Union Trinity AME Church, one of Philadelphia’s historic Black religious institutions and known as “The Friendly Church,” was vandalized with racist graffiti over the weekend.
Pastor Tianda Smart-Heath was informed of the vandalism shortly after Sunday service, where she found racist slogans invoking the name of God and enslaved people sprayed onto the exterior walls of the more than 200-year-old church, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
The newly merged church, Union Trinity AME in North Philadelphia, hasn’t welcomed congregants inside the historic building since 2020, and it is currently under construction, according to Fox 29. In that time, church service has been held at the Beckett Life Center next door.
Smart-Heath told local media that the church has been vandalized before, including trespassing and theft, but never with racist hate speech. Police responded to the vandalism on Sunday to photograph the scene and conduct a follow-up investigation. The case is overseen by PPD Central Detectives.
A police officer photographs damaged stained glass at Mother Bethel AME Church on Feb. 20, 2024.
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches are part of a vast network of independent Black Christian churches that was started in Philadelphia two centuries ago, when Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel AME in 1787.
A screenshot of a surveillance video captures the suspect in a recent vandalism incident, where an unknown white male painted racist and antisemitic slogans on the exterior walls of Roxborough High School on Jan. 4, 2026. Police describe the suspect as a white male, wearing an orange scarf/wrap, green and black winter hat, gray hooded jacket, gray pants, and a gray and black backpack.
Hate crimes have more than tripled in Pennsylvania since 2020, according to the most recent “No Hate in Our State” report from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC). The most prevalent form of hate crime in Pennsylvania, according to FBI reports, is anti-Black or anti-African American hate crimes, accounting for more than one out of every four hate crimes committed in the state in the last five years.
“Any attack on the Black Church as one of the historical foundations of the African American community needs to be condemned and looked at through the lens of a potential hate crime,” said PHRC executive director Chad Dion Lassiter. “We can no longer be silent in this moment of outward hatred and rage toward any institution of faith.”
During her visit, Davidge posed with the string band captains from her wheelchair, collected an assortment of beads, made a TV appearance, had lunch at Marathon Grill, and drove by the Philadelphia Art Museum to see the Rocky statue.
“I fell in love with Philadelphia and would love to go back,” she said from her Swansea flat, marveling at how total strangers stopped her during the parade asking if she was “the grandma from Wales.”
“I will never ever forget it and I would love to go back tomorrow,” she said.
Still, Davidge’s granddaughter, Fiona Smillie-Hedges, reports not all is well back home. Davidge’s Instagram account, “grandmas.adventures,” was suspended for allegedly failing to follow the platform’s “community standards on account integrity.”
The family has inadvertently found itself among thousands of people who claim to have been erroneously banned thanks to faulty and overzealous artificial intelligence models. Like so many before her, Smillie-Hedges has not been able to get hold of a human.
At stake for the grandmother, who jokes about never leaving her flat and the possibility of death with the slightest illness, is her window to the world, specifically Philadelphia. She had amassed about 400 followers who shared her passion for the Mummers.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment.
The whole ordeal has been a blow to the family. Instagram was how the family was able to connect with Mummers in the first place and touch base with other Philadelphians who offered parade advice.
“She wouldn’t have been in the paper, or gone to the Mummers Museum, or met [Quaker City String Band captain] Jimmy Good, or had any of the other captains,” Smillie-Hedges said. “It would have been a completely different trip.”
The family doesn’t know how to broach the subject with Davidge, though they feel they can’t keep her in the dark much longer. While Davidge doesn’t know how to navigate the platform, she likes to hear what people are saying and have her niece respond to comments. For now, she’s still responding to her TikTok followers.
Smillie-Hedges doesn’t want to tarnish the Philadelphia experience and she doesn’t know how to relay Instagram’s reason for the ban. She’s not quite sure she understands herself.
“We don’t allow people on Instagram to pretend to be someone well known or speak for them without permission,” read a standard explanation from Instagram, which also said no one would be able to see the account and Davidge’s information would be permanently deleted.
The only peccadillo Smillie-Hedges can think of is calling Davidge “Queen Mumm” on some posts, a nickname given to her by Jim Donio, host of the String Band Sessions podcast. To the British, Queen Mum can be a reference to Queen Elizabeth, who was also known as the Queen Mother, and is long dead.
