https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/08/24/dc-schools-trump-police-crackdown/

Zoe Amen usually rides the Metro home from school — a 90-minute commute that takes her from her Catholic high school in the Maryland suburbs to her house in Southeast Washington. In a normal year, she’ll sometimes stop to grab food or study at the library. In a normal year, she feels pretty safe.

But this year is not normal, she said.

“I’m kind of scared of being stopped,” said the 17-year-old rising senior. Her mom always tells her that she’s a good kid, that nothing will happen. But now, there are more federal officers in the streets.

The first day of school, typically steeped in routine and tradition, will look different for some students in the District amid President Donald Trump’s orders to place the city’s police under federal control and deploy the National Guard to drive down crime.

Some teenagers are changing their commutes. Parents are recruiting volunteers to monitor popular routes to school — particularly around campuses with large populations of Hispanic children and recent immigrants. An after-school program hopes it can hold on to its mostly Latina staff, who are on edge after unmarked federal immigrant enforcement patrol cars were outside the campus last week.

Amen was among dozens of students at a Friday night meeting in Southeast Washington that was organized by several community groups in response to the federal police takeover. City leaders, community organizers and D.C. police shared advice for navigating the increased law enforcement presence once school starts Monday: Stay calm. You’re allowed to film officers, but from a respectful distance. Be smart.