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tuesday, march 9, 2010 DC MD VA S
LOCAL HOME PAGE THE DISTRICT JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
How to Deal Getting fired up The pickup debate goes on
Columnist Lily Garcia will be D.C. Council passes emergency Some argue that we should let nature
43, 9 a.m. 54, noon 59, 5 p.m. 51, 9 p.m.
online at 11 a.m. Tuesday to bill granting one-time smoking take its course with doggie droppings,
discuss readers’ workplace ban exemption to high-powered, but many others are not convinced,
Obituaries Edgar Wayburn, five-time
issues and questions. Go to cigar-loving Saint Patrick’s Day saying the waste is unsightly and
president of the Sierra Club, was foremost
washingtonpost.com/local. and Fight Night events. B6 unsanitary. B2
citizen in protecting U.S. wilderness. B7
Grade
“Until these property owners can get public sewer,
there is not a whole lot they can do.”
Students
— Alan Soukup, Montgomery County planner
changing
rise up
limited to
for gay
juniors
rights
Churchill High officials
say they can’t prove
CAMPUSES IRATE
who hacked into system
AT CUCCINELLI
by Jenna Johnson
A grade-changing scheme at
Va. schools were told to
Winston Churchill High School
back off protection rules
in Potomac involved the grade-
books of 35 teachers and was pri-
marily isolated to the junior by Daniel de Vise and
class, school officials told several Rosalind S. Helderman
hundred parents at a public
meeting Monday night. Campus activists across Vir-
Police and school officials have ginia put spring break on hold
been investigating the security Monday to mobilize against At-
breach in which at least eight torney General Ken Cuccinelli II,
students stole teachers’ com- who has riled student groups
puter passwords using USB key with a letter advising public uni-
loggers, which can be purchased versities to retreat from their pol-
inexpensively online. It wasn’t icies against discrimination on
until one teacher noticed three the basis of sexual orientation.
suspicious grades in late January More than 3,000 people joined
that anyone knew students had
PHOTOS BY DAYNA SMITH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
the Facebook page “We Don’t
been logging in and changing Shop owner Niki Lewis, left, chats with Karon deSilva, center, and Alix Moore at Green Earth Goods in Clarksburg. Want Discrimination In Our
grades for several months, said State Universities And Colleges!”
Principal Joan C. Benz. Nearly 1,000 people joined an-
The grades of 54 students were
Historic Clarksburg
other, started by activists at the
changed, but the school system is College of William and Mary. The
unable to prove who changed University of Virginia group
those grades. The grades of 46 of Queer & Allied Activism urged
the students were changed back, students to protest on Cuccinelli’s
rather than lowered, as is done
wants an update
Facebook page and on Twitter.
when a student is caught cheat- Students at Virginia Common-
ing, Benz said. wealth University, one of the few
“There is no way in that com- in the state not on break, planned
puter system to determine who a rally for noon Wednesday, with
changed that grade,” she said. All several hundred students com-
grades for this academic year
Montgomery County weighs sewer situation, development interests
mitted. At Christopher Newport
have since been verified, she said. University, student Republican
Benz said there is no indica- and Democratic leaders will dis-
tion that money was involved cuss their next steps at a biparti-
with the grade changing. by Miranda S. Spivack san meeting Friday.
None of the eight students ac- “I’ve never gotten so many e-
cused of leading the scheme are Patrick Darby wants to open a book- mails from students wanting to
currently attending classes, Benz store in Clarksburg’s historic district, a do something,” said Brandon Car-
said. Three left the school system short walk from thousands of homes roll, 21, president of the student
before they could be disciplined. springing up nearby. Victor Peeke would government at Virginia Tech. He
Many of the questions that like to sell his historic house, which used said any erosion in gay rights at
parents asked during the meet- to be a doctor’s office. Niki Lewis, who state universities is “going to
ing were about how the scandal owns an organic market, says if more make us lose top students. It’s go-
could taint the school’s reputa- stores can open, she can attract more cus- ing to make us lose top faculty.”