While the stakes are somewhat low for Davidge and her granddaughter, they have found themselves in what Reddit forums claim is becoming a growing problem. Meta artificial intelligence models are inaccurately flagging and disabling accounts with little recourse for users.
Smillie-Hedges can’t get past the automated responses to request another review of the decision.
According to the BBC, paying for Meta Verified is one way to speak to a human, but even that is not a surefire way to address account issues.
Reports of the bans extend to Meta’s other platforms Facebook and WhatsApp. A Change.org petition with more than 54,000 signatures demands the tech company address the AI banning issues across its platforms.
For now, Smillie-Hedges made a quick post on TikTok telling people about the suspension and letting fans know the family was trying to get it back. She also began uploading some of Davidge’s videos on Facebook as an additional way to connect with people.
“I was worried people were going to think something bad had happened,” Smillie-Hedges said. “Some people are really invested in her.”
Donio, who first connected with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge on Instagram and made much of the VIP visit to Philly possible, said he has tried to spread the word of the account mishap. He can now communicate with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge through email and video calls but he understands their frustration.
“I think the frustration that a lot of people feel is if you do something wrong or if you’ve miscommunicated something and then you want to resolve it, it’s virtually impossible to try to resolve it and explain your situation to a live person,” he said.
Smillie-Hedges is still hopeful that something can be done to change Meta’s mind about the account. In the meantime, she and her grandmother continue to reminisce and upload snippets of video from the visit.
Of the highlights there are many. There was the moment she met Good, who leads the Quaker City String Band. He surprised her while she visited the Mummers Museum.
Davidge woke up in her Center City hotel overlooking Broad Street just in time to greet 2026. Down below she saw two children play-fighting with Mummers umbrellas.
Then there was the parade itself, where Davidge was treated like a VIP. Though the string band competition was postponed because of heavy winds that led to performer injuries, she still got to see bands show off their costumes and perform. The string bands were the main draw when Davidge discovered the Mummers weeks after her longtime husband’s death. She felt it was something they would have enjoyed together.
And who could forget the freezing cold, joked Davidge, adding people could hardly see her face because she was bundled deep in layers of blankets at certain points.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she mused. “What a wonderful opportunity to be able to go there and see it myself.”
A 16-year-old boy died Monday evening after he was found with a gunshot wound inside a Chipotle restaurant bathroom in an off-campus residential building used by Temple University students.
Around 5:15 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting victim inside the Chipotle on the ground floor of the The View at Montgomery apartments on Montgomery Avenue at 12th Street.
The victim, who was shot in the chest, was found in the bathroom by an employee, police said. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:24 p.m.
Police on Tuesday identified the teen as Khyon Smith-Tate, of the city’s Hartranft section.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said the teen was in the bathroom with at least one other juvenile when he was shot. Police found one spent shell casing inside the bathroom, Small said.
“The place was very crowded with customers as well as employees,” but music was being played loudly so it was unclear if anyone heard the gunshot, Small said.
A possible suspect wearing all dark clothing and a backpack was seen on surveillance video fleeing the restaurant, Small said.
A person of interest was detained a few blocks away, Small said. No arrests were reported.
Temple University officials issued a statement notifying the university community about the shooting.
“The loss of life to gun violence is a profound tragedy and there are no words that can make sense of it. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and loved ones,” John Fry, the university’s president, and Jennifer Griffin, vice president for public safety and chief of police, said in a joint statement.
From left to right: Daquan Brown, Nyshyia Thomas, Tyejuan Brown, and Nesiyah Thomas-Brown, at the funeral for 15-year-old DaJuan Brown in July 2023.
This week, she will return, but to sit on the other side of the room — to see her eldest son in shackles, seated behind plexiglass, charged with three counts of murder, nine counts of attempted murder, and causing a catastrophe and riot.
She said her 21-year-old son feared for his life when he fired his legally owned gun twice down Etting Street the night of July 7, and that prosecutors have charged him with killings he didn’t commit.
But she also feels for the families of the victims — one of them her son’s close friend — and imagines that, if she were in their shoes, she would want everyone who fired a gun to face consequences.
