WASHINGTON — After six Wilson High School students were charged in an attack at a Metro station late last month, some are questioning its safety.
The students went before a judge on Wednesday, and one teenager is still being held.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson says there were incidents on Metro before the city funded students’ free rides.
“I reject this notion that wild bands of roving students are attacking people on the Metro,” Henderson says.
Henderson says the incident at the Gallery Place station is not part of a pattern.
“With 50,000 kids, there are going to be some issues — but that is not an indictment of all of our young people.”
She says before the free ride program, many students said they became truant because they couldn’t afford transportation.
“They said, ‘by the middle of the month, my SmarTrip card is empty, so I don’t come to school,’” Henderson says. “People can disagree with me if they like, but I think the vast majority of our kids every day are riding the subway and riding the bus, and they do just fine.”
A D.C. Superior Court spokeswoman says the Wilson High School students — five boys and a girl, all 16 or 17 years old — appeared in court Wednesday. They will go before a judge again for a hearing later this month.
