B6


S


KLMNO


WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


Student killed in D.C. was ‘ready for next chapter’


youths not to retaliate by Chris L. Jenkins


JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST Patty Henchey, left, and Joan Mowatt — both staff members of the late senator — embrace after the last of the funeral services. Byrd is laid to rest next to his wife byrd from B1


fields who grew up to become a li- on of the U.S. Senate and a legend in West Virginia. Byrd’s flag-draped casket ar- rived a little after 9 a.m. and was carried by a military honor guard from the gleaming hearse into the red-carpeted sanctuary of the 60-year-old brick church on Glebe Road. The casket, covered in a large


bouquet of white roses with a sin- gle red rose in honor of Byrd’s wife, was placed at the front of the church on a catafalque hung with black, as dignitaries and mourners paused outside in the shade to sign a guestbook. On a table before the casket, a


large Bible was opened to the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd . . . ” The sanctuary was sprinkled with dignitaries, including De- fense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D- W.Va.), former U.S. senator Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of senator Edward M. Kennedy (D- Mass.), who died last August. Byrd was elected to nine terms in the Senate, starting in 1958, and served for almost a quarter of the country’s history. He wrote a history of the Senate, was twice majority leader and chaired the powerful Appropriations Com- mittee. Yet his funeral was rich in plain, old-time hymns and read- ings from Scripture, both of which mourners said the senator would have loved. The Rev. William H. Smith, the


church’s retired pastor, reminded those in attendance of how well Byrd knew the Bible. Smith recalled that once, when he had preached on a certain part of Scripture, Byrd approached him after the service, put his arm around him and recited from memory the 10 verses before and the 10 verses after the section cit- ed.


“He described himself to me as a born-again, old-time-religion, Bible-based Christian,” Smith said. “He was baptized along with Mrs. Byrd at age 19 in the Crab Orchard Baptist Church.” Smith recalled that one of


Byrd’s favorite sections of Scrip- ture was John 11, in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus emerges from the tomb bound in burial cloth. “Loose him,” Jesus says, “and let him go.”


Smith said that phrase is


carved on the tombstone at the grave where Byrd and his wife are buried.


A new world was just begin- ning to open up for Joshua Hop- kins, and he was ready to seize everything in it. His sophomore year in college beckoned, and with the confidence of a young man finding his muse, he was ex- cited about the challenges that lay ahead. His goal was to complete his communications major at Fair- mont State University in West Virginia and follow in the foot- steps of his older cousin and mentor, Lester Davis. Family members and friends had begun to see a change, from unfocused teen to responsible young adult. But while joking with friends early Saturday, not far from his Northeast Washington home, the 19-year-old was shot dead. “He was on his way,” said Da- vis, who helped raise Hopkins by taking him into his home a few years back. For most of his life, Hopkins lived with an aunt. He never knew his father, and his mother was killed when he was 5 months old. “He was beginning to see there was a vast world out there, and he was beginning to see there was more to the world than just his neighborhood,” said Davis, 27.


Davis said witnesses told him


that Hopkins was out with friends near his home Saturday morning when one of the mem- bers of the group became angry at jokes Hopkins may have been making about him. Davis said the man left the gathering, an- gry, and returned with a gun and opened fire on Hopkins. D.C. po- lice said Tuesday that they were pursuing all leads. At a vigil Tuesday evening, dozens of people gathered out- side the Watts Branch Recreation Center, where they tearfully re- membered Hopkins and pleaded for neighborhood youths not to retaliate. A group of Hopkins’s neighborhood friends played a basketball game in his honor. “It’s all love,” said Artelious Hopkins, an aunt who raised


Vigil attendees plead for neighborhood


COURTESY OF LESTER DAVIS


Lester Davis, left, said his cousin Joshua Hopkins was starting to realize his potential.


Joshua. “People in the communi- ty know that he made a differ- ence, being a respectful young man, and it makes me proud that I raised him.” Hopkins made an impression


on many of the adults he met. Af- ter his junior year of high school, he interned on Capitol Hill in the office of Rep. Chaka Fattah (D- Pa.). He was remembered there Tuesday as a curious and atten- tive employee who always asked several questions about each as- signment he received, no matter how mundane it may have been. “Over the course of my time in Congress, numerous interns have served admirably in my of- fice, but none has stood out quite like Joshua Hopkins,” Fattah said in a statement. “Josh was a re- sponsible and eager young man always willing to assist the staff wherever and whenever possi- ble.” A 2009 graduate of H.G. Wood-


son High School, Hopkins was a student in the now defunct-Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, which provided mentorship and college preparation for D.C. youths. Susie Kay, the founder and president of the program, said she had watched Hopkins evolve over the years, learning how to deal maturely with the circum- stances of his early family life. “He was ready for the next chapter,” she said. “That’s what makes this especially heart- breaking.”


jenkinsc@washpost.com


Fairfax schools program for the poor is at risk


Officials debate future of Project Excel, which aims to raise test scores


by Derek Kravitz LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST


The senator’s great-granddaughter Hannah Clarkson sits on the lap of his daughter Marjorie Moore. Two of Byrd’s fellow musicians