“From being on both sides of this, it’s overwhelming, it’s unfair,” she said. “But I understand.”
Nyshyia Thomas (right) with Tyejuan Brown and Nesiyah Thomas-Brown inside their South Philadelphia home.
The July 7 party on Etting Street was one of two on the block that weekend celebrating the July Fourth holiday and the lives of some young men from the neighborhood who had been killed in recent years. Daquan Brown grew up about a block away and went to see childhood friends, his mother said.
Shortly after 1 a.m., police said, gunfire erupted. Officers responded to find that more than 120 bullets had been fired down the street in nearly all directions, striking neighbors’ homes and cars — and 13 partygoers.
Initially, police thought someone had shot up the party in a targeted attack. But after reviewing video footage, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing ballistics, detectives now believe the partygoers may have unintentionally shot each other.
Police investigate a mass shooting on the 1500 block of South Etting Street on July 7, 2025.
After people heard what they thought was the sound of gunfire — someone at the gathering may have shot once into the air or a car passing by may have backfired — at least 15 people pulled out their weapons and sprayed dozens of shots down the block, police said.
Brown, police said, was among them. As gunfire erupted, he took cover between cars and fired two shots down the block, according to two law enforcement sources who asked not to be named to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Investigators don’t know whether any of the shots Brown fired struck or killed anyone, the sources said. A full ballistics report is still pending, though it may never be able to determine whose bullets struck each victim.
Thomas has tried to come to terms with the police narrative. She is adamant that her son, having fired only two shots, shouldn’t be charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. He feared for his life and acted in self-defense, she said.
At the same time, she said, had it been her son who was shot and killed that night, she would not want to hear from anyone trying to make sense of it.
Tyejuan Brown and a family member hold Nyshyia Thomas at the funeral of their son, DaJuan Brown, on July 15, 2023. DaJuan’s brother, Daquan, stands to right of Tyejuan.
Still, she finds herself doing that. Brown, who worked as a security guard and has no criminal record, only started carrying the 9mm handgun because of what happened to his brother, she said.
She remembered talking to him before he bought the weapon last year.
“Mom, I lost my brother,” Thomas said he told her. “Y’all not burying me.”
“I kissed him,” she said. “I told him I respect it.”
Brown’s father, Tyejuan, is also jailed with him.
On the night of July 7, she and Tyejuan, the father of her three children, were talking on the porch of her home when they heard dozens of gunshots coming from Etting Street. Tyejuan Brown, she said, took off running toward the party where his son was gathered.
When Thomas reached the block, she said, she found Tyejuan and Daquan covered in blood from carrying bodies to police cruisers.
But police said that when they reviewed surveillance footage from that night, they saw Tyejuan Brown rushing down the street holding a gun, which he is barred from owning because of drug, gun, and assault convictions.
He was arrested in early August and charged with illegal gun possession.
Nyshyia Thomas holds Tyejuan Brown during an interview in 2023 about the loss of their youngest son, DaJuan.
Four days later, they came for his son.
Until recently, Daquan Brown and his father were housed in the same block at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and would speak to each other through a shared cell wall.
Brown is held without bail. Thomas said her family has gathered the $25,000 necessary for the father’s bail, but he has told them not to post it.
“I’m not coming out without my son,” Thomas said he told her.
On the outside, Thomas and her 15-year-old daughter, Nesiyah, are left to grapple with the absence of the three men in their lives they love most.
“I lost one son to gun violence,” Thomas said. “I’ll be damned if I let the system take my other one from me.”
Nyshyia Thomas hugs a photo of her son, DaJuan Brown, on what would have been his 18th birthday in September. Brown was shot and killed in a random mass shooting in July 2023.
Jeffrey Rosen has stepped down as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center after 12 years of leading the private, nonprofit institution.
The center made the announcement Friday on the social media platform LinkedIn.
Rosen will remain as CEO emeritus. Vincent Stango, who has been serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer, has assumed the role as interim president and CEO. The center will conduct a national search for the top leadership position, a spokesperson said Monday.
“It has been an honor to serve the National Constitution Center and to work alongside such an extraordinary board and staff in advancing this mission,” Rosen said in a statement.
“As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, I am proud to pass the baton to Vince and our exceptional leadership team who are fully ready to guide the Center’s next chapter,” Rosen said.
