Lalini Pedris - ��Ӱ��

Rat infestation, radiator explosion, mold plague D.C. school

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 17:58:57 +0000

When Whittier Elementary’s radiator exploded back in October, it was the last straw for many parents, teachers, and staff, who gathered together last month to call for the Ward 4 school’s modernization.

They were lucky – the hallway was empty when the explosion occurred, but students, teachers, and staff at Whittier are still facing a constant struggle while trying to learn and work in unsafe conditions.

Angela Anderson, president of Whittier Elementary’s Parent Teacher Organization, said that a firefighter told her, “Listen, this will not stop happening. And you’re lucky someone wasn’t here because the pressure in these old steam systems, it’s so strong that it can sever a body part.”

Anderson said that the Department of General Services, which handles maintenance across DCPS, sends someone out to take a photo of the issue and then mark the service ticket as resolved even if it is not.

“Who is holding DGS accountable?” Anderson asked. “Who is coming behind them and doing that final check to see if it’s been done?”

DGS did not respond to email requests for comment.

In an email statement, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said, “Work orders are key to any maintenance program. If DGS can’t manage its work orders then its maintenance program is going to fail. DGS’ approach to maintenance is completely inefficient. The mismanagement of the work orders is fundamental to that problem.�� What we’re also seeing is that inadequate and poor maintenance is, in the end, costing the city millions of dollars.“

Loose and falling bricks along the exterior of the building, a leaking roof with clear water damage, faulty HVAC systems in cold classrooms, backed up sewage, and unusable bathrooms across the school’s entire third floor are just a handful of what teachers and parents say some of the hazards at Whittier, located at 6201 5th St NW.

Alicia Bolton, whose two children attend Whittier, detailed a host of hazardous conditions at the school, adding that those issues were “scratching the surface.”

Since the radiator incident, the most notable risk to school safety and public health has been a rat infestation, evidenced by droppings found scattered across school supplies and floors.

“We had a rodent issue,” said Bolton. “I think it’s been become more pronounced in the last few weeks, because I don’t know what city agencies [are] responsible for picking up the trash, but they haven’t done it in at least about three weeks or so.”

Bolton has both a third grader and a kindergartener at Whittier Elementary. Her daughter had told her one day that there had been a dead rat in the middle of her third-grade classroom, which her teacher had to dispose of before starting class.

“That is that is disgusting,” Bolton said. “It is atrocious, and the city should be ashamed of itself.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, , by coming into contact with or “breathing in air contaminated with fresh mouse or rat urine, droppings, or nesting materials from an infected rodent.”

Bolton noted numerous delayed repairs and construction, including an elevator that is currently not working and causes “major concerns for safety,” as well as a “more blatant violation of the law with respect to students with disabilities who can’t get around.”

A student who recently required crutches had to be carried upstairs by a teacher, sometimes multiple times a day, to get to and from class, Bolton said.

Anderson said that parents are not just upset about building code violations or��repairs, alone. “We are talking about violations that are illegal, illegal.”

The stench of backed up sewage, mold and mildew has made some classrooms unusable, leading teachers to use the lunchroom or other rooms to hold their classes, Bolton said.

“Those are the types of egregious issues that that we’ve been facing,” Bolton said.

Rat droppings are littered across school supplies and classroom floors at Whittier Elementary. Photo credit: Whittier Elementary PTO

Bolton and other members from the Whittier Parent Teacher Organization have reached out to Chancellor Lewis Ferebee of DCPS and said that the response has “just been pretty lackluster,” assuring parents that the school will be modernized in a few years.

Bolten said that schools like Whittier are “made up primarily of working-class families” and feels that schools attended by more affluent families would not be left in such a state of disrepair.

“And yet they expect us to believe that equity matters, and they care about our learners? I don’t think so. That’s not been proven to us.”

Bolton said that the system is “flawed, and it needs to be redone” and argued that the city’s , which uses a particular methodology to prioritize modernization across schools in the district, is “ineffective”.

Local ANC commissioners like Jocelynn Johnson and Janeese Lewis George have been responsive to parents and teachers at Whittier, decrying the state of public schools in the district.

Johnson has been an outspoken advocate for modernizing D.C. public schools like Whittier Elementary and has been appalled by what she considers to be the apparent lack of concern by DCPS officials and the city government.

Did you know students and teachers with disabilities still can’t get around , which is a violation of the ADA and IDEA? are aware & should be ashamed. Modernize Whittier Now!

— JGWhittierPTO (@JGWhittierPTO)

“I started getting flooded with a lot of emails going to DCPS and to the mayor’s office, and after the parent would talk about the horrible things that they talked about – about not having any ramp to go and get into the building, you know, in 2022; bathrooms that haven’t been accessible along the floor; to ceiling leaking in the building and stuff like that,” Johnson said.

