ABCDE METRO sunday, november 14, 2010 LOCALOPINIONS 48, 9 a.m. 62, noon 60, 5 p.m. 52, 9 p.m.
Obituaries Maryland’s Leona Gage had her Miss USA tiara for less than 24 hours when her dream of fame turned to humiliation. C6
In aftermath of 3 suicides, college seeks a solution
Va.’s William and Mary balancing privacy against concerns on student health
BY JENNA JOHNSON
williamsburg — Friends of William and Mary sophomore Whitney Mayer awoke one morning last month to a final status update on Facebook: “thank you my friends. I love you, I love you, I love all of you. but I guess not enough, I’msorry.” Mayer’s body soon was found near
LakeMatoaka, her favorite spot on cam- pus. Itwasthe third apparent suicide this calendar year at the College of William and Mary, leaving the school grappling with questions about what could have prompted the deaths and how another one might be prevented. Before this year, there had not been a
suicide at the school in five years. And there is no way of knowing how the three deaths at William and Mary compare with other schools because no indepen- dent group compares suicide rates at colleges and universities. Still, William and Mary, an elite state university in Virginia’s Tidewater region with nearly 8,000 students, responded with major new initiatives on campus. College officials dispatchedgrief counsel- ors. And the student government put notes on dorm-room doors warning of the signs of severe depression. “Even if these aren’t people we know
directly, you always know someone who knewthem,” saidWesleyNg, president of a student health group. “It’s scarywhenit touches you so closely. ... A lot of people are asking ‘Why? What could I have done?’ ” In February, senior psychology major Dominique Chandler was found dead in her campus dorm room. In April, the body of junior geology major Ian Smith- Christmas was discovered in his car, parked in Virginia Beach. Mayer was found Oct. 15. The student newspaper, the Flat Hat,
raised questions about a decades-old la- bel with this headline: “Surge in deaths leaves College battling reputation as a ‘suicide school.’ ” College officials say such suggestions are unfair. William and Mary had 11 suicides in the 41 years before the recent run of deaths. Few dispute that the school is filled
with more than its share of high achiev- ers, some of whom have difficulty admit- ting that they might need help coping. Students often joke about their devo-
tion to academics and campus involve- ment, sometimes using the term “TWAMP,”which stands for “TypicalWil- liam and Mary Person.” On a recent Thursday night, the town’s half-hearted attempt at a bar scene—three delis near campus that serve alcohol—were sparse- ly filled. But the librarywas packed.
suicide continued on C4 NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST
The isolation of Tobytown forced DeborahMartin to quite her job, she says. There is no bus route, andMontgomery County cut a taxicab voucher programbecause of budget pressures, soMartin couldn’t get to the store where she was a clerk.
Poverty amid plenty in Potomac
In the isolated enclave of Tobytown, the recession increases the pressure on people who are struggling
BY ANNIE GOWEN T
heir numbers are growing, but thesuburbanpoorcanbetough to spot amid the affluence that sometimes surrounds them. In few places is that more true
than in Tobytown, a tiny enclave in Poto- mac still occupied by the descendants of former slaveswho foundedit in1875. The neighborhood off River Road, hid-
den from view on a woodsy stretch of Pennyfield Lock Road near the C&O Ca- nal, is almost jarringly out of place. It nestles in the midst of great opulence — homes guarded by stone lionswith lawns big enoughfor their ownsoccer fields. Tobytown’s 60 or so residents have
struggled to break free of poverty for generations, and their circumstances haveworsenedinthe recession. People have lost jobs and face more
difficulty finding transportation in and out of the neighborhood, which is so remote that it has no bus service. At the same time, Montgomery County has cut funds for a taxi voucher program and an after-schoolprogramfor kids. The economic downturn has affected
people of all income levels, even in Poto- mac, where the median household in- come of $157,254 is three times that of the nation. On the very next street over from Tobytown,aneight-bedroom,$2.1million homewent into foreclosure this year. Yet, the recession has been far more
After escalator failures, riders still
he eye-opening revelation about Metro’s escalators in a new consultant’s report is that the
JIM MCNAMERA/THE WASHINGTON POST
brutal to those at the margins, the poor andthosehovering just above thepoverty line. Montgomery is still one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, but during the downturn its poverty rate rose
to about 6 percent, according to census data. The figure was 5.4 percent in 2000, according to theCensusBureau.
tobytown continued on C4
Maggie Davis stands in the mud rut leading to her house in Tobytown in this 1965 photo. The structure behind her at right is a chicken house. The little enclave in Potomac has existed for 135 years.Now surrounded by affluence, the residents struggle with a lack of transportation and a dearth of recreation opportunities.
The Daily Gripe Report issues with sidewalks, playgrounds, signs and other things your local government should fix.