“As CEO Emeritus, I’m looking forward to devoting more time to scholarship, writing, and public engagement around the enduring ideas of the Constitution and the American experiment. This seems like the right time to do that given the exciting programs we have in place for America 250,” Rosen added.
The National Constitution Center is known for awarding the annual Liberty Medal, which has been given to such notable figures in recent years as Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine; legendary boxer Muhammad Ali; and then-Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy.
The center, located at the north end of Independence Mall, was the stage for the only 2024 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and has held talks with Supreme Court justices, including in September with Amy Coney Barrett.
Jeffrey Rosen (left), then-president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, speaking during ceremonies as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was awarded the 2022 Liberty Medal.
Stango has been with the National Constitution Center for 26 years.
“I’m grateful for the trust our Board of Trustees has placed in me, privileged to work with colleagues whose dedication and talents I admire tremendously, and enormously thankful to Jeffrey Rosen for his 12 years of extraordinary service and the legacy he leaves behind,” Stango said in a statement.
In a 2014 Inquirer interview, Doug DeVos, a board member and president of Amway, said Rosen was picked for the job because of his background as a constitutional scholar and his network of friends at the highest legal levels, including Ginsburg.
“He had the skills to engage people in conversation, and really that was the piece that set him apart. He doesn’t do it in a way that says: ‘Hey, I am really smart. Let me tell you everything I know. It’s more like, ‘Let’s talk,’” DeVos said.
Rosen graduated from Harvard University and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
He was legal affairs editor at the New Republic and found himself interviewing members of the Supreme Court. Rosen was an early advocate for Ginsberg, and she credited him with helping her get the 1993 nomination from President Bill Clinton to the high court.
He is the author of several books, most recently “The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.“
For Brian Lovenduski and J. Bazzel, the week after Christmas turned into horror when a pit bull in Center City attacked their beloved dogs. Now that the canine is in custody, they can’t help but feel a bittersweet sense of solace.
“I feel relieved that the dog is not a danger to other people on the streets, but I have mixed feelings that the authorities didn’t work faster,” Lovenduski said.
Between Dec. 26 and 31, three dogs and two owners were attacked by a pit bull in Center City, leaving behind thousands in veterinary bills and GoFundMe pages asking for help.
Lovenduski’s miniature pinscher, Ziggy, lost a leg after a pit bull lunged at him at 12th and Chestnut Streets. And, Stella, Bazzel’s sheltie pup, required surgery, a plate, and a skin graft to piece her crushed foreleg together, after being attacked at Juniper and Chestnut Streets.
It that intersection where police located the pit bull and her owner, whom they believed to be a homeless woman, on Jan. 6.
Stella, an 11-month-old sheltie, seen here recovering from surgery after she was attacked by a pitbull Dec. 26 in Center City. Police believe the pitbull is responsible for three recent attacks.
Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said the woman was arrested for an unrelated matter he would not disclose. So far, no charges have been filed in connection with the dog attacks, Torres said.
The pit bull was transported to ACCT for evaluation. She has not been euthanized, but is not a candidate for adoption, said Sarah Barnett, ACCT Philly executive director.
All incidents remain under investigation, police said.
Both Lovenduski and Bazzel were told the pit bull responsible for their dogs’ attacks was in custody at ACCT.
“It’s bittersweet. We have a dog that is not in a great situation, which creates situations for other dogs and other people. I’m relieved, but I’m not happy it had to come to that,” Bazzel said.
Stella, an 11-month-old sheltie, seen here recovering from surgery after she was attacked by a pit bull Dec. 26 in Center City. Police believe the pit bull is responsible for three recent attacks.
Regardless, his full focus is on his 11-month-old puppy, Stella, who is working on her recovery and getting ready for her first birthday on Jan. 23.
Looking at Ziggy, Lovenduski feels like he may be heartbroken forever, but he is pulling strength from seeing his little guy trying to keep going.
“He is this innocent little creature that relies on me for his safety, and this horrible thing happened that changed his life forever,” Lovenduski said. “I never expected to be in this situation, but the kindness of people has really reminded me that even when it feels like the world is rotten, kindness wins among the lost.”
