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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 Md. school board approves environment requirements


Ecosystems on syllabus from pre-kindergarten to high school


BY MICHAEL BIRNBAUM Students in Maryland will go


through a comprehensive envi- ronmental education program fromthemoment that they enter pre-kindergarten until the day they graduate high school, under new regulations approved by the Maryland State Board of Educa- tion. The move comes as environ-


mental issues take ever-greater prominence, in school and in society, and state education offi- cials said that they want to give environmental topics extra at- tention. In addition to studying issues in the classroom, students will be expected to create and implement a local project that “protects, sustains, or enhances the natural environment.” But officials at both the state


and local levels said Wednesday that they did not expect the new requirements to fundamentally transform how the subject is taught.Most school systems cov- er most of the issues in their


classes, and the requirements are designed to formalize the expec- tation that the issues be ad- dressed, state school officials said. “We made a big step in saying


itmust be in the curriculum, that every student must have that exposure prior to graduation,” said State Superintendent of Ed- ucation Nancy S. Grasmick. “Let’s weave it through the cur- riculumand bring it to a younger age.” No special class devoted en-


tirely to the environment will be required, nor will the topics be on statewide standardized tests.


Students will have to learn


about ecosystems, natural re- sources and health, examining “how their personal and collec- tive actions affect the sustain- ability” of ecological, economic, political and social systems. They also will analyze “posi-


tive and negative impacts of human activities on earth’s natu- ral systems and resources.” InMontgomery County, school


officials praised the change. “This infuses more of an im-


portance into the whole subject,” said Laurie Jenkins, supervisor of outdoor and environmental education programs for Mont-


gomery schools. “We’re trying to create environmentally literate students.” Students in Montgomery al-


ready do service projects such as testing water quality, planting native species and making mulch, but Jenkins said that they could do more, especially at the earliest ages. In Virginia, environmental ed-


ucation is found throughout the curriculum, but no central list of requirements exists, said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virgin- ia Department of Education. Stu- dents learn about the Chesa- peake Bay watershed in classes.


Nationwide, there has been a


push to include more environ- mental issues inside the class- room — and even an attempt to make the classrooms greener. Environmentally friendly school buildings are being built across the country, including several in the Washington area. And an initiative called No Child Left Inside, which would provide fed- eral funding to get students out of the classroom and into the environment, has been proposed as part of the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Edu- cation Act. birnbaumm@washpost.com


Jail cell search admissible, judge rules


Levy defendant’s


comments to police also to be allowed at trial


BY KEITH L. ALEXANDER A D.C. Superior Court judge


overseeing the murder trial of federal intern Chandra Levy ruled Wednesday that prosecu- tors can use items obtained from the California cell of defendant Ingmar Guandique. In a motion hearing in prepa-


ration for the Oct. 4. trial, Guan- dique’s attorneys argued that items taken from their client’s cell in Victorville, Calif., were illegally seized, a violation of his privacy rights because authori- ties removed the items before charging Guandique with mur- der in Levy’s killing. Guandique was serving a 10-


year termat the Victorville facili- ty in Adelanto, Calif., for attacks on two female joggers in Rock Creek Park in summer 2001, about the same time Levy disap- peared. While police were meeting


withGuandique and questioning him about Levy’s slaying, they found letters and pictures in his cell, including a photograph of Levy clipped fromamagazine. Judge Gerald I. Fisher ruled


PHOTOS BY JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST Neighbors and friends examine the scene where a townhouse fire killed a mother and two children in Lorton. It took several hours for the flames to be extinguished. Mother, two sons killed in house fire fire from B1


children. “I’min shock. She was a stay-at-homemomwho loved her kids and was there for them all the time.” Tom Nguyen, a neighbor who


drives a Fairfax County school bus, said three of the children rode his bus to William Halley Elementary School in Fairfax Sta- tion. School officials could not confirm thatWednesday. “I just talked to the mom


yesterday, and everything was great,” Nguyen said. Tayyaby Piracha said one of the


dead children had stayed with her daily at her in-home day care in the Terrace of Gunston com- munity. “Twenty-four hours be- fore, he was with me,” Piracha said. “Now he is no more.” She said the mother, in her 20s,


was “a very nice lady” but was “upset sometimes” as she strug- gled with money and health is- sues. She was unemployed and searching for a job, Piracha said. Firefighters arrived from the


nearby Lorton station two min- utes after the first call, said Dan Schmidt, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire Department. The man and three children had already escaped the blaze. Wit- nesses told fire officials that the woman had lowered the children from an upper floor window to the man. Then the rescues stopped. Firefighters used a ladder to


enter the second floor of the burning townhouse to find the mother and two children, but it was too late, Schmidt said. Neighbors said the boys who


died were 3 and 5. Smoke was still wafting from


the townhouse through an up- stairs window early Wednesday afternoon. The roof appeared crumpled, and black soot stains ran down the side. Neighbor Stacey Wood, 26,


said she heard an explosion and thought it was a gunshot. She said she looked outside and saw flames coming from the nearby townhouse. And then she sawthe


Killed in the blaze were Allie


Neighbor Elaine Parker watches the scene in Fairfax County. Neighbors said the boys who died were 3 and 5.


man run outside screaming, call- ing the woman’s name, Wood said. Wood said that the electricity


had gone out in the woman’s home several days ago and that she had taken her to buy candles. Thewomandid not have a phone, Wood said. Wood sat cross-legged, in a daze, on the curb across from the


burned townhouse. “I’m in shock,” she said. “I have to keep stoppingmyself from crying.” She said the woman’s children


were “always playing outside,and always seemed happy. The kids used to knock on my door, press- ing their faces against the glass.” Alvera said the children loved


playing football andwatching the Redskins. Wood said they were


Anderson, 24, left, and her sons Alonso, 3, top left, and Solomon, 5.


