Two Baltimore Universities Take Lesson from Freddie Gray

Two local universities are making the case of Freddie Gray part of their learning experience.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates approved a $50,000 contract Wednesday for Johns Hopkins to review how various city agencies—other than police—responded to the April unrest, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Demonstrators took to the streets after Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore man, was hospitalized and later died from a spinal cord injury in police custody.

The Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response is “uniquely qualified to conduct an after action report for the period of civil unrest experienced in April 2015,” according to the Baltimore Board of Estimates, in a summary of its project proposal.

The scope of study will include the responses by city departments such as transportation, public works and fire to the unrest, and the report will be complete by October, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The office that will be compiling the report was created in response to 9/11 and includes researchers from both the health and university systems for disaster response planning, according to Hopkins news source the Hub.

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In addition to Hopkins, the University of Baltimore is analyzing the events that unfolded this spring in Baltimore.

It has developed a course in which professors and guest lecturers will examine the underpinnings of Baltimore’s unrest.

“Divided Baltimore: How Did We Get Here, Where Do We Go?” will be offered this fall at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The university reports it will examine racial inequality and other challenges the city has faced, and look into how other cities have overcome similar problems, in hopes of moving toward positive change.

“...this is what we should be doing as a city-based institution, and I believe that it can and will help us overcome our problems,” Darien Ripple, the manager of the University of Baltimore’s Experiential Learning Program said in a statement.

On Wednesday, The Baltimore Sun posted a syllabus for the course online, which states that the events of unrest “are almost certainly not over” and states the plan is to “work on the issues addressed in this course.”