“I grew up with my little brother and I saw a lot of kids my age saying boys can’t cry,” Riley, a junior at Ballou High School in Southeast Washington, said. “As I got older, I started to get involved in political and social issues and realized gender norms are stupid.”

Riley and about a dozen other teenagers launched their own children’s books Thursday in Northwest Washington. The high schoolers, many from Wards 7 and 8, are part of an after-school tutoring program called Reach. Each year some of the students get to publish books for the second- and third-graders they mentor.

Kids like seeing authors like us. Kids need to see authors like us.

“Kids like seeing authors like us. Kids need to see authors like us,” said DeAsia Scott, a Reach tutor and senior at Dunbar High School in Truxton Circle. She’s written two books through the program.

Now in its seventh year of producing young authors, Reach has given away 13,000 books written by D.C. teens, said Jusna N. Perrin, the organization’s deputy director for programs. The topics range from grief, to go-go music, to friendship.

“These books are valuable and their value is amplified when we put them in the hands of those they’re intended to inspire,” Perrin said.

The books not only provide racial diversity in children’s literature – the characters at the center of these titles are almost always black kids – but they also promote diversity in experiences, Perrin said.

Jocktavious Montford, 15, another student from Ballou, said he wanted to write a book that could help children deal with grief. He worked with three other students to write “Georgia in the Jungle.”

“We agreed on grief because we know it’s a thing a lot of young people go through, but don’t know how to deal with,” Jocktavious said.

The book’s main character, Georgia, loses interest in the things she enjoys when her best friend dies. At an overnight event at the zoo, Georgia is visited by five animals who take the forms of five stages of grief.

The message strikes true for kids in the District, many of whom have lost friends, cousins and siblings. Twenty children and teens under the age of 19 have been killed in the city since the beginning of the calendar year,.

At Ballou, where Jocktavious goes to school, three children died in a single school year between 2017 and 2018.

The book launch gave students an opportunity to introduce their books and share their own stories. The annual event serves as a fundraiser for Reach; dozens in attendance purchased books.ĚýĚý

The event was also hosted by Shout Mouse Press, the group of story coachers, illustrators and designers who collaborate with students, said Kathy Crutcher, the publisher’s founder.

The teens worked for about six weeks with story coaches and illustrators to bring their titles to life. Marisa Kwaning, a Virginia private school teacher, helped the team behind “Georgia in the Jungle.”

“Most of the kids have never done this before, so there’s a lot of doubt, and fear, and worries and just wanting to look cool in front of each other,” Kwaining said. “And then you get to see them dig deep.”

Kwaning not only gave writing advice but also coached students through challenges. When students disagreed over what to name a character or how to develop a plot, Kwaning “had to remind them it will be beautiful in the end,” she said.

In “Game of Pharaohs,” three students struggling in school learn how to persevere when they get trapped in a video game, said Camal Shorter, author and eleventh-grader at Coolidge High School in Takoma. Another book, “Money Marcus,” was written to teach kids that friendships and happiness are more important than money.

“Kids think that money makes the world go round but that’s not the case,” said Dewan Driver, a 16-year-old from Roosevelt High School. “Completing your goals is more important. We try to tell kids to be nice.”

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The two were taken to an area hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, said police spokeswoman Cmdr. Durriyyah Habeebullah in a video that was posted on D.C. police’s Twitter page.Ěý

The officer was in full uniform, working part-time as a security guard, the . At 6:42 p.m., the officer fired at a “group of males” standing in an apartment complex on the 300 block of Anacostia Road, SE, Habeebullah said.

11.8.19 Cmdr Habeebullah gives update in the Officer involved shooting in the 300 block of Anacostia Rd, SE

— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept)

One person in the group had a gun, Habeebullah said.

Though, when Habeebullah spoke to reporters at around 9:25 p.m., she said a weapon had not been recovered from the scene.

“We’re still at the beginning stages of the investigation,” she said.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances that led up to the shooting, Habeebullah said. It is unclear what made the off-duty officer draw his weapon. Police have not made the officer’s identity available to the public.Ěý

The officer was not injured in the incident, Habeebullah said.