always riding bikes and playing with Hot Wheels cars. Hagel Circle was built in 1973,


records show. The owner of the townhouse, Andre Resendez of Woodbridge, declined to com- ment Wednesday. Records show he has owned the house for 35 years.


jackmant@washpost.com buskej@washpost.com


ManwhomolestedManassas student charged in ’70s case inN.C. ricks from B1


Post story revealed decades of predation that law enforcement officials and victims say stretched from North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland to Japan, all loca- tions where Ricks hasworked as a teacher. The North Carolina victim,


now42andliving in Virginia, said in an interview Wednesday that the abuse has affected him throughout his life and that the realization that Ricks had done the same thing to other boys shocked him. He spoke on condi- tion of anonymity, and The Post generally does not identify vic- tims of sex crimes. “He’s ruined a lot of kids’ lives,


like he did with mine,” he said. “I still wonder how someone could do that to a child. It is just so wrong.” Ricks pleaded guilty in July to


charges thathemolestedaformer Osbourn High School student af- ter providing him with beer and shots of tequila over winter break. Ricks is in the Prince William County jail awaiting sentencing next month. With his guilty plea, Ricks now will have to register as a sex offender, ending his teach- ing career. Federal authorities also have


charged him with possession and transportation of child pornogra- phy, and they likely will take him into custody when his Virginia case concludes, law enforcement officials said. There is a warrant for his arrest in North Carolina and a tentative court date there forNovember. Ricks also kept extensive


handwritten journals that de- scribe abuse dating to his teen years, and police collected thou- sands of pieces of evidence from his home in Federalsburg, Md.


Ricks’s attorney declined to commentWednesday. In an earli- er written statement, Ricks said he has tried to be a “model of compassion and empathy. To the extent that I have failed causes megrief forwhichI willspendthe rest of my days seeking forgive- ness and atonement.” Ricks met the North Carolina


boy at Camp Holiday Trails in Charlottesville, when he was working as a counselor in the late 1970s. Ricks cultivated a close relationship with the boy and his family. While the boy’s mother was


going through a difficult divorce, Ricks took him on a winter vaca- tion to Disney World and later offered to host him for the sum- mer in North Carolina, where Ricks’s family lives. Ricks changed that summer, the victim said. Instead of lavishing him with


gifts and attention, a pattern Ricks would repeat with other boys , he became controlling and obsessive and once even hit him, the boy said. He said Ricks, then about 18, also was demeaning.He would criticize the boy’s attempts to speak and enunciate and would sometimes call him stupid. He said he now thinks that was just an attempt to control him: “It was a power thing. It still affects me to this day.” But Ricks also tried to be affec-


tionate. He played with the boy’s hair and told him how sweet he was. And then one day in the television room, he asked the boy whether he had ever French kissed. “I didn’t know what that meant,” the victim said. “He was persistent, and he wanted to show me, and I kept saying no.He cameoverandtried to kiss me. . . . It was something I will never forget. It scarred me.He was mad


because I refused to cooperate.” Thebehavior escalated, the vic-


tim said. One afternoon, Ricks asked the boy to go upstairs, where Ricks was lying naked on his bed. “He undressed me,” the victim said. “That’s when the mo- lestation started. I didn’t under- stand what was happening.” The boy kept quiet about the


abuse for decades because Ricks was a family friend and he was afraid of angering his siblings or his mother. When Ricks was ar- rested in Manassas in February, the victim cried because he could finally express his feelings. “I wish back then that I had


known what I know today so I would have been able to better protect myself,” the victim said. “WhenI found out the extent of it, I was shocked. But at the same time, I guess you could say I wasn’t surprised.” whitejs@washpost.com


that prosecutors could use the items found in the cell because prisoners have no right to priva- cy.


Fisher also ruled that com-


ments Guandique made to U.S. Park Police officers when he was arrested July 1, 2001, after a second attack on a jogger, could also be used at trial. Guandique, 29, was arrested


and charged with the attacks on the joggers. During questioning by Park Police, Guandique alleg- edly told officers that he acciden- tally bumped into the two wom- en as they jogged and that, as he tried to help themoff the ground, they screamed and ran. The women told police that


Guandique was carrying a knife. No knifewas found on himwhen he was arrested; he said the womenmistook his bracelet for a knife. One of the officers then showed Guandique a picture of Levy, and Guandique allegedly said that he thought Levy was attractive and that he had seen her once in the park. Guandique’s attorneys, Santha


Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo of the District’s Public Defender Service, said the comments should not be allowed because police did not have an authorized Spanish interpreter


present


when Guandique was ques- tioned. At Wednesday’s hearing, for-


mer Park Police officer David C. Luguillow, who is of Puerto Ri- can descent, said he translated questions for the officers and read Guandique his constitu- tional rights before Guandique waived his right to an attorney and agreed to answer officers’ questions. Fisher sided with Guandique’s


attorneys in ruling that the state- ments he had made during a pre-sentencing reportwith a pro- bation employee could not be used during the trial. In preparation for sentencing


in a June 2001 burglary convic- tion, a judge ordered Guandique tomeetwith a probation employ- ee. During the meeting, which occurred after Guandique was arrested in the attacks of the two joggers, Guandique allegedly made numerous statements about how he had a compulsion to attack individuals who were smaller than him and who were alone in the woods, and talked about “catching prey.” Another hearing in prepara-


tion for the trial was scheduled forMonday. alexanderk@washpost.com


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