Ziggy, a miniature pinscher, was attacked by a pit bull while being walked by owner, Brian Lovenduski on Dec. 29, 2025. It was one of three known attacks by the pit bull.
A man was killed and a woman was injured Sunday night after two shooters fired into a tow truck parked in Northeast Philadelphia, police said.
The man, 25-year-old Aaron Whitfield, died at the scene of the shooting on the 2100 block of Knorr Street, police said. A 21-year-old woman struck in the leg by a bullet survived.
According to police, Whitfield, who works as a tow-truck driver, and the woman were inside the vehicle when the shooters drove up to the truck’s passenger side and opened fire at 7:52 p.m.
Officers who responded to a report of gunshots found Whitfield inside the tow truck. He’d been shot multiple times in his head and body, police said, and attempts by medics to resuscitate him failed.
The woman, whose name was not released by police, was transported to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital. Police said that she was stable.
Investigators collected 17 bullet casings at the scene, police said. Bullets also struck nearby buildings, but no one else was injured, police said.
No arrests had been made in the shooting as of midday Monday. Police said a motive for the killing has not yet been determined, and it’s unknown whether either Whitfield or the woman were intentionally targeted.
While the postponement of the Mummers’ string band competition could have put a damper on an otherwise joyous New Year’s Day in Philadelphia, the string bands may have gotten a sweeter prize out of the ordeal.
The annual competition is still open to the public, with tickets available on Ticketmaster for $12 to $25, and will be broadcast on the same channel as the parade, on WFMZ-TV. WFMZ has not announced a time for the television broadcast but said it will be later in the day on Jan. 31.
City officials and parade organizers decided to postpone the competition once extreme wind and unexpected snow damaged several performance props and contributed to a few minor injuries, according to the Philadelphia Mummers String Band Association (PMSBA).
Despite the postponement of the competition, string bands continued to perform for paradegoers in full costume and makeup, honoring the parade’s historic milestone of 125 years, said Sam Regalbuto, PMSBA president, in a statement.
How to watch
The Mummers’ rescheduled string band competition can be watched in person, online, or on television.
The Defender Association of Philadelphia has launched a new initiative to help people facing immigration consequences both inside and outside the criminal-justice system.
The move comes as the Trump administration pursues aggressive new enforcement, where even minor legal cases can put undocumented city residents at risk of detention, family separation, or deportation.
The agency’s Immigration Law Practice is expected to grow to up to 11 staff members. Its creation is to be officially announced at a news conference on Wednesday.
“This is necessary right now,” Chief Defender Keisha Hudson said in an interview. “We’re going to have to sustain this work and expand this work if we’re going to meet the moment.”
The practice will be led by veteran immigration attorney Lilah Thompson, who often represents migrants facing complex legal challenges. She said the work would be done in collaboration with trial attorneys, social workers, and mitigation specialists to shape defense strategies that protect clients and their families.
One area of concentration will be on clients who are in immigration detention despite having no criminal charges, another on people who could face serious immigration repercussions because of what are often minor offenses.
In Philadelphia, attorneys say, people have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they’re enrolling in diversionary programs or heading to court to plead not guilty.
The Trump administration maintains it is arresting dangerous immigrants, though figures show 74% of all those held in detention have no criminal convictions.
A challenge is that those cases must be filed individually, and many of those in detention have neither a lawyer nor the money to hire one.
The new practice consolidates and builds on work that was done at the Nationalities Service Center and the Pennsylvania Immigrant Family Unity Project, or PAIFUP.
Thompson said the immigration practice will make sure that clients have accurate information, strong advocacy, and a chance to protect their futures.
“The work changes every day, with the twists and turns of this administration, and the cruelty it inflicts on noncitizens,” she said. “We have to respond to the moment.”
Crystal Edwards didn’t see a dentist until she had a deep cavity at age 10: growing up in a struggling Philadelphia family, the resources to access dental checkups just weren’t there.
So she jumped atthe opportunity to locate a dental clinic in the school where she is now principal, W.D. Kelley, a K-8 in North Philadelphia.
“This dental clinic is saving lives,” said Edwards.
Tucked into a converted science lab on the school’s third floor, the Dental Clinic at William. D. Kelley, operated by Temple University’s Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, is nearing its third year of operation. It is open to all Philadelphia children, including those who do not attend Kelley, regardless of insurance status.