Whittier Elementary’s roof is leaking, and mold and mildew have been reported by parents. Photo credit: Whittier Elementary PTO

Whittier Elementary’s building has loose and falling bricks in the early education area, where pre-schoolers enter the building. Photo credit: Whittier Elementary PTO

In an email sent to ANC Commissioner Erin Palmer regarding a proposed resolution “Calling for Urgent School Building Repairs at Whittier Elementary School and Legislative Changes to Ensure Timely School Modernizations,” Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn wrote that he does “recognize that there is ongoing preventative maintenance work and building condition work that needs to be done.”

Kihn wrote that the “full modernization of Whittier Elementary is scheduled to begin in the 2024-2025 school year” and that it “is scheduled to be completed by school year 2027.”

“This timeline was determined by criteria in the PACE Act (another subject of your resolution).�� We will continue to look at this timeline and take into account the feedback we are receiving from the community.”

But Johnson does not find this response reassuring.

“That’s not acceptable. Are you kidding me?” Johnson said. “Somebody’s going to get sick, and I don’t want to see that happen.”

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D.C.’s first Black, LGBTQ+ Councilmember Zachary Parker contemplates his new role

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 18:22:29 +0000

“Humbling, sobering…a great responsibility” – those were the words that Zachary Parker used to describe his recent victory as D.C.’s first Black, out LGBTQ+ council member.��

The newly elected Ward 5 councilmember said his approach to leadership centers heavily on facilitating community engagement.

Parker told ��Ӱ�� that he has “already established a help team where constituent services can help address neighbor concerns,” started a weekly newsletter, and will soon be appointing a community engagement director to his team. He said he hopes that this engagement and his focus on providing “strong constituent services” that will guide Ward 5 residents towards the best channels for addressing their concerns will foster inclusion.

Parker.�� Photo credit: Zachary for Ward 5 (Press Kit)

“On one hand, black, gay, lesbian, trans folk in the broader gay community don’t always feel seen and heard. And so that is important for me to help reflect that and change that on the council,” Parker said. “At the same time, within the black community, as D.C. is changing so rapidly, many within the black community feel as though that change is happening to them versus with them, that they are not participating in the growing prosperity of the city.”��

Parker said that “tailored policy prescriptions” are needed that “meet the realities of Washingtonians” and ensure that their voices are heard.��

At the top of his agenda are responding to the demand for affordable housing – which Parker notes is rising given the “changing face of D.C.” – and public safety.

“We’re on the heels of a tragic mass shooting in Colorado Springs. And so that responsibility goes beyond just representation, but that I actually need to fight for the community and provide a voice at the table –through policy, through action, through oversight – to make sure that the LGBTQ+ community is centered in the city’s policy decisions,” Parker said.

Parker engaging with constituents, Photo credit: Zachary for Ward 5 (Press Kit)

He said that the shooting “reinforces the need for us to address the crimes here locally”.

“And so, it’s just a reminder that what the LGBTQ community needs is much more than parades and flashy events, but actually housing and protection and access to jobs. And those are the things that I’m going to be fighting for and against.”

Parker views inequity in the city’s housing market as a larger system issue affecting marginalized communities, one in which “Wards 8, 7 [and] 5, usually in that order, start seeing disproportionately more cases of everything – violence, sickness, cases of COVID”.��

A former representative of the D.C. State Board of Education for over a decade, Parker views public school safety as yet another example of entrenched inequity.��

“What we’re seeing happen is a system issue within our schools. And it is unconscionable that we would have students in school buildings work without working HVAC systems, heating systems, and it will be important for me to hold the city, including our mayor, accountable to the interests and the needs of Ward 5 residents,” Parker said.��

Parker said that public-school safety is an issue that affects Black and LGBTQ+ disproportionately and described the importance of acknowledging intersectionality amongst his constituents “because those challenges are not the same across the community.”��

“We know that bullying in school is on the rise. We know that, as members of the community affirm their own identity with their family, at times, that puts them out on the street either because the family is not accepting or welcoming, or they are facing bullying within the home,” Parker said.

“So, very quickly, you can see how members of the community, especially marginalized members of the community, are facing many barriers in many facets of their lives, working to housing to safety, and the list goes on. And it’s important for us to address that.”

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U.S. foreign relations strategy as a world power debated at Nixon Foundation session

Lalini Pedris — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 14:44:15 +0000

Speakers at the last week shared a glimpse into a worldview that prioritizes the U.S. asserting dominance, rather than relying on diplomacy, on the world stage.

