Cassidy Jensen

Students, parents, teachers and community members on Monday night urged against the proposed closure of Washington Metropolitan High School, which some say suffers from lack of investment from DC Public Schools.
“Nobody’s listening to us,” said Lyric Johnson, one of several current students to speak at a public meeting held at Washington Met, a converted elementary school near Howard University. “We’ve been preaching. All we want is some resources.”
The session was the first of two taking pla...

DC has not yet met its years-old goal of eliminating veteran homelessnesss, but new permanent housing, better data and improved identification of veterans all provide grounds for optimism that it may soon do so. The District has steadily chipped away at its numbers of homeless veterans over the past five years, despite struggling to provide housing for those newly facing homelessness amid the city’s affordable housing crisis.
“I think veteran homelessness is going to be the type of homelessne...

D.C. team loyalty can be hard to shake, according to Washington Nationals fans in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Some proud Nats fans will be wearing red caps into church this weekend, a reminder of Washington’s first World Series appearance in 86 years.
The Houston Astros won game three Oct. 25, trimming the Nationals series’ lead to two-games-to-one, but that hasn’t dampened fans’ enthusiasm for a team which started this season 19-31 which led to calls to fire manager Davey Martinez.
“I neve...

These families will have to decide who will stay and who will go—whether or not they can remain a family within these borders.
Claudia Rojas has a poet’s frame. She is thin, and looks like she could easily be younger than 23. But her voice is not delicate, and when she begins to recite a poem into the microphone in her hand, even the toddlers climbing noisily up and down in their folding chairs fall quiet.
“Protected,” she begins.
“Today the protesters will go on strike, pray and fast
Their l...

A recent literature review revealed an overrepresentation of Black people in the homeless community and a lack of sufficient research to identify race-specific causes of and solutions to homelessness. Dr. Marian Moser Jones of the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that African-Americans make up 40.4 percent of the total homeless population, yet only 12.5 percent of general population.
Jones reviewed 34 social and behavioral science research articles studying homelessness an...

By: Cassidy Jensen
Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, spoke at Georgetown University on April 20 to a packed Lohrfink Auditorium in an event organized by the Lecture Fund. In her remarks, Richards emphasized the important role of young people in the future of the political fight for reproductive rights.
Representatives from the Lecture Fund began the event with a short introduction, which emphasized the organization’s...

Clifford Rowe is a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division who served during the Bay of Pigs invasion and played in Elvis Presley’s band. Now, thanks to new housing for homeless veterans, Rowe has his own home for the first time in 12 years.
On Jan. 12, the John and Jill Ker Conway Residence officially opened, providing homeless veterans with permanent supportive housing as well as affordable housing for Washingtonians.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secr...

When a D.C. resident returns to Washington after a prison term, they may not know what awaits them. They may not have seen family or friends in years; have few employment prospects, or have no place to live in a city with rising rents. Nearly 50,000 Americans enter shelter directly from correctional facilities each year, according to guidance from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
“It’s really hard for them to take advantage of some of the services that we offer to help them stabi...

On a Wednesday afternoon at Neval Thomas Elementary School, parents moved slowly through the school’s gym, chatting with other families while their children sprinted around the room laughing and dancing to pop music that blasted from a nearby speaker. One toddler bobbed happily up and down while munching on an Oreo. This is a Joyful Food Market, one of 29 pop-up markets in Wards 7 and 8 where children and their families receive free healthy produce and pantry staples, while learning about hea...

D.C. may soon join a growing number of states eliminating sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers, regarding them as medical necessities rather than luxury products. Advocates have said that the current tax makes these products an economic burden for low-income and homeless women, unfairly targeting the biological needs of families.
On Sept. 28, the D.C. Council Committee on Finance & Revenue held a public hearing on the Feminine Hygiene and Diapers Sales Tax Exemption Amendment Ac...

On Jan. 23, three young mayors from across the country gathered in the Healy Family Student Center to discuss the future of “millennials” as leaders in local politics.
Hosted by the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, the panel, called “What’s Working at City Hall: A Conversation on Challenges, Cities, and Careers with the Country’s Leading Millennial Mayors,” included three young mayors: Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., Mayor Lydia Mihalik of Findlay, Ohio, Mayor Fr...

Footage of joyful families playing at the beach is not usually associated with the Holocaust. Nor are evocative art and poetry thought of in tandem with the stark reality of prison. However, “Prison to Stage: Holocaust Images and the Poetry and Art of American Prisoners” at the Kennedy Center brought such images together, linking art expressing the beauty of life with the tragedy of imprisonment in a show that demonstrated the close proximity of good and evil.
“A poem can be the language of a...

Chris Wager (SFS’ 17) thought he could learn all he wanted to know in Georgetown’s classrooms. But when he developed an interest in Chicano studies, the academic field of Mexican-American culture and history, he found scant opportunities to study his own heritage through his Georgetown coursework. Although a flexible major and supportive professors allowed him to explore his interests, it was only when Wager took a semester off his junior year and returned home to Texas that he finally learne...

Rylinda Rhodes was faced with a difficult choice when she was convicted of a felony for killing her abusive partner. She could fight her conviction, but remain incarcerated and separated from her children, or take a plea deal and return to her family. She chose to take the plea, but could not have anticipated how severely her felony conviction would mar her future.
Although Rhodes had marketable skills, she was refused employment, and the job she did find paid such low wages that she lost her...