tion or how hurt the ability of tomers. A growing number of industry
other students to get into college. But the property owners face a complex leaders have also lined up against
Churchill routinely ranks high set of problems that defies a quick fix. the directive from Cuccinelli (R),
among elite schools in the region Most of the 40-odd buildings in the north-
and nation. The school has a ern Montgomery County community’s cuccinelli continued on B4
98 percent graduation rate, 11 historic downtown lack a public sewer
points higher than the county system, something most Washington area
average, and 99 percent of its residents take for granted. And the chanc-
graduates continue on to college. es of getting the pipes installed anytime
Churchill’s average SAT scores soon are linked to another problem:
Oversight
were the second highest in the stream pollution caused by development
county for the 2008-09 school in another part of Clarksburg known for
year. construction irregularities.
of police
Dave and Claudia Williams For Darby, getting hooked into public Officials face a dilemma in Clarksburg: If they curb development because of
said the only reason they came to sewer would allow him to open the book- pollution, it might help water quality but could harm revival of the historic area.
the meeting was to learn about store he has dreamed of in a house that
tuition aid
how the grade-changing incident has been in his family since the early 20th construction of a pumping station — a happen,’ ” Darby said, describing the re-
might affect their son Chase’s col- century. If he financed the entire installa- costly proposition for government and sponse from local officials. “I have been
lege search. tion himself, he says he would have to pay property owners. But if Darby can tap into hearing that for five years now.”
criticized
The grades of Chase, a junior, about $400,000. lines financed by new development, he When officials will make it happen is
were not changed, the couple Other possible fixes, such as tapping can save hundreds of thousands of dol- unclear. That is because county scientists
said. into existing sewer lines in nearby devel- lars.
opments, are possible, but would require “They say, ‘Hang in there, we’ll make it clarksburg continued on B4 by Dan Morse and
churchill continued on B7 Michael Laris
Montgomery County awarded
more than $600,000 in no-bid
Enough panda — embrace the octopus!
payments to nine companies that
had ties to county police officers
and were part of a controversial
tuition-assistance program,
I
t’s our creepiest rite of spring, to love and celebrate an animal Montgomery’s inspector general
this annual obsession with that is more than a said in a report released Monday.
panda procreation. Yesterday bamboo-eating ball of fur. We The government provided lit-
we were at it again, shamelessly must end our cuteness tle oversight for the program and
watching a video of poor Mei dependence on China, for crying in many cases appeared to have
Xiang’s ultrasound to see if the out loud. responded to invoices from the
female giant panda might be Helloooo, giant Pacific companies simply by cutting
pregnant with another butter octopus.
PETULA DVORAK
checks of as much as $59,800, ac-
pat. No, really, it makes perfect cording to the report. The lack of
Enough with the pandas, sense. news conferences you’ve seen controls enabled 216 county em-
already. Think of all the beasties here lately? ployees — police officers, sheriff’s
I’m sorry, but Pandacam is just in our nation’s capital who are When it feeds, it often slowly deputies and corrections officers
so 2008. like the octopus, with its eight descends onto a coral, ballooning — to take county-funded training
Tai Shan is gone. The young long arms able to reach into so around it, then devouring any of classes and, at the end of the
panda plowed through 40 many places at once. It’s known the fish that try to swim away, courses, purchase deeply dis-
pounds of bamboo on his for an amazing ability to change trapped by its expansive counted guns that one official
8,000-mile flight from the both its color and texture to embrace. has called the “candy” to get
National Zoo to China last blend into its surroundings. A Georgetown fundraiser, them to enroll in the first place.
month, landed a corporate Campaign trail, anyone? perhaps? Inspector General Thomas J.
sponsorship as soon as he hit the If the disguise isn’t working Our cephalopod of the Dagley concluded that the close
ground and moved into a new and it senses danger, it goes moment arrived in a brown ties among the companies, em-
crib with a she-bear named Snow shock-white and blossoms red cardboard box from Vancouver
GERALD MARTINEAU FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
ployees and students enrolled in
White. rings around its eyes to look via FedEx last month. the classes have “and will contin-
Washington needs a new menacing. If that doesn’t work, it “Our giant panda is here!”
Zoo staff keeps eye out for baby news
ue to expose county taxpayer dol-
animal celebrity, one more in squirts ink as a diversion and rejoiced Alan Peters, who has lars to waste and abuse until
line with our character, intellect, dodges away. Mei Xiang’s ultrasound shows a healthy reproductive tract but no
values and personality. We need Sound like any Capitol Hill dvorak continued on B5 panda embryo since her artificial insemination in January. Story, B5. police continued on B5
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