The summit was held by the Richard Nixon Foundation, and it included a session on the United States’ response to the war between Russia and Ukraine, “Cold War 2.0? Russia, Ukraine and the Western World.”

Among the speakers at the session, policy advisor and former board member for the Wall Street Journal Mary Kissel shared what she said may sound like a “harsh” perspective on U.S.-Russian relations.

“We have lost our ability to be ruthless about these things,” Kissel said. “But these are ruthless men.”

Mary Kissel on the stage with John Hohmann and joined virtually by Garry Kasparov and Niall Ferguson, at the Grand Strategy Summit. Photo credit: Richard Nixon Foundation

Regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kissel said, “We should be flooded right now, with information, and photographs and videos about all of [Putin’s] properties around the world. And the lavish lifestyle. We should be saying and posting: ‘This is where the kids are. This is where the ministers are. Here’s where the votes are. And, if you use a tactical nuclear weapon, not only will we nuke you, but we will also go after all of these other things that you value.’”

Garry Kasparov, a Russian chess grandmaster and political commentator, said that the approach to the current state of affairs is all about “strategy.”

Mary Kissel speaking with John Hohmann at the Grand Strategy Summit, which was held by the Richard Nixon Foundation from November 10-11, 2022. Photo credit: Richard Nixon Foundation

“If you have strategy, you can choose your tactical tools,” Kasparov said. “But if you have no strategy, you are to react, not correct. And I think the biggest problem now is at the end of the Cold War, America lost its strategic vision.”

Kasparov said that the United States was “the leader and defender of the free world,” and that “every moment America shows weakness, [the U.S.’s rivals] capitalize on it.”

Scottish American historian Niall Ferguson took issue with the current administration’s handling of foreign policy over the past few years, calling it “the Carter administration with dementia.”

Ferguson said that the Biden administration “completely bungled its Middle Eastern policy, failed to deter Putin last year, [and] made a complete mess of the abandonment of Afghanistan” and that the United States should “avoid a showdown at this point of weakness” in the current Biden administration.

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Americans share concerns for the state of the union

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 23:15:57 +0000

As the elections wrap, the air hangs heavy with uncertainty.

Here at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the figure of Abraham Lincoln gazes across the Reflecting Pool, as if aware that the future of his country is a delicate one, at best.

Last week at Union Station, President Joe Biden shared .

“We’ll have our differences. We’ll have our difference of opinion, Biden said. “And that’s how it’s supposed to be. But there is something else at stake: democracy itself,” Biden said.

for state and federal office are considered to be election deniers. ��The stakes are high this election.

The Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C, a view from the Lincoln Memorial. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

��Ӱ�� spoke with Americans on the National Mall about their faith in American democracy and their hopes and concerns for the midterm elections.

Los Angeles, California resident Denise Ruiz, 62, said the current political atmosphere is underscored by confusion.

“The scales are so unbalanced. I just feel that people are uneasy, like, they just don’t really know what direction we’re going in, Ruiz said.

Ruiz described the uneasiness she has felt since the insurrection in 2020.

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

“I was so shocked about that,” said Ruiz.

“I would have never thought it was that many people that was really on Trump’s side, you know? And that destructive. And it just let it kind of let me know where we are in this time period of the world.”

‘Broken for decades’

Mike Alshouse, 59, of Woodbridge, Virginia, said division has plagued the American political system for far too long.

“It’s been broken for decades,” Alshouse said. “I don’t know that I have a new hope. I keep getting let down by Congress, because they just don’t get along.”

Alshouse said that, ideally, the American political system would not be polarized by vastly different political camps, but rather, diversified by the addition of one or more parties.

“There’s too much finger pointing, too much blame. If somebody does cross the aisle to make an agreement, then now they’re no longer part of that party, and there’s too much negativity.”

The divisiveness and negativity of American politics has pushed independents, like Gwen Miller, 63, of Los Angeles, to vote as a Democrat.

“I’m all about the truth and helping the people stay above water,” Miller said. “Everybody’s drowning. COVID didn’t help. And neither did the president at the time – didn’t help.”

Miller, who was visiting D.C. with her friend Ruiz, said that the most important issue for her right now is women’s rights but worries that a majority-Republican Congress will hinder legislative progress across the board.

“Democrats keep getting knocked down on everything they try to pass,” Miller said. “Biden can’t get anything done if he keeps getting the door shut in his face.”

Seeking a say

But for Marquette Brooks, 22, it is “not about taking sides. It’s about setting the tone for the inevitable future.”

Marquette Brooks, 22. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

Brooks shared his frustration with representation in the American democracy, arguing that what the electorate needs is more “diversity, not just with race, but also with age, as well.”

Brooks’ disillusionment is palpable.

