Local
EXCLUSIVE: D.C seeks to bolster schools’ anti-bullying policies
Office of Human Rights to partner with Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights on effort
Suzanne Greenfield of the D.C. Office of Human Rights (Photo courtesy of Elliot Imse)
The D.C. Office of Human Rights will partner with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to work with public and charter schools in Washington to strengthen their anti-bullying policies.
Under the voluntary initiative, schools will complete an assessment of their implementation of D.C.’s anti-bullying laws and efforts to combat the issue in eight components designed to create a safe environment for students in the classroom. These include compliance with anti-bullying laws, engagement from school officials and staffers and the collection of data that accurately gauges the issues.
The participating schools will also receive technical assistance in areas in which they could potentially improve.
The Iowa Pride Network initially developed the framework — the Safe School Certification Program — after lawmakers in the Hawkeye State in 2007 passed a sweeping anti-bullying law.
The group convened a task force to develop components — including student, family and community engagement, the use of so-called evidence-based programs and practices to improve a school’s climate towards bullying and providing training for all staff — after it became concerned the schools needed support and training to achieve the statute’s goals.
“Through our framework, technical assistance and coaching, schools aren’t just implementing the letter of the law but the spirit of the law,” Ryan Roemerman, program director of the Safe School Certification Program, said. “By taking part in this program, not only are schools recognized, they are ensuring that their time is focused on efforts that truly create safe learning environments for all students.”
The RFK Center partnered with the Iowa Pride Network under its new anti-bullying initiative — Project SEATBELT (Safe Environment Achieved Through Bullying prevention, Engagement, Leadership and Training respect) — it launched last month.
Project SEATBELT chose D.C. as one of four cities in which to pilot the program.
Deborah Temkin of the RFK Center said these “initial efforts” with the D.C. Office of Human Rights are the “first steps to bringing the program” to the nation’s capital.
“We know that schools across the country and in D.C. are really wanting to do the right thing,” she said. “We know there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for bullying, so our real solution is to help them understand what their context is, what’s working in their context, what may not be working as well and what they may need to focus on a little bit more in order to really accomplish the key components of a safe school and then give them the support and assistance to do so.”
The D.C. Office of Human Rights has given the RFK Center a $40,000 grant to implement the program in which 14 public schools in Iowa currently participate.
“We want this to be a part of how [D.C. schools] do everything,” Suzanne Greenfield of the D.C. Office of Human Rights said. “We want it infused in their sort of mantra of school policies.”
The D.C. Office of Human Rights and the RFK Center announced their partnership slightly more than a year after D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed a bill that requires city agencies that work directly with young people to implement an anti-bullying policy.
The Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012 established an anti-bullying task force that includes representatives from D.C. Public Schools, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Mayor’s Office on GLBT Affairs, SMYAL and other government agencies and community organizations.
The task force in January released recommendations designed to ensure agencies comply with the law that takes effect on Sept. 14. These include models that ensure anti-bullying prevention efforts reach every D.C. resident, focusing specifically on those youth who are either at-risk for bullying or more likely to become bullies and working with bullying victims and those who have victimized them.
D.C. Office of Human Rights Director Gustavo Velasquez in May hired Greenfield — who had previously worked at Advocates for Justice and Education, D.C. Public Schools and PFLAG — to implement the city’s new anti-bullying law.
“I want to support the good work that’s being done and make it better,” Greenfield told the Blade as she discussed the RFK Center partnership.
District of Columbia
D.C. Council urged to improve ‘weakened’ PrEP insurance bill
AIDS group calls for changes before full vote on Feb. 3
The D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute is calling on the D.C. Council to reverse what it says was the “unfortunate” action by a Council committee to weaken a bill aimed at requiring health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
HIV + HEP Policy Institute Executive Director Carl Schmid points out in a Jan. 30 email message to all 13 D.C. Council members that the Council’s Committee on Health on Dec. 8, 2025, voted to change the PrEP DC Act of 2025, Bill 26-0159, to require insurers to fully cover only one PrEP drug regimen.
Schmid noted the bill as originally written and introduced Feb. 28, 2025, by Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), the Council’s only gay member, required insurers to cover all PrEP drugs, including the newest PrEP medication taken by injection once every six months.
Schmid’s message to the Council members was sent on Friday, Jan. 30, just days before the Council was scheduled to vote on the bill on Feb. 3. He contacted the Washington Blade about his concerns about the bill as changed by committee that same day.
Spokespersons for Parker and the Committee on Health and its chairperson, Council member Christina Henderson (I-At-Large) didn’t immediately respond to the Blade’s request for comment on the issue, saying they were looking into the matter and would try to provide a response on Monday, Jan. 2.