The shootings follow a spate of violent outbursts in the city. A man was fatally shot in Columbia Heights Monday, reported . In the same incident, two other people were injured, one with gunshot wounds and another who was stabbed.ĚýĚý

Two men, ages 19 and 23, were fatally shot in Southeast and Northeast Washington in October, according to D.C. police. The 19-year-old was identified as. The 23-year-old victim’s name was.

Authorities have offered $25,000 rewards for anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person, or people, responsible for killing Barnes and Smith.

In response, Habeebullah said the department is cracking down on illegal guns.

“One of the things we do is, we try to capture those persons carrying illegal firearms. That’s the biggest problem” Habeebullah said. “You can’t have a shooting without a firearm.”

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As part of a wide-reaching plan to address health inequities in the District, city officials and health leaders are considering telehealth as a way to close widening gaps between communities east and west of the Anacostia River.

Residents in Wards 7 and 8 are less likely to have health insurance than people living in other wards, according to this year’s The city’s racial and income divide means people in Anacostia live, on average, for 70 years, while residents in Cathedral Heights and Woodley Park live about two decades longer.

As 150,000 residents in Wards 7 and 8 continue to share one hospital that doesn’t have a trauma center or maternity ward, telehealth could provide access to much-needed care in other parts of the city.

Telehealth is a blanket term for technology that helps healthcare providers and patients communicate without being in the same place. Mobile apps, live video conferencing and wearable technology that monitors physical activity – like watches or fitness bands – are all considered telehealth.ĚýĚý

City leaders have debated the best ways to solve health inequities for decades. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Commission on Healthcare Systems and Transformation, which was established this summer, is the latest group to take on the challenge. The commission is expected to deliver a report to Bowser in December.

According to a , the commission has developed dozens of recommendations, including solutions to emergency room overcrowding, ways to increase access to urgent care services and ways to train young people to be health advocates.

The proposal outlines a recommendation to prepare participants in the Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program to educate their peers about things like nutrition and navigating emergency rooms

Every year, the program places about 10,000 young people between 14-24 years old in summer jobs throughout the city.Ěý

“Nearly 60% of the participants are residents of Wards 7 and 8,” the draft proposal says. “Arguably, the communities that are most in need of enhanced public knowledge are in these wards.”

David Catania, the commission’s chair, said a similar peer education strategy has worked for the city’s Young Women’s Project.

“We currently have a young women’s empowerment group that does this work extraordinarily right now in the city. We found that they particularly enjoyed, especially around reproductive and safe sex messages, to have a peer to peer conversation,” Catania said. “What we’ve seen is, it’s a great entree into a profession.”

Members of the commission – specifically, officials on a subcommittee that want to provide more equitable health care in all eight wards – said they want to build on the success of telehealth pilot programs, like a that connected residents in Wards 7 and 8 to cardiologists, psychiatrists and pharmacists.

“Expansion of telehealth services will improve access to care and patient health outcomes,” according to the draft proposal. “Both primary and specialty care providers can utilize remote access to improve the timeliness of care and to deliver appropriate services to patients who may not be able to utilize place-based services.”

Residents at a recent meeting hosted by the only hospital east of the Anacostia River, United Medical Center, complained about long wait times, dangerous conditions and poor funding, The hospital’s maternity ward closed in 2017, which has forced pregnant women to deliver in UMC’s emergency department or to travel west of the river.

The outcomes can be dangerous. Washington City Paper also reported the story of Shaquana Bates, who delivered a stillborn baby and almost died after an ambulance took an hour to get her to a hospital.

UMC will close after a new hospital, slated to open in December 2022, is built in Congress Heights. Commission members want UMC to stay open into January 2023 to “[ensure a] smooth transition for the residents.”

Telehealth has gained popularity in rural areas where, like in Wards 7 and 8, people are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, diabetes and strokes, .

Kevin Harper, the public policy director at the American Telemedicine Association, said the rise of smartphones has helped catapult the popularity of telehealth.