“I do have faith in the American democracy. It’s just, I feel like we’re being led by … the government, Congress, where we’re being influenced to vote,” he said.

“[Voting] just gives them a strong hunch as to what the American people want. But ultimately, it’s still their decision. They could go against us, and we won’t have a say in it at all.”

For Brooks, the congressional priorities don’t reflect those of the American people.

“We’re at a point in our lives where it’s the cost of living that’s troubling, whereas they’re more worried about education, climate change, like other important topics, but it’s like we can’t really get there if the cost of living by itself alone is just skyrocket, right?” Brooks said.

“In my honest opinion, I feel like the electoral college should be abolished. We’re all putting forth our votes, but then it’s still ultimately their decision.”

Josue Maldonado, 42. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

The lack of representation for the American people, regardless of who is in power, is a concern for New Yorker and Puerto Rican Josue Maldonado, 42, as well.

“I feel like it’s bull crap because everybody that is being elected – they got their own agenda. They don’t care about us as a country anymore. We’re heading into disaster,” said Maldonado.

“It don’t matter. They’re all corrupt. Obviously, our government don’t really run our country, it’s the rich behind the government.”

Elizabeth Hartsell, 26. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

Choosing a political color

Elizabeth Hartsell, 26, from Charlotte, North Carolina, also worries about the future. When asked how engaged she is in U.S. politics, Hartsell said, “Very engaged – like do[ing] phone banking every year, having an immigrant father who carries around a pocket constitution.”

Does she think the democratic system represents the people? “Short answer. No. Long Form answer. Deep sigh, you know?”

Hartsell pointed toward her family standing before the Washington Monument.

“That’s my baby niece with my mom. And she won’t be able to vote for 17 more years and two months, but, you know, things are gonna start affecting her yesterday,” she said. “Four years from now, when she goes into kindergarten, how’s her world gonna change?”

“I’m nervous about what her choices are like – her choice to be a DC voter or a Virginia voter,” Hartsell continued.

“And her choice to vote like red, blue, purple, or like, I don’t know, she doesn’t know her colors yet,” she laughed. “Whatever that means to her, when she’s ready, I just hope she has good options.”

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Ward 5 Voters: DC’s affordable housing market available but poorly accessible

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 20:51:35 +0000

Mayor Muriel Bowser this week on a project that will convert a large, vacant commercial building on Kalorama Road, NW into a multi-family affordable housing complex. ��But the state of affordable housing across D.C. remains a contentious issue for the city’s voters, a concern reflected in comments this morning from voters at the Woodridge Library in Ward 5.

“Democracy brought me here to the polls today,” said Noma Faison. “Democracy is something that allows us as voters to be able to make decisions to make sure that everything is enabled to help people. It allows them to be able to get jobs; young people can go out and get jobs with assistance … They need food, they need shelter. They need electricity. They need water. They need gas, and maybe help with their utilities and rental rates. Now, there’s no rent ceilings.”

Faison isn’t the only voter with concerns about affordable housing access.

“The prices are just through the roof. People who can afford it are even going to be priced out if [rent payments] just keep rising,” said Edward Robinson.

According to Robinson, “politicians and people in power making decisions that help the people” might be able to make a difference. “You have to monitor and be aware of how you treat the people in your communities and provide for them.”

Akram Abdul-Khalek said he understands the need for development, but he adds that the people who live here should be able to stay here and that housing should be affordable to them.

Referring to Bowser’s track record on affordable housing, Abdul-Khalek said, “I think she’s a little more about development and making sure, you know, her supporters and developers in the area make money.”

��Perspectives from voters at the library on the availability of affordable housing in D.C. ranged from in good standing to nonexistent. A shared concern was barriers to access.

“There is no affordable housing in Northeast, anywhere in the District,” said Catrina Felder. “I work in the District. I live here, but I can’t buy – I rent. And I work here, but I still can’t buy. I can’t afford it, and I work every day.”

“They build these outrageous residences when they start at $2- or $3,000 a month, and chicken costs me $20. And, as you can see, I’m used to eating a little bit of chicken and other things,” Felder laughed. “How am I going to be able to afford a $3,000 mortgage?”

For Nurya Saffron-Bey, inefficiency and barriers to information keep affordable housing from those most in need.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with several women through domestic violence, in advocacy. And affordable housing seems to be a major concern, a major issue, here in the city [as well as] lack of access to it,” said Saffron-Bey.

Residents have to navigate an endless circle of people to get clarity and answers for things like specific dates, Saffron-Bey said. “It just seems to be a long, drawn-out process.”

“It’s kind of like one person passing the buck to the next, you know what I mean? And then maybe, finally, you get to someone that has enough compassion to say: Okay, well, let me see if I can help this person,” she said.

