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The Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest, D.C. has been evacuated after a report of a suspicious package. The incident was reported around 11:30 a.m. Police are on the scene at this time. According to local officials, students were evacuated to Rose L. Hardy Middle School in the Northwest.
No injuries have been reported at this time.
The Duke Ellington School of the Arts is a high school located at 35th Street and R Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., and dedicated to arts education. One of the high schools of the District of Columbia Public School system, it is named for the American jazz bandleader and composer Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899–1974), himself a native of Washington, D.C. The building formerly housed Western High School. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Graduates of the school are prepared to pursue an artistic and theatric occupation. In addition to completing the traditional public school college prep curriculum, students must audition for and complete studies in one of the following artistic areas: dance, literary media and communications (L.M.C.), museum studies, instrumental music, vocal music, theater, technical design and production (T.D.P.), and visual arts (V.A.).
The school developed from the collaborative efforts of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a long-time member of the D.C. School Board and Mike Malone, a veteran of Broadway, off-Broadway, contemporary dancer, director, and master choreographer, who were co-founders of Workshops for Careers in the Arts in 1968. In 1974 this workshop program developed into the Duke Ellington School of the Arts at Western High School, an accredited four-year public high school program combining arts and academics. It is currently operated as a joint partnership between D.C. Public Schools, the Kennedy Center, and George Washington University.
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