“I think you’re seeing a real inflection point around the technology coming online and beginning to hit critical mass with everybody across the socioeconomic spectrum having a little bit better access to technology than 15, 20 years ago,” Harper said.Ěý

In rural areas that use telehealth services, health care is delivered through cell phones and computers. Care providers can remotely monitor their patients’ lives with apps that transmit blood pressure readings, which can reduce hospital visits and deaths from chronic diseases,.

Harper doesn’t think telehealth can replace face-to-face relationships between doctors and patients, but it can reduce barriers for people who live far away from specialists or have transportation or mobility issues.Ěý

But the technology is still new.Ěý

“In the long term, I guess I could imagine our kids going to a primary care physician is probably not gonna be something that they do,” Harper said. “Thirty, 40 years from now, primary care will be done virtually.”

Ěý

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The council quietly increased the sales tax on soda and sugary drinks from 6% to 8% in early October. But now the proposed Healthy Beverages Act of 2019 would replace it with a 1.5-cent-per-ounce excise tax on the beverages. Councilmembers say the measure will help fund public health programs for low-income residents.

But neighborhoods in Ward 8 are already feeling the effects of the first tax hike.

“They shouldn’t be taxing us,” said Ezra Calloway Sr., 67, as he left New 7 Market on New Hope Road SE. with a soda. “People are struggling to survive as it is. I don’t have money to come around here, and everything I buy they want to tax.”

With the current 8% sales tax, a 99-cent, 20-ounce bottle of soda costs customers $1.07. The proposed excise tax would change the sticker price on that item to $1.29.

The legislation would help the city fund programs to help communities affected the most by sugary drinks and a lack of access to healthy food – like the city’s “ Act and the Department of Health’s program – according to the bill’s sponsor, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau.

“In D.C., residents living in the lowest income neighborhoods have the least access to healthy drinks and full-service grocery options,” Nadeau said in a statement. “This bill reinvests in our neighborhoods by providing healthy food, expanding childcare options and improving parks.”

Elmo Davis, 44, who bought snacks from a convenience store in Anacostia on a recent Tuesday, suggested the city find other sources of revenue for public health services.

“I mean, they got other funds they can get money from besides taxing soda,” Davis said. “I might think twice before buying [a soda.]”

Helen Park owns the New 7 Market in Anacostia and said customers have been frustrated since the city hiked the sales tax on soda. She doesn’t expect the situation to improve if the council continues to drive prices through an excise tax.

“They’re angry. That’s a problem,” Park said.

She added, she doesn’t think the measure will discourage people from drinking sugary sodas, sports drinks, juices or iced teas.

“People will drink whatever they want to drink,” Park said.

An excise tax is imposed on distributors, who pass the cost onto consumers. That means the price tag on soda and sugary drinks would increase.

Seven U.S. cities now have excise taxes on sugary drinks, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, said Richard Auxier, a research associate in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute. It’s difficult to determine if the taxes have accomplished what lawmakers wanted, he said.

at Northwestern University showed an excise tax of 1.5 cents per ounce led to 46% fewer soda and sugary drink sales in Philadelphia. But there was a sharp increase in soda sales outside the cities’ limits.

“Basically, it seems that a lot of people in Philadelphia are driving to stores right outside the city to buy their beverages,” Auxier said. “When you take that into account, sales in and around the city dropped about 20%, not 46%.”

People will drink whatever they want to drink.

In the District, proponents say the tax would help curb health disparities. Research has linked sugary drink consumption to heart disease and diabetes.

91ÇŃ×Ó half of all adults living in the District have diabetes or prediabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. In 2016, 15% of adults living in Wards 7 and 8 had diabetes, a rate four times higher than Ward 3, D.C. Department of Health Data shows.

And, research from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says the beverage industry targets communities of color. Black children are twice as likely to see TV ads for sugary drinks than white kids.

Auxier warned the tax may not be a stable source of revenue for the city. But, it could be too soon to tell.

“Is it a good source of revenue? No, in a sense that it’s going to be volatile. It’s a little unpredictable,” Auxier said. “You wouldn’t want to make a very important service depend on this revenue.”

He estimates the tax would raise funds “in the millions, not in the hundreds of millions.”

Anacostia is one of the poorest neighborhoods in D.C. While the soda tax is designed to help the area’s residents, some view it as a punishment.