Andrea Burks agreed. The D.C. homeowner said, a problem she has noticed is that, while housing is available, the information is only advertised to a few, so vacant units get snatched up before a community in need of access is even able to hear about it.

“They need to share that information,” Burks said, so that the distribution of affordable housing access is more equitable.

Like Burks, Saffron-Bey said that the “people at the top are not necessarily communicating with the people who actually need the services.”

This becomes a problem because sometimes services are available, but people never get them or a deadline to access them passes, Saffron-Bey said. It is important that “the people at the top” are communicating with people at the grassroots level so those who really need the resource will be able to access them immediately and not months down the road, she said.

Uncontested candidate for Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vijay Kumar said, “The amount of our city that falls in the category of less desirable is diminishing, which also means that private developers are going to have a lot of pressure to renovate the existing housing stock.”

“And as a result of that process, you end up with new a lot more new housing as a proportion of our housing, which means that we have less affordable housing. And I think that is the crux of the problem that most folks have,” Kumar said.

“We need to hold developers accountable and hold the D.C. government accountable for its voucher system, for its inclusionary zoning occupying system, Kumar said. “We also do need to just be building more expediently. We need to unlock more of our land for construction of homes besides detached houses.”

Darin Burks said a lot of people in D.C. cannot afford some of the new homes in the city because so many appear to be high-end condos.

“And they just put all of the underprivileged and the low-income people in the same location, which causes all issues that’s going on – shootings, stabbings, robberies, thefts,” said Burks, referring to crime that is often associated with low-income housing areas.

But Jackie C., who asked that ��Ӱ�� not use her last name, said there’s a solution to crime plaguing areas where low-income housing develops – the government should go a step further in providing for more than just access to affordable housing by also integrate community recreation areas – particularly for youth, who “need an outlet, in a way, to get out some of that anger and frustration.”

“I learned how to ride a bike. I learned how to play tennis. I learned how to play flag football and how to swim. All those things are therapeutic for children, you know, being brought up in low-[income] areas of the District of Columbia,” she said.

These voters all agreed on one thing – that affordable housing is a necessity.

As new Ward 5 resident, Juita Martinez, 29, said, “I just think it’s a human right to be able to have housing and to have shelter, and everyone should have access to it.”

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Despite challenges, colon cancer screenings are improving preventive healthcare in D.C.’s Ward 5

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:31:01 +0000

The MedStar Washington Hospital Center continues to promote its��, an initiative to expand preventive health in Ward 5 and the surrounding areas, where Black residents demonstrate high rates of advanced colon cancer.

Colon cancer screenings are vital for early detection and preventing further advancement of the disease.��But a diverse range of barriers prevent many Ward 5 residents from actively screening for colon cancer, despite many patients having health insurance when they were diagnosed.

Dr. David Shocket leads the screening initiative, which has been around since 2016.

Under the Affordable Care Act, a lot of people do have access to screening, but they don’t use their insurance, Shocket said. “Part of it is pure procrastination. Part of it is they’re afraid of the test. Part of it is, particularly in African American men, there’s this sense of resistance.”

A colonoscopy is a through which a long, thin, flexible tube with a video camera on one end is inserted via the rectum into an individual’s large intestine to look for signs of swelling, inflammation, polyps, or cancerous growths.

The “resistance” to which Shocket is referring are cultural norms surrounding masculinity, which may feel threatened when men consider getting a colonoscopy.

Compared to having a colonoscopy performed, Shocket said that the fecal immunochemical test, or FIT test, is easy, since it is a test that can be performed at home.

The program uses community navigators, individuals from the very communities they serve, who work to educate community members about the importance of colon cancer screenings.

“We’re not here to twist any arms, we’re about educating,” Shocket said. “And it’s part[ly] fear of the unknown; people don’t realize what the test involves…You don’t wait until you have symptoms. This is something you want to do when you’re asymptomatic, before a tumor or cancer develops.”

The offers guidelines for colorectal screenings. Source: American Cancer Society (2021)

As for the causes of high incidences of colon cancer, Dr. Shocket says, “It’s almost certainly multifactorial. There’s a strong genetic component with colon cancer. There are environmental factors. There are issues in terms of seeking medical attention. So, it’s all of these going together.”

Shocket noted that there “are clearly disparities in terms of screening for colon cancer. There’s no question about that. When you look at multiple studies, it has to do a lot with access, and so we’re trying to increase access to care by going out in the community.”

Expanding the program means improving access. Since the program launched, it has become a large, joint effort, which has helped it to thrive.