In his message to Council members, Schmid also noted that he and other AIDS advocacy groups strongly supported the committee’s decision to incorporate into the bill a separate measure introduced by Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) that would prohibit insurers, including life insurance companies, from denying coverage to people who are on PrEP.
“We appreciate the Committee’s revisions to the bill that incorporates Bill 26-0101, which prohibits discrimination by insurance carriers based on PrEP use,” Schmid said in his statement to all Council members.
“However, the revised PrEP coverage provision would actually reduce PrEP options for D.C. residents that are required by current federal law, limit patient choice, and place D.C. behind states that have enacted HIV prevention policies designed to remain in effect regardless of any federal changes,” Schmid added.
He told the Washington Blade that although these protections are currently provided through coverage standards recommended in the U.S. Affordable Care Act, AIDS advocacy organizations have called for D.C. and states to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP in the event that the federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced or ended federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
“The District of Columbia has always been a leader in the fight against HIV,” Schmid said in a statement to Council members. But in a separate statement he sent to the Blade, Schmid said the positive version of the bill as introduced by Parker and the committee’s incorporation of the Pinto bill were in stark contrast to the “bad side — the bill would only require insurers to cover one PrEP drug.”
He added, “That is far worse than current federal requirements. Obviously, the insurers got to them.”
The Committee on Health’s official report on the bill summarizes testimony in support of the bill by health-related organizations, including Whitman-Walker Health, and two D.C. government officials before the committee at an Oct. 30, 2025, public hearing.
Among them were Clover Barnes, Senior Deputy Director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration, and Philip Barlow, Associate Commissioner for the D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking.
Although both Barnes and Barlow expressed overall support for the bill, Barlow suggested several changes, one of which could be related to the committee’s change of the bill described by Schmid, according to the committee report.
“First, he recommended changing the language that required PrEP and PEP coverage by insurers to instead require that insurers who already cover PrEP and PEP do not impose cost sharing or coverage more restrictive than other treatments,” the committee report states. “He pointed out that D.C. insurers already cover PrEP and PEP as preventive services, and this language would avoid unintended costs for the District,” the report adds.
PEP refers to Post-Exposure Prophylaxis medication, while PrEP stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis medication.
In response to a request from the Blade for comment, Daniel Gleick, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s press secretary, said he would inquire about the issue in the mayor’s office.
Naseema Shafi, Whitman-Walker Health’s CEO, meanwhile, in response to a request by the Blade for comment, released a statement sharing Schmid’s concerns about the current version of the PrEP DC Act of 2025, which the Committee on Health renamed as the PrEP DC Amendment Act of 2025.
“Whitman-Walker Health believes that all residents of the District of Columbia should have access to whatever PrEP method is best for them based on their conversations with their providers,” Shafi said. “We would not want to see limitations on what insurers would cover,” she added. “Those kinds of limitations lead to significantly reduced access and will be a major step backwards, not to mention undermining the critical progress that the Affordable Care Act enabled for HIV prevention,” she said.
The Blade will update this story as soon as additional information is obtained from the D.C. Council members involved with the bill, especially Parker. The Blade will report on whether the full Council makes the changes to the bill requested by Schmid and others before it votes on whether to approve it at its Feb. 3 legislative session.
By PAMELA WOOD | Dan Cox, a Republican who was resoundingly defeated by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore four years ago, has filed to run for governor again this year.
Cox’s candidacy was posted on the Maryland elections board website Friday; he did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Cox listed Rob Krop as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Expanded PrEP access among FreeState Justice’s 2026 legislative priorities
Maryland General Assembly opened on Jan. 14
FreeState Justice this week spoke with the Washington Blade about their priorities during this year’s legislative session in Annapolis that began on Jan. 14.
Ronnie L. Taylor, the group’s community director, on Wednesday said the organization continues to fight against discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. FreeState Justice is specifically championing a bill in the General Assembly that would expand access to PrEP in Maryland.
Taylor said FreeState Justice is working with state Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Arundel and Howard Counties) on a bill that would expand the “scope of practice for pharmacists in Maryland to distribute PrEP.” The measure does not have a title or a number, but FreeState Justice expects it will have both in the coming weeks.
FreeState Justice has long been involved in the fight to end the criminalization of HIV in the state.
Governor Wes Moore last year signed House Bill 39, which decriminalized HIV in Maryland.
The bill — the Carlton R. Smith Jr. HIV Modernization Act — is named after Carlton Smith, a long-time LGBTQ activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in 2024. FreeState Justice said Marylanders prosecuted under Maryland Health-General Code § 18-601.1 have already seen their convictions expunged.
Taylor said FreeState Justice will continue to “oppose anti anti-LGBTQ legislation” in the General Assembly. Their website later this week will publish a bill tracker.
The General Assembly’s legislative session is expected to end on April 13.
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