“People don’t like it. They say, ‘We are poor, we don’t have money,’” said Fikre Aytenfisn, the manager at Anacostia Beer and Wine. “They expect everything to be a dollar because it has [a 99-cent sticker] on it.”

Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White is a vocal supporter of the Healthy Beverages Act of 2019. His office did not respond to a request for comment from the Wash.

“It’s a poor area out here,” Aytenfisn said. “Most of them, they don’t want to pay.”

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Ferebee-Hope, once home to an elementary school, closed its doors in 2013 after struggling to maintain steady enrollment.

“Ferebee-Hope was a pillar in the community,” said Karlene Armstead, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for the area surrounding the former school building. “The community wants the school to come back. The nearby schools are busting at the seams.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s announcement to relinquish Ferebee-Hope, which has been under city control since it shuttered, comes as charter schools clamor for resources. While charter schools in D.C. are public, they have to secure their own facilities.

But as KIPP DC prepares to respond to Bowser’s request for proposal, the entire community isn’t on board for another charter school, Armstead said. She admits she’s “not a fan” of KIPP DC’s plans.

“I would like for it to go to D.C. Public Schools so my taxes pay for it,” Armstead said about the building. “[KIPP] is a corporation and so they’re making money off this.”

Jacque Patterson, KIPP DC’s chief community engagement and growth officer, said school leaders are listening to residents’ concerns and want to build a school that can benefit the entire community.

“If you really want the school to be successful, it’s all about community,” Patterson said. “It will be something that serves the entire community. Residents have been asking for programming that speaks to the community and the children.”

KIPP already has a small high school campus in Ward 8 – KIPP DC Somerset College Preparatory with 179 students, according to KIPP’s website. KIPP DC Douglass campus for pre-K through eighth-graders is also in Ward 8.

KIPP’s larger high school, with more than 800 students, is in Northeast Washington. 91ÇŃ×Ó one-third of the students are Ward 8 residents, Patterson said.

“They’re looking at commutes that are one-and-a-half to two hours. They’re waking up as early as 5 a.m.,” Patterson said. “It cuts into their ability to get enough rest, to get to school to be ready to learn and everything.”

Patterson also described the potential expansion in Ward 8 as a solution to safety concerns. D.C. students have pleaded with city leaders to make their commutes to and from schools safer. Shorter commutes could mean fewer run-ins with crimes for students as they travel to school, Patterson said.

Armstead said Ward 8 has enough charter schools. Achievement Prep, a top-rated charter school, is less than a mile from Ferebee-Hope. The commissioner accused charter schools of “promising kids the world” without delivering.

Armstead said she’s tried to revitalize what’s left of Ferebee-Hope — a recreation center and pool that adjoins the vacant school building.Ěý But unreliable funding, transient staff and fearful residents mean these programs don’t always last.

Crime continues to be an issue in Anacostia and surrounding Ward 8, Armstead said.

“If it’s not safe, if there’s not any equipment, they’re not coming.”

Ferebee-Hope’s community center is maintained by D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. Delano Hunter, the agency’s director, said the department doesn’t yet have a clear vision for the space if a school moves in.

“DPR’s goal is to continue providing recreation services in the community and will work collaboratively with all stakeholders on the future use of the Ferebee-Hope site,” Hunter said in an email.

Ferebee-Hope is the first vacant school building Bowser has released since she took office.

The move represents a victory for charter schools in the District.

Scott Pearson, executive director of D.C. Public Charter School Board, June charter schools were “facing a housing crisis” and chided the Bowser administration for failing to release any vacant school buildings.

“This is a sharp contrast with policies of Mayors Williams, Fenty and Gray, who each released a dozen or more school buildings,” Pearson said at the time. “Against this backdrop, we were encouraged by the news last week that the mayor has put out a RFO for Ferebee-Hope.”

Still, Armstead doesn’t want the community center to fall by the wayside. She fears the recreation center will continue to decay if KIPP DC pumps an estimated $70 million into the school building.

“What will be the future of the recreation center?” Armstead asked. “People are discouraged.”

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The desk had belonged to Zaire Kelly, a 16-year-old student at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School, who was killed just feet away from his Northeast Washington home.

