boardman, UNITE HER Local 25’s executive secretary-treasurer.
“During his years on the D.C. Council, Kenyan has been a steadfast champion for hospitality workers. We know that as attorney general, he’ll fight to protect workers’ rights at their jobs, in their homes and across the District,” he said.
Jaime Contreras, the executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, said McDuffie has been a reliable ally in its “fight for good, family-sustaining jobs.”
Julio Palomo, business manager for the Baltimore-Washington Laborers’ District Council, LiUNA, said McDuffie “will be the people’s lawyer and will hit the ground running.”
Additionally, McDuffie, like White, has been endorsed by AFSCME District Council 20. McDuffie said the labor endorsements reflect his desire to help working District residents.
“Working families are the backbone of the District of Columbia,” he said. “I am proud to stand with my friends in the labor community and honored to have their support. When we work together, we are unstoppable.”
Despite McDuffie’s union support, Racine chose to support another candidate to succeed him. Racine said after speaking with McDuffie, Brian Schwalb, Bruce Spiva and Ryan Jones, Schwalb emerged as the best candidate, saying “it wasn’t even close.”
Schwalb has also received the endorsement of Ironworkers Local 5 and United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters.
CANDIDACY CHALLENGES ONGOING
The D.C. Board of Elections revealed on its website 23 challenges to candidates in the primary.
The challengers want the board to examine whether the defending candidate has enough legitimate signatures to be on the primary ballot. While many of the challenges have to do with party positions such as Democratic, Republican or Libertarian committee members, the challenge the White campaign made to the Trayon White organization continues.
“We are fighting the effort from others to have us removed from the ballot,” a spokeswoman from the Trayon White campaign told the Informer.
In addition, the Bruce Spiva campaign has challenged McDuffie’s candidacy based on the Ward 5 councilmember not meeting the legal requirements to be attorney general as well as his nominating petitions, according to the board’s website.
A spokesman for the board told the Informer that the final candidates eligible to appear on the primary ballot will be determined by April 25. Wi @JamesWrightJr10
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