ABCDE METRO thursday, september 23, 2010 75, 9 a.m. 87, noon 92, 5 p.m. 82, 9 p.m.


Obituaries Irving Ravetch, 89, was a two- time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter —for “Hud” and “Norma Rae,” written with his wife and collaborator. B7


Flowers and dinner


Chat with gardening columnist Adrian Higgins about your landscape at noon, and then join chef Spike Mendelsohn at 1 p.m.


MARYLAND Fortune seeker


The Hollywood Casino Perryville, the state’s first with slot machines, is betting on a grand opening next week. B7


The great doggy divide


N.C. charges teacher in abuse


Man who molested Manassas student tied to 1970s case


BY JOSHWHITE Police in North Carolina have


charged former Manassas teach- er Kevin Ricks with sexually mo- lesting a young boy there more than 30 years ago in a case that stems from evidence that Ricks has abused numerous boys while working as a camp counselor, teacher and foreign exchange host since the late 1970s. Roanoke Rapids,N.C., authori-


ties charged Ricks with taking indecent liberties with a minor. The latest charge comes amid a sweeping federal investigation of Ricks’s alleged alcohol-soaked en- counters with boys in several states and overseas that came to a halt when he was arrested this


year in Manassas. The charge in Roanoke Rapids, Ricks’s child- hood home, relates to an incident at his parents’ home with a 10- year-old boy Ricks met at a sum- mer camp for children with dis- abilities. The boy is deaf. A Washington Post investiga-


tion, published in July, revealed that Ricks, 50, abused boys throughout his teaching career and brought foreign exchange students into his home, some of whom he molested while they were passed out or asleep. He bounced among public and pri- vate schools, avoiding detection or leaving school systems when they began to suspect inappropri- ate behavior, the investigation found. The Post detailed the allega-


tions in the North Carolina case after interviews with the victim’s family this year. It is the first known case tied to Ricks. The


ricks continued on B6 LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST Henry, left, and Stryker visit theHStreet Festival with their owners. Experts say a successful outing starts at the human end of the leash.


Adams Morgan shooting reopens split between owners and those who oppose pooches in public places BY STEVE HENDRIX


R


obert Audia, who sells potted plants at the Takoma Park Farmers Market, has had dogs eat his merchandise


and urinate on it. Recently, he held his breath as he watched a womantry to pay for some cheese while her 170-pound mastiff sniffed around under a table loaded with perishables. “The woman probably


weighed 120 pounds,” said Audia, who is also manager of the mar- ket. “That dog was actually walk- ing her. I’m a dog lover, but this just isn’t a good setting for them.” When a police officer shot a dog he judged to be a threat at a


street fair in Adams Morgan last week, the incident reopened a long-standing divide between dog owners who see no problem in taking their pets just about anywhere in public and those who plead, “Leave the pooch at home.” At the H Street Festival in the


District last weekend, Mauro Farinelli serenely walked his dog into a crowd—and a controversy. Farinelli and his pit bull mix, Doug, strolled through a multi- tude of legs, food carts and doz- ens of other dogs. Doug never so much as growled, Farinelli said. “Just a lot of sniffing — that’s


the basset in him,” Farinelli, 39, said. He is quick to make clear that Doug is an obedience school graduate that has never been any


trouble on their frequent outings to festivals, parks and shopping zones. “He’s really good in crowds. He’s really good with kids. Unless they actually forbid dogs, I don’t see any reason not to take himwherever I’mgoing.” To many dog people, such


scenes are perfect for their be- loved pooch. They are outside, active and full of the kind of stimuli a dog doesn’t get during long weekdays in the crate at the condo. But for others, a crowded


street filled with strollers and low-hanging snacks is the perfect place not to have a dog. They find brushing up against an animal of any size to be nerve-rattling. Othersmight love dogs, and even own them, but don’t want them


Making the most of the moment Media spotlight follows worried voter after her frank exchange with Obama


BY KRISSAH THOMPSON Velma Hart’s exhaustion has


become exhilaration. She had spentmost of the year


telling friends that shewas going towrite to PresidentObama. “I’m going to write a letter to the president and tell him what I’m thinking,” she would say. “I’m going to write a letter.” She never got around to it. So, when the Upper Marlboro


resident was chosen to sit in on a town hall meeting Obama held this week with businesspeople, friends told her: Finally, you can tell him what you have to say in person. She did onMonday during the


CNBC town hall, declaring to the president that she was “exhaust-


ed of defending” him. Since then, she has been a


regular on broadcast and cable networks as the latest every-per- son to become an of-the-moment political figure and the personifi- cation of the political problem Obama faces. In 2008, Hart was “fired up and ready to go,” one of many who took up the Obama campaign’s chant. In 2010, she is tired. Hart spent just a few minutes


deciding how she would ask her question, which was also a testi- monial. When the microphone was passed, thewordsher friends had heard over and over spilled out. Hart said: “I’ve been told that I


voted for a man who said he’s going to change things inamean- ingful way for the middle class.