Dr. Jennifer Tran, a colleague of Shocket, received a grant from the D.C. Department of Health to increase colon cancer screening at MedStar’s Washington Hospital Center primary care clinic.

And the Silverman Foundation awarded MedStar’s colorectal surgeons with a grant, which was used to hire two nurse navigators to help facilitate the screenings.

Community navigator Lynel McFadden is a veteran of the screening program in more ways than one. A breast cancer survivor and resident of Ward 5, she knows her community well and understands the concerns, reservations, and needs of her local community. Despite her community’s worries about the fears and discomfort of getting preventive care for colon cancer, she understands the importance of screening.

“I use the breast cancer card,” McFadden laughed. “I use the card that – I’ve been through it. I’ve been through cancer, I’ve survived it, and I’ve educated myself, and I want to help you with that,” she said.

“I’ll talk about screening and talk about the importance of screening. I didn’t have colon cancer. I had cancer, but I talked about the importance of screening because, had I not filed my cancer early, I wouldn’t be talking to you today, because I had breast cancer. So, that’s why screening is important.”

Lynel McFadden, a breast cancer survivor and resident of Ward 5, works as a community navigator to educate the public about colon cancer screenings. Source: MedStar Health (2020)

McFadden said she knows the community’s reservations about getting colonoscopies, but she added that screening is “something that we have to do if we want to stay alive.”

Due to its early success, the “Colon Cancer Prevention in the Neighborhood” program was recognized in October 2016 as part of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s .

Through a $675,000 grant from the Cigna Health Foundation and substantial donations from grateful patients, Ward 5’s colon cancer screening initiative is expected to at least continue for the next three years. Shocket hopes to continue expanding the program to eventually incorporate Wards 7 and 8, which he says have a “tremendous need for colon cancer screening.”

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Suspect flees from scene plowing Lexus into apartment in NE D.C. – new details emerge

Lalini Pedris — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 19:39:36 +0000

A vehicle plowed through a family home at Clermont Apartments Sunday night, and the suspect is still at large.

According to Metropolitan Police Department Public Information Officer Alaina Gertz, the driver of the vehicle fled the scene following the incident, which occurred at 11:18 P.M. at the 4500 block of Clement Drive NE. Officers De Roo and Ferrell of the Metropolitan Police Department were on the scene Monday morning but declined to comment.

A piece of the vehicle is shown here beneath crime scene tape.

Although no injuries were reported, the crash caused significant damage to the home of Gaius Boumediene and his family. Boumediene’s wife, mother-in-law, two-year-old son and baby daughter were in the living room of their apartment when the champagne-colored Lexus crashed into their bedroom, landing on top of a mattress without causing any casualties.

“I was talking to my wife and mother-in-law, we were just discussing, and we just heard the sound, ‘Boom!’” Boumediene said, standing in front of the rubble of his home.

A family photo can be seen on the wall beyond the wreckage.

“Around that time, my son, we always send him into the bedroom to go and sleep, so that was just by God’s grace that we did not send him to the bedroom – and this is our bed here,” said Boumediene, pointing to the bed now crushed beneath the weight of the sedan.

Boumediene said that the space is unlivable, and he worries about the state of his damaged household items.

“For now, they are going to, first of all, remove all the big pieces [of rubble], and then, after that, we are going to maybe take any important belongings.”

The property manager for Clermont Apartments declined to comment. The property’s owner, Dreyfuss Management, did not return calls seeking comment.

The Boumediene family living room shows the destruction caused by the crash.

Boumediene said that, to his knowledge, it is the first time that the apartment complex has experienced this.

“This is America, and I know that before building a structure, I think engineers came to [test] the scenarios that may happen,” said Boumediene, whose family is originally from Cameroon. “I think they need to put something like a fence here.”

The father of two did not see the driver, but heard that the suspect exited the car and ran down Webster Street NE.

The vehicle is a tan Lexus sedan with D.C. license plate number GL 5861.

Velvet Grimshaw, a resident living next door to the Clermont Apartments, arrived home with her husband around 2:00 A.M. to see police at the scene.

“I’m completely floored,” Grimshaw said. “We were totally in shock, like, we got out the car right here because we couldn’t believe it. Like, wow.”

The scene of the crash was initially boarded up until contractors were able to begin cleaning up the wreckage.

Local resident living adjacent to the Clermont Apartments, Velvet Grimshaw, described the intersection of Clermont Steet NE and Webster Street NE as “dangerous”.

Grimshaw was not at the scene when the crash occurred but said she believes the driver meant to take a right turn onto Webster Street NE.

“This is a dangerous intersection right here, this curve here. So, from our assumption last night, it looked like they may have missed that curve, because I’ve been in the car with people that had almost missed this and came this way right thinking that this is a normal turn.�� It’s not a normal turn.”