PostLocal.com
The majority should rule Gov. Martin O’Malley and the General Assembly should not let a technicality deny Marylanders the constitutional convention they voted for. C5
JOHNKELLY’SWASHINGTON
Top hat’s ours, at least President Lincoln was killed in the District, so how come the rocking chair he was in at the time is in a Mich- igan museum? C3
Protest targets firearms dealer
Activists hold vigil outside District Heights shop linked
to sales of guns used in crime BY BRIGID SCHULTE
Jacqueline Scales nervously gripped
themicrophone in the center of a crowd of about 60 protesters gathered near gun dealer Realco in District Heights. It had been onemonth since theman who shot her son was convicted of his murder, and three weeks since the man was ruled criminally insane and not responsible for her son’s death. She had come to this protest to let
people know that the Kel-Tec 9mm gun Terris T. Luckett used to shoot her son seven times, after Luckett shot his wife 20 times, was bought right there at Realco. A recentWashington Post inves- tigation found that police have traced more than 2,500 guns used in crimes in the past 18 years back to Realco. Nearly one in every three guns confiscated by authorities in the District and Prince George’s County was purchased at the dealer, The Post investigation found. Saturday’s protest, organized by a
coalition of local faith and community groups called the Partnership for Re- newal in Southern and Central Mary- land, was billed as a prayer vigil. Demonstrators prayed for Realco owner Carlos del Real and called for him to abide by a 10-point code of conduct for responsible firearms sales. At first, Scales spoke in a voice barely
above a whisper. “We found out a lot during the trial that a lot of things happened. This man should not have been able to buy this gun,” she said in a wavering voice. “We’re not saying not to let [people] buy guns. But do a back- ground check.” She then released a silver balloon
decorated with a cross as a remem- brance of her son, John Scales III, 37. She said that del Real approached her
at Luckett’s trial and “said he was sorry he was the one who sold the gun that killedmy son.” Raimon Jackson, the youth director at
Gethsemane United Methodist Church, where Scales has been a member, told the gathering that one of the key points of the code of conduct the group pre- sented to del Real that morning was to put an end to “straw sales,” in which someone buys a gun for another person, typically one who has been barred from purchasing firearms because of a crimi- nal record or mental health issues. Several of the guns used to commit crimes that The Post traced to Realco were purchased by straw buyers.
vigil continued on C6 T
machines keep breaking simply because the transit systemhas failed to do routinemaintenance. Brake pads that weren’t replaced.
Dirty electrical circuits. Oil leaks. Forget about raising fares or
reorganizing the board of directors. Metro should just call Jiffy Lube. The cause of the difficultiesmight
seemmundane, but it points to a broader and all-too-familiar worry at Metro: poormanagement. The system’s bureaucratic culture often doesn’t yield elementary competence. For instance, the report by a
Pennsylvania-based firmpointed pretty clearly tomid-level supervisors—the ones who directly oversee escalator and elevatormechanics—as principal culprits. They are not ensuring that the systemmeets its own standards for keeping the equipment tuned. “The necessity for well-qualified,
experienced supervision cannot be overstated,” the report by Vertical Transportation Excellence says. “Obvious signs of conditions requiring
waiting for orderly Metro to arrive Top teachers have uneven reach in District ‘Highly effective’ educators are concentrated in city’s affluent wards
ROBERTMCCARTNEY
immediatemaintenance . . . are being overlooked.” Ironically, the report notes that some
good supervisors have returned to being rank-and-filemechanics because the pay is better. Both supervisors andmechanics
have base income of about $80,000 a year. But themechanics are paid for overtime and have better benefits and holidays under the union contract, which together can translate into an extra $10,000 a year. That suggests seniormanagement
should have intervened to solve the problem.When asked about it,Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a typical solution would be to hiremore mechanics, so there’d be less overtime
mccartney continued on C3 BY BILL TURQUE The District’s most affluent ward has
more than four times as many “highly effective” public schoolteachers as its poorest, underscoring a problem endem- ic to urban school systems: Their best educators often do not serve the children who need them most. The inequity is reflected in the distri-
bution of teachers judged to be most effective under the school district’s rigor- ous new evaluation system, known as IMPACT. Just 5 percent of the 636 top performers work in Southeast Washing- ton’s Ward 8, home to many of the city’s lowest-achieving schools and its highest concentration of children living in pover- ty.
In contrast, 22 percent of the top-per-
forming teachers are in affluent Ward 3 inNorthwestWashington, home to some of the most successful and sought-after public schools. The area has eight fewer
schools than Ward 8 and about 60 per- cent ofWard 8’s enrollment. Theimbalance represents a significant challenge for Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) and interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who have pledged to continue the reform measures initiated by former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Research frequently cited by Rhee and her supporters suggests that low-achiev- ing children who have three highly effec- tive teachers in successive years can make dramatic academic gains. Officials caution thatmany children in
Ward 8 and other parts of the city attend school outside their neighborhoods, but they also acknowledge the need to ad- dress the maldistribution of teaching talent. Among the measures they have introduced are performance bonuses that are doubled for educators who excel in high-poverty schools. Henderson was not available to com-
ment. Ina statement, spokeswomanSafi- ya Simmons said: “Although we’ve made great progress — there are highly effec- tive educators in every ward — we ac- knowledge that there’s still much to do.” Theimbalance is the result of longtime personnel practices in the District and other big public school systems, where
C KK EZ SU
traditional lock-step salary schedules provide no financial incentive for teach- ers to accept jobs in low-performing schools. Seniority rules often allow sea- soned educators to transfer to less-chal- lenging posts, leaving behind a higher proportion of younger, greener instruc- tors. “Good teachers have always trans-
ferred over time to easier schools, be- cause there are so few other ways to reward yourself,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a non- profit organization that promotes widen- ing educational opportunities for minor- ity and low-income students. Veteran teachers say spots at schools
with high rates of poverty and discipline issues have sometimes been used as punishment, while assignment to a more successful school might be doled out as a reward. ElizabethDavis,whohas spentmost of
her 35-year career in Ward 7 and 8 schools, recalled the offer she received from an administrator after winning a teaching award from the MetLife Foun- dation inMay 2007. “He said, ‘Because you’re a good teach-
d.c. teachers continued on C6
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