Embedded Files
With summer break officially closing its doors on Aug. 25, Albert Einstein High School opened its doors for the first-ever “Student Transition Day.”
The Montgomery County Board of Education approved the new day for the 2025-2026 school year on Dec. 5, 2024. MCPS’ goal for the student transition day was to help students adapt to their new schools, allowing students to ease their anxieties before the first day of school.
By Cristian Perez
Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, MCPS changed the grading policy throughout the county’s middle and high schools. This new policy affects how final grades are calculated, with semester grades being calculated by averaging the student’s grade percentages during each quarter.
By Emily Markin
On Oct. 13, MCPS superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor announced that he was planning to recommend the closure of Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) and build a new Sligo Creek Elementary School (SCES) at a new location. On Dec. 12, a vote was held at the Board of Education meeting, which resulted in the suspension of the process of recommending the closure of SSIMS.
By Luisa Farole
Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, MCPS changed the grading policy throughout the county’s middle and high schools. This new policy affects how final grades are calculated, with semester grades being calculated by averaging the student’s grade percentages during each quarter.
By Emily Markin
Since Einstein opened its doors for the new school year on Aug. 26, every student has heard the phrase, “bell to bell, no cell,” and seen the MCPS Cell Phone and Personal Mobile Device Regulation’s updated policy for the 2025-2026 school year put into effect.
By Paulina Mann
On Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 6:40 a.m., Joshua Jahn, 29, killed two people and injured another before taking his own life at a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas.
Norlan Guzmán Fuentes, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, 32, passed away six days following the shooting after being taken off life support
By Luisa Farole
The starvation in Gaza, commonly referred to as the Gaza Famine, has already killed almost 400 people, including 140 children, as of Sept. 9, 2025.
Palestinians are deliberately being starved, and according to How to stop Israel from starving Gaza, “more than half a million Palestinians face catastrophic hunger, and at least 132,000 children aged below five years are at risk of death from acute malnutrition.”
By Kelly Tran
On Aug. 11, President Donald J. Trump announced that he would be deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., citing a “crime emergency” in the city. A few days later, the first soldiers were processed. Although the National Guard personnel were not originally armed, in recent weeks, they have been. Since Trump’s announcement, 800 National Guard personnel have been deployed to the capital, a decision that has faced large controversy.
By Morgan Butler
On Sept. 24, Nepal’s government banned 26 social media platforms. This added fuel to the already burning fire. Nepalese citizens already saw the government as corrupt. Banning social media was an attempt to silence Gen Z protests, but it also hurt much of the economy. This sparked many riots, which eventually led to the prime minister to resign.
By Andrés Guzmán
On Aug. 14, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the state would be filing a lawsuit against Roblox Corporation. Roblox is an online gaming platform advertised primarily to children, with an estimated 31.1 million users interacting with their countless gaming styles. With claims of child exploitation, questions are being raised about the effectiveness of Roblox’s safety measures and what the future of the company holds.
By Rebekah Wright
Throughout June 2025, there were widespread riots in Los Angeles over the Trump Administration’s mass deportation policy. The riots prompted an aggressive police reaction from the Trump administration.
When Trump took office in Jan. 2025, he set a goal to arrest 3,000 immigrants every day.
By Evan McFarland
On June 1, 2025, Monroe Nichols, Mayor of Tulsa, announced his plan for the “Road to Repair” reparations for the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The attacks lasted 18 hours between May 31 and June 1 in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
By Lidya Maru
On Sept. 8, the body of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in the trunk of a Tesla belonging to the singer David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd. The cause of her death has yet to be determined, even weeks after her body was discovered.
By Emily Markin
At 10 a.m. on Sept. 28, the ninth annual Wheaton Arts Parade kicked off along Georgia Ave. Residents of the area and surrounding communities flocked to the streets of downtown Wheaton to claim a spot to watch the parade. Artists and organizations spent the morning setting up their tents along the blocked-off roads and preparing to engage with fellow passionate community members.
By Leif Lesperance
A Buffalo Wild Wings location opened in Kensington on Wednesday, Sept. 24. The business announced on Facebook that at their grand opening, they would be offering their first 100 customers free wings for a year. This is the first business to open in the new Kensington Crossroads shopping center at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Plyers Mill Road.
By Anna Taft
On Sept. 10, while speaking at a Utah Valley University (UVU) event, Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed. Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings when a single bullet was fired from a rooftop, striking him in the neck.
By Paulina Mann
The advisory period is one of the many new implementations for Albert Einstein students during the 2025-26 school year. The advisory period replaces Titan Time, which has been going on for several years.
By Angelina Vojvodic
After 39 years as the theater and choral director at Einstein, Peter Smeallie retired, and a new face has been spotted in the VAPA department this year: Rachel Herman.
Herman previously taught fourth grade at Burnt Mills Elementary School, but has made the switch to teaching high school this year.
By Emily Markin
Before midnight of Sept. 1, 2025, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck the eastern region of Afghanistan. The response to the earthquake by the Taliban government was hampered by a variety of factors.
The Nangarhar and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan were most affected by the quake. Including the numerous aftershocks that reached magnitudes of up to 5.6, roughly 3,000 people were killed, over 4,000 were injured, and 13,421 buildings were either destroyed or damaged.
By Evan McFarland
On Monday, Sept. 22, President Trump, along with Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., initiated an attack on the common, over-the-counter painkiller, Tylenol, saying that its main ingredient, acetaminophen, is a primary cause of autism.
By Valerie Merkowitz
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