If you have any information on this vehicle, please contact the Metropolitan Police Department at (202)-727-9099.

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Winter is coming — and Ward 5 schools are unprepared

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 18:21:25 +0000

Temperatures are dropping down to the thirties this week, but public schools in D.C.’s Ward 5 aren’t prepared.

On this third week of October, the Facilities Maintenance Division of the Department of General Services is expected to begin its to prepare public schools for cold weather conditions.

But, as the DGS’ own Public Work Order Dashboard shows, numerous school repairs are still pending and unfulfilled – some delayed by months.

Jennifer Fitzpatrick, a concerned parent and a teacher at Langdon Elementary School, brought the to the public’s attention last month, when she spoke with WUSA9 about how some of the school’s students have been learning in the dark.

Jennifer Fitzpatrick, a parent and a teacher at Ward 5’s Langdon Elementary School, has been a vocal advocate for addressing the state of public school repairs across DCPS.

Faulty lighting has been an ongoing issue, and though some of the school’s lighting has . The president of its Parent Teacher Organization, Shemika Smith, said that there is more to be done and recalled how teachers had to provide their own headlamps and appliances to compensate for the lack of proper lighting.

The D.C. Department of General Services Public Word Order Dashboard shows open and completed work orders from all D.C. public education campuses.

“I think the root cause of the issue is that when DCPS fixes things, it’s like they just put a band-aid over it, instead of doing a complete overhaul,” Smith said. “And I think that’s why continues to be an issue, not just in our schools, but [in]schools across D.C. When they fix it, they don’t do a complete fix.”

With winter approaching and autumn already here, the most concerning delays in public school repairs are the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, or HVAC, services.

“Every year when they switch from air conditioning to heat, it’s not fully functional, and every year, staff and parents and the community are left wondering why these issues are not being addressed when kids are not in the building when we had this whole pandemic year, we had all this time to check on all of these facility-based concerns,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview with ��Ӱ��.

The inability to regulate temperatures and faulty HVAC systems puts students, teachers, and staff health at risk.

“I guess my main concern is just being able to have a safe learning environment for my kids and other kids at the school. DC talks a lot about equity and equity within the school system, and equity starts with making sure that you have a safe learning environment,” Smith said.

Langdon Elementary isn’t the only public school with delayed repairs in Ward 5.

Smith said that schools with higher percentages of minority students – particularly Title I schools and those east of the Anacostia River – tend to be the schools most affected by delayed repairs.

In Wards 5, across 10 public education campuses alone, there are 116 open orders for HVAC services. In Ward 8, there are 130 open word orders for HVAC services across 18 schools; the earliest expected completion date is from May 2022. Comparatively, Ward 2, which has a lower minority population, has roughly 28 open work orders for HVAC services across 10 schools.

The earliest expected completion dates for these repairs are from ten months ago, in December 2021. It is unclear why maintenance issues across DCPS are so numerous and so significantly delayed.

“It’s clear that if we’re having issues right after modernization has [been] done to so many buildings, that something is not being completed correctly. If this was my house and that was the result of getting a remodel done, I would be in court suing the contractors, because they didn’t do the work correctly,” Fitzpatrick said.

In a statement emailed to ��Ӱ�� in response to several requests for comment,��Keith A. Anderson, director of the Department of General Services, said��the Department of General Services ��is conducting its annual cooling-to-heating changeover at all District-owned properties, starting Oct. 15.

“During this transition, DGS will be working with all District government properties to transfer air conditioning systems to heating services.�� The 2022-23 heating system transition will include municipal buildings, schools, recreation centers, police stations, fire and emergency stations, homeless centers, and senior centers and will last for approximately 30 to 45 days,” Anderson wrote.

“The process of switching from air conditioning to heating involves significant engineering detail and, as a result, systems cannot return to cooling once taken offline, until the following spring season – which is a standard practice,” he said. ��“During the transition, building temperatures may fluctuate up to 30 degrees within a 24-hour period which may impact target comfort levels, before leveling to desired comfort levels. DGS works closely with DCPS on any contingency plans for heating matters to ensure students, teachers and school administration are in a comfortable, safe environment.”

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D.C.’s faith-based organizations help combat food insecurity

Lalini Pedris — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 18:34:22 +0000

Lou Maroulis calls it the “tip of the iceberg” – a beautifully manicured, peaceful oasis in the northeast quadrant of D.C. that frames the Franciscan Monastery with vibrant flora. The Franciscan Monastery Garden in Brookland’s Ward 5 is open to all visitors, but that access is limited. Past the courtyard, at the edge of the garden, there is a gate. Walk past that gate, and you enter another world.