School district officials have pointed to the Kelley clinic as a model as it prepares to make facilities master plan decisions,which will result in closing, combining, and reconfiguring some school buildings. The clinic is an example, they say, of how the system could use available space in some of its schoolsfor public good.
Soribel Acosta arrives at the Dental Clinic at William D. Kelley public school on Thursday, with her children, Andrea Jimenez (left), 6. And Sayra Jimenez, 7.
“This is certainly a great example of what can happen when a university partners with a school district to create life-changing opportunities and outcomes for young people,” Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said in a statement in 2023, when the clinic opened.
Temple dental school officials said more clinics could follow elsewhere in the city.
Taking care of every child
The underlying concept is simple, said Eileen Barfuss, the Temple dental professor who leads the clinic.
“If your tooth hurts, if you’re not feeling well, you’re not going to learn,” said Barfuss. “In the past, there have been a lot of barriers to care for dentistry that weren’t there for medicine, but preventative care is so important so it doesn’t get to the point of pain.”
The clinic accepts all comers, including those who are uninsured or underinsured, and sometimes treats students’ parents. (Most, but not all, patients have Medicaid dental, and grants help cover treatmentfor those without insurance.)
Temple dentistry student Carly Pandit works on the teeth of Andrea Jimenez, 6, as her mother, Soribel Acosta, entertains sister Sayra Jimenez, 7, waiting her turn in the char at the dental clinic at William D. Kelley public school on Thursday.
“We try to take care of every child in the Philadelphia School District,” said Barfuss. “There’s a place that they can come and get comprehensive care and establish a dental home.”
To date, the clinic has seen nearly 700 patients, some of whom are repeat visitors. Patients are treated both by Barfuss and dental students she supervises.
Students do come from other schools to the clinic; Barfuss said her team does outreachat community events andspreads the word through the district’s school nurses, who often send patients to the clinic. And staff teach lessons in Kelley classrooms on oral health andthe importance of seeing a dentist twice a year.
Being in a school helps normalize the dentist for many kids, who might poke their heads into the clinic to look around andsee the friendly dental staff in their scrubs in the hallways, Barfuss said.
‘This is a good dentist’
On Thursday, Fatoumata Bathily, a fourth grader with pink glasses and a bright smile, swung her legs down from a Kelley clinic dentist chair after a successful checkup.
Eileen K. Barfuss (left), a pediatric dentist and Temple dentistry instructor consults with Fily Dramera after her daughter Fatoumata Bathily (rear), 9, was seen by a Temple student dentist at the Dental Clinic at William D. Kelley public school on Thursday.
“It’s good here,” said Fatoumata, who attends nearby Robert Morris Elementary, and came for preventive care along with her brother, Abubakr. “This is a good dentist. I like that it’s colorful, and the people are nice.”
Amid Ismail has wanted to bring such a model to the city since he became dean of Temple’s dental school in 2008. Decades ago, some schools offered dental care via city services, but as funding dried up, those clinics went away, Ismail said.
Ismail raised the idea of a Temple-district partnership, but it took several years to get off the ground. Edwards, an award-winning principal who takes pride in bringing the community into Kelley, got the vision intuitively, he said.
Temple paid to transform a large science lab into the dental clinic; the district provides the space and does not charge rent. There are four chairs, including one in a space specifically designed for patients with autism who might need a quieter environment and more room. Rooms are bright and modern.
“The message to the parents and caregivers is that this is a nice place where all treatment is provided,” Ismail said. “A lot of children do have dental problems, but here we can treat them easily — they miss one class, max, and they don’t have to stay a long time.”
Soribel Acosta waits for their appointment with her children, Sayra Jimenez (left), 7; and Andrea Jimenez (right), 6, at the Dental Clinic at William D. Kelley public school on Thursday.
The clinic, which is about to celebrate its third anniversary, just expanded its schedule — it’s open four days a week, and officials eventually hope it will be open five days.
Edwards fought for the clinic to come to Kelley, and it’s been just the boon she had hoped, she said.
“This is a historic community that was really devastated and hard hit by the crack and drug pandemic,” said Edwards. “The dental office has really given us leverage on how to serve the community better.”