Lee was his social studies teacher.

“It was really hard to be a teacher,” Lee said. “And this week has been extremely hard for me in ways the last two years haven’t been. I wasn’t allowing myself to feel my own grief.”

Four months after Zaire’s death, the school was thrown into another tragedy. Paris Brown, 19, was murdered in Southeast Washington.

Students at the Anacostia school know trauma. They know what it’s like to have their classmates ripped away from them and their sleep interrupted by gunshots.

Now national data from the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative suggests nearly half of American children have experienced a traumatic event. Experts say growing up around substance abuse, domestic violence and poverty are common parts of childhood, according to data from Child Trends.

Children and teens can also go through trauma if their parents get divorced, if they experience the death of a loved one or if one of their parents is imprisoned.

Michael Blackson, 17, said guns and drugs are part of his daily life.

“Because I live in Southeast [Washington], it’s a really poverty-ridden area. It’s a lot of drugs on the street,” Michael, a senior at Thurgood Marshall, said. “Even though I live near a police station, they still shoot guns.”

The issue attracted the attention of lawmakers at an in early September. Education experts and California’s surgeon general asked members of the House of Representatives to help school districts deal with students’ diverse needs.

Nathaniel Herr, a psychology professor at American University, said it could take a policy change to meet student’s needs. Schools can’t meet the needs of their students without the right resources.Ěý

“We ask schools to do so much and to expect schools to provide the types of therapeutic services students need is asking a lot,” Herr said. “If the resources aren’t given to the school, I don’t know how they could possibly manage it.”

Lee called for increased training for teachers and more mental health resources. She described professional development sessions about trauma-informed practices as “one-off” opportunities that teachers have to seek out.

The American Academy of Pediatrics defines trauma-informed practices as a “framework that involves understanding, recognizing and responding to the effects of all types of trauma.” Teachers want to infuse these practices into their classrooms, Lee said. Not all of them know how to.

“I don’t know that, as a teacher, I was fully prepared to know what I was doing,” Lee said about her career. She started teaching in D.C. schools 16 years ago. “I had a really steep learning curve.”

Gone unaddressed, trauma can snowball into greater.

“Exposure to trauma early in life does make you more prone to negative reactions to stress later in life,” Herr said. Adults who experienced trauma as children are at a greater risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

D.C. Public School officials know the trauma kids face at home is affecting the way they perform at school. The district this year launched Connected Schools, a network of campuses designed to serve not only as schools, but also as community hubs for health, employment and housing resources.

The schools are spread across five wards, with campuses in Columbia Heights, Lincoln Heights and Eckington. Ward 8 has the highest concentration of Connected Schools – Ballou and Anacostia High, Kramer and Hart Middle, and Moten Elementary schools.

“I look forward to working alongside our amazing educators to ensure that DCPS provides a great school in every neighborhood at every grade level and that our students are set up for post-secondary success,” said Lewis D. Ferebee, D.C. Public Schools chancellor, in a .

The school district also plans to introduce the LiveSafe app, software that allows students to share live updates from their commutes and report dangerous activity.

Students in violence-prone pockets of the city have long pleaded with officials to make their commutes to and from school safer. Zaire was gunned down on his way home from a college-prep course.Ěý

Student at Thurgood Marshall piloted the software in August.

“I liked the simplicity of it,” Michael said. He added the app would be useful during track season when he takes a bus home after late games and practices.

Michael also called on lawmakers to address the violence in his community.Ěý

As school districts across the county struggle to meet their student’s needs, Lee doesn’t want teachers to get left behind.

Teachers can absorb some of the trauma their students are experiencing, she said. Educators often take on the role of a counselor or even a parent.

And, they’re not immune to the grief students feel when one of their classmates die.ĚýĚý

“I think that also has to be part of the conversation. How much we set aside our own needs to meet the needs of our school community,” Lee said about the staff at Thurgood Marshall. “I wonder if we need a teacher support group.”

Though, students are stepping up. The teens, in the wake of their classmates’ deaths, formed Pathways 2 Power, an anti-gun-violence group.

“They turned their grief into advocacy,” Lee said.Ěý

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