Honoring its namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, the monastery’s garden is more than just a tranquil escape from the noise of the capital. St. Francis was known for his service to the poor and for living a charitable life and was . The monastery gives merit to the life of St. Francis by doing just that – addressing poverty and feeding the hungry.

Rows of prize-winning vegetables grow in the monastery’s farm. A goldfinch perches on a
birdfeeder. Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

Behind the monastery, rows of vegetables grow amongst the fields of the monastery’s farm, and fruit trees dot the orchard nearby. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, sour cherries, mulberries, pecans, crab apples, and papaws are several of the fruit varieties grown on the farm. The Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild, of which Maroulis serves as chief executive officer, has plans to expand the orchard.

An apiary buzzes with activity beside the farm’s barn, as bees busily build their combs to make honey that will be harvested and strained and poured into glass jars for sale.

Aside from honey, nothing is for sale.

In fact, the farm produces and freely contributes 100 percent of the produce to a network of food banks and other charitable organizations that work to provide meals for communities living in the city’s food deserts, particularly in Wards 5, 7, and 8.

Maroulis said that larger organizations, like D.C. Central Kitchen, can haul as much as 500 pounds of produce at a time.

According to D.C. Central Kitchen’s chief development officer, Alex Moore, the organization prepares roughly 10,000 meals a day.

“We are a city that is marked by significant disparities [in our] economic prosperity, health, and well-being, by the social determinants of health in different communities. And all too often those lines are, by and large, demarcated by race. The color of your skin and your zip code has a major influence on your physical well-being and your food security and your economic fortunes here in Washington, D.C.,” Moore said. “If you look at the farthest corner of southeast D.C. in Ward 8, and the farthest corner of upper Northwest D.C…there’s a 21-year difference in life expectancy, which is just a staggering reality.”

A greenhouse helps to stabilize temperatures for produce during summer and winter seasons.
Photo credit: Lalini Pedris

In fact, food insecurity affects approximately 33 percent of people in the D.C. area, according to the . And while the issue of food insecurity in D.C. is well known, the need for food provisions has surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels and rising food prices and fuel costs have contributed to a greater and more desperate need for regular access to nutritious food.

To fill these gaps, many faith-based organizations have stepped forward. The concentration of these institutions in the Brookland neighborhood offers extra avenues of support.

“There is a level of devotion that we see with our friends in the monastery,” Moore said, noting that the Franciscan Monastery donates all of the produce they provide.

“They are so consistent; they are so receptive to feedback. They are so intentional in the way that they plan and arrange what it is that they’re doing so that they can have the maximum benefit to the community. And I think that that is something that makes them really a leading partner in that regard. They are so responsive; they really want to make sure that the effort and care they pour into growing – which, in itself, is sort of an act of fellowship – is also manifested in the end quality and highest and best use of what we then do with that donation. And so, I think that that speaks to their character and their commitment to service.”

D.C. Central Kitchen works with the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C. and Hindu American Community Service, Inc., as well as other faith-based institutions to provide and prepare nutritious food.

But as Brandon Vaidyanathan, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America, explained, faith-based organizations cannot tackle D.C.’s rampant food insecurity on their own and should not be perceived as the solution to this growing, structural issue.

“That being said, I think it’s really crucial to have band-aids when the social fabric is really being stretched or torn or when people are hurting,” said Vaidyanathan. ��“The network-based nature of this [i]s not just one organization trying to tackle the problem. The monastery is one example of an organization that’s growing the produce…but if you go to Catholic Charities, they have multiple other sources from which they’re getting produce.”

The ability to form an organic network of organizations to collect and distribute produce from multiple sources – such as the Franciscan Monastery Garden – is one key aspect of the success that faith-based organizations have had in helping to reduce food insecurity.

D.C. Greens Food Resources Map for Ward 5 shows the abundance of faith-based organizations working to fight hunger in the Brookland neighborhood.

“The thing about faith-based organizations is they have a lot of this motivation to feed the hungry, right? It’s part of their religious obligations,” Vaidyanathan said. “All sorts of religious traditions do this.”

Vaidyanathan referred to other establishments like Sakina Halal Grill in Mt. Vernon Square whose owner, Kazi Mannan, is driven by a passion .

Maroulis pointed to the wealth of intimate knowledge these faith-based institutions have about the communities they serve and highlighted that they also have access to thousands of volunteers, making them particularly successful when it comes to outreach.

Both Vaidyanathan and Moore reiterated that at the heart of these institutions, there is a passionate commitment to service. And while fully addressing and fixing systemic food security and poverty is an enormous feat requiring comprehensive policy change and much greater financial support, faith continues to feed the hungry in the nation’s capital.

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