Despite the more than 2,000 national guard troops authorized by the repression of President Donald Trump against crime, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that students in the capital of the nation will not be helped by their presence when children return to school this week.
“We do not need federal agencies to help bring children to school,” Bowser told ABC News. “We will take care of bringing our children to school.”
The school year begins as Bowser and the office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) that promote competition rates in the arts/literacy of the English language (ELA) and mathematics are the highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ELA competition rate is the highest recorded.
Hundreds of thousands of students return to the classroom in the main metropolitan school districts this week.
About 100,000 students return to DC schools on Monday in the middle of the Trump administration police increase in Washington. Student safety is always a main problem for educational leaders during the season back to school. However, the presence of troops in Washington is asking new questions, since a military -style vehicle was involved in an accident last week and the troops will meet throughout the city in the subway railway stations, which is how many students arrive at school.
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser questions him the questions of journalists during a press conference at Phelps Architecture Construction and Engineering High School in Washington as the head of the Metropolitan Police Department, Pamela Smith, listens to August 20, 2025.
LAMEY/AP
Bowser said that existing DC transport strategies include the use of the district’s safe approval program with the application of the local law that covers the streets. If families feel insecure, the district offers a Safe Connect program, which connects students with a trip to school.
Bowser believes that using the guard as the police is unnecessary and said that the crime rate had declined “precipitously” before Trump’s increase.
“I think that calling men and women from their homes and their works and their families: they must be used, you know, in specific elements of the mission that benefit the nation,” Bowser said, adding: “I don’t think we have an armed militia in the capital of the nation.”
But the head of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, Pamela Smith, acknowledged that federal agents distributed throughout the city have made security improvements.
“When listening to the officers on the street, some of them have found that it is very useful, some people in the community have found that it is very useful,” said Smith.
In Philadelphia, where almost 200,000 students return to schools this week, the Superintendent of the Filadelphia School District, Tony Watlington, argued that the crime and the shootings have also decreased there. He pointed out that the eighth largest school district in the Nation is investing in “security zones” by hiring with the Philadelphia Police Department to provide additional patrols in areas that have an increase in violence.
“We have invested more resources and safe trail programs in which we hire with community organizations to supervise children as they go through, while they go to school, to guarantee their safety,” Watlington told ABC News. In addition, Philadelphia is hiring more school security officers for school district staff, Watlington said. Watlington said he is promoting a cozy atmosphere in the City of Fraternal Love, which according to him is to create a culture where young people feel connected, seen and heard.
“We have to build relationships,” Watlington said.
“We are focusing a lot on that in the school district, because when children who feel connected, their health and social and emotional mental welfare are attended, and they have relationships with each other and with adults, when they see something, they are more likely to say something and, therefore, those are a series of things we are doing in our strategic plan to provide the safety and well -being of our young people and our staff,” he said.
Member of the National Guard Patrules within the Foggy Bottom Metrail Station in Washington, on August 21, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Images
But Watlington and Philadelphia’s parents and families have anxiety for significant cuts to their public transport system, Septa.
“We just can’t go and get more yellow school buses and put them on the street in Philadelphia,” Watlington said. “We trust public transport, and it is unfortunate, and it is not the fault of our children who have some impacts on their transport.”
Even so, Bowser and Education officials in DC and Philadelphia agree that security is the main priority for their respective cities. In the Pep Rally back to Bowser school earlier this month, he emphasized that a community response is needed to guarantee a successful first day.
Bowser urged DC residents to applaud, encourage and celebrate city students all week.
“Our children deserve and will have a cheerful beginning of their school year,” Bowser said, adding: “All adults in our buildings, all the people of our government focus on making sure that happens.”
“We want them to have a great school year, and we will all stand with them.”