I’m one of those people, and I’m waiting, sir. I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet. . . . I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.” Her words have been featured


on cable news shows and have made bold headlines. Her face was plastered across the cover of the New York Post with this headline: “BETRAYED: Bam fan is nowfrank-ly fed up.” (Hart said “betrayed” went too far.) “I’ve been able to, in a mean-


ingful way for the first time in what I think is a long time, talk about the issues that really mat- ter to me as a consumer and an


exhausted continued on B7 MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST


DavidHeisler harvests some of the 37 types of pumpkins and winter squash that he sells at the Comus Market, which opens for the fall season this weekend inMontgomery County.


School reformersmust give clear rationale for ousting teachers E


ducation reformers, beware. If you’re amayor or schools superintendent


who decides to fire teachers in large numbers, you’d better be able to justify to the public exactly why it was necessary. Otherwise, you risk losing your job—even when your constituents think the schools are improving overall. That’s an important lesson to


draw fromthe experience of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools


teachers nearly a year ago. Fenty and Rhee failed to


ROBERTMCCARTNEY


ChancellorMichelle Rhee. Fenty is on his way out, and Rhee might well be following him, in large part because they botched the discharge ofmore than 200


convince the city that the dismissals were necessary for budget reasons or that all the discharged teachers were doing a poor job, according to parents whomI interviewed this week who otherwise were happy with the schools. Several said they knew of good teachers who were ousted without adequate explanations, and feelings about it are still raw.


“I’mquite certain that there


were teachers that were released during the RIF [reduction in force] who deserved to be released. But there were quite a few excellent teachers who were caught up in it as well at McKinley,” said ThomasWright, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association atMcKinley Technology High School in Northeast. “Reformdoesn’tmean


changing things just because


you feel like it,” he said. To keep education reform


moving forward, either Rhee or her successor will need to do a better job of providing a strong, plausible rationale for ousting ineffective teachers. That’s especially important given the prestige that the job of teaching enjoys in the African American community, according to D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray, who defeated Fenty in last week’s Democratic primary.


Gray was scheduled to discuss


Rhee’s future with her Thursday at their firstmeeting since he won the primary and became the presumptivemayor-elect. Themishandling of the


teacher firings by Fenty and Rhee goes a long way to account for a seemingly bizarre contradiction in voters’ attitudes over school reform. According to aWashington Post poll


mccartney continued on B10


Mother, 2 sons killed in Fairfax townhouse fire


snuffling around their chicken- on-a-stick on a hot summer’s day. “I just don’t know why every-


one needs to bring their dog to a place like this,” said Jennifer Harris, 43, eating a plate of fried rice near the Atlas Performing ArtsCenter onHStreetNE.Afew feet away, a leash-tangled bunch of eight canines surged around a plastic water bowl someone had placed on the curb. “My niece is terrified of them.” Managers of public events say


they constantly try to find ways tomanage the presence of pets at gatherings that can attract thou- sands of families. The H Street Festival has grown from about 5,000 attendees two years ago to


dogs continued on B10 A bright yield


Lorton woman saves baby, 2 children before succumbing to flames


BY TOM JACKMAN AND JENNIFER BUSKE As fire started to devastate her


townhouseWednesday morning, a Fairfax County mother of five lowered three of her children from a second-story window to safety, fire officials said. But then the blaze became too intense, and the woman and her two remain- ing sons were killed. The three surviving children—


a 2-month-old girl and 6- and 8-year-old boys—and amanwho lived in the townhouse on Hagel Circle in Lor were taken to the Burn Center atWashington Hos- pital Center, where their injuries


were not considered life-threat- ening. The names of all seven resi-


dents of the townhouse, just off Route 1, were not released Wednesday. It took several hours after the fire was reported, at 8:30 a.m., for the flames to be extinguished, and investigators had only begun digging through the ruins, seeking to determine the cause of the blaze. The young family had not lived


in the townhouse for long, but they had made plenty of friends in the neighborhood. And those friends sat, staggered, outside the burned-out home Wednesday af- ternoon, horrified at the sudden loss of life. “She just had a baby girl, and


I’mhaving a girl too,” said Nancy Alvera, 22, a neighbor whose children played with the victim’s


fire continued on B6 B EZ SU


JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON The city, inside and out


Numerous tours, buildings, parks and historic sites offer visitors as well as locals opportunities to soak up the cultural landscape of the nation’s capital. B2


Look for the Local Living section inside today’s newspaper.


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