— fourth-generation fiddler Bob- by Taylor and guitarist Andrew Dunlap, both of whom had played with the senator — per- formed a haunting version of “Amazing Grace.” Byrd was a not- ed fiddler in his day, and relatives recalled that he was dismayed when hand tremors halted his playing. He still was able to sing,


though. The senator’s family members rose to speak of the kindly patri- arch they called Papa, a man so powerful he could help create leg- islation but so befuddled around the kitchen that he could not cor- rectly brew tea. His daughter Marjorie Moore


said he would have wanted the speakers “to talk about Erma some.” She did so by reciting a poem he wrote her in 1933 when he was 15 — the “girl named Erma James.” They were married for 69


years. Family members recalled how he mopped floors and cleaned bathrooms at their home in Mc- Lean after his wife became sick, and how, as she was dying, he held her hand and told her he loved her. After she died in March 2006, he was so grief-stricken that he would often tell visitors how many days it had been since she had passed away.


At his burial in Columbia Gar- on washingtonpost.com


Longest-serving senator is laid to rest


For a photo gallery of Robert Byrd’s funeral, go


to washingtonpost.com/politics.


dens Cemetery around 1 p.m., Byrd received a 21-gun salute, and two flags that had been draped over his casket were given to his two daughters. “We are grateful to God for him, for his life,” Smith had said earlier. “Thanks be to you, oh God, for your servant Robert." ruanem@washpost.com


Ex-police officer in Pr. George’s admits bank robbery attempt Smith “used his position as a by Maria Glod A former Prince George’s


County police officer admitted in federal court Tuesday that he tried to steal cash from a bank last year, even bringing an elec- tric saw that a partner used to try to cut open a safe. Eddie L. Smith Jr., 42, who had been on the county force for 16 years, pleaded guilty in U.S. Dis- trict Court in Greenbelt to break- ing into a bank with intent to commit felony larceny. Prosecutors said Smith was in uniform and driving a marked police cruiser when he met an as- sociate June 9, 2009. Smith drove himself and the other man to a Temple Hills bank and gave the man the saw and instructions on how to cut open the safe.


Prince George’s County police of- ficer to facilitate this offense,” As- sistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Johnston said in court. Earlier, court records say, Smith had told co-defendant Earl Blake that he “had a job for him.” The pair went to a Sun- Trust bank branch on Old Branch Avenue in Temple Hills. Blake has also admitted his role in the crime.


Smith, according to court


documents filed in Blake’s case, disabled the burglar alarm by cutting the lines on a telephone pole outside the bank. Then Blake, carrying the saw Smith that had given him, head- ed inside through an unlocked front door, court records say. He adjusted the surveillance cam- eras inside, then started sawing.


Smith stayed outside.


About 3:30 a.m., the bank’s alarm company received a report of a fire alarm, according to the plea agreement. As firefighters headed to the scene, they noticed that a police cruiser that had been parked nearby followed them into the parking lot. Smith hopped out of the cruis- er and told the firefighters that he had checked the building and that it was secure, court records say. But moments later, one of the firefighters spotted someone in the bank, and the man fled through a rear door. Smith ran to the back of the bank, in apparent pursuit of the man, and returned shortly after, court records say. He drove off without talking to the fire- fighters or contacting a police dispatcher.


When firefighters went in,


they found the saw near the dam- aged safe. Prosecutors said there was about $40,000 inside. Prince George’s Police Chief


Roberto L. Hylton said Tuesday that he “does not tolerate wrong- doing” in the department. “Bad cops have no place in our profes- sion; they tarnish the good work that is being done by the rest of our employees,” he said. Blake, 53, of Capitol Heights, pleaded guilty to breaking into a bank with intent to commit felo- ny bank larceny. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 12. Smith is scheduled to be sen- tenced in October. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.


glodm@washpost.com


Officials in Fairfax County sparred Tuesday over the funding provided to programs for the area’s neediest schoolchildren, with Board of Supervisors mem- bers accusing public school offi- cials of not considering the im- pact program changes would have on the students.


At issue is an $8 million pro-


gram that extended the Monday school day by two hours at about 20 elementary schools in Fair- fax’s worst-off neighborhoods. Project Excel, started in 1998 to boost standardized test scores at economically disadvantaged schools, has been credited in part with turning around several fledgling schools. It required par- ticipating schools to show im- provements in test scores within three years or face having their staffs replaced. As part of Excel, low-perform- ing schools offered full-day kin- dergarten and a limit of 15 stu- dents per class, which required more teachers. The program won admirers but many of its key components, including full-day kindergarten, have been phased out over the past decade, said deputy schools superintendent Richard Moniuszko. The implementation of the fed-


eral No Child Left Behind Act, boundary and demographic changes, as well as the construc- tion of several schools has made much of the program obsolete, school officials say. In Excel’s place, Fairfax schools have start- ed a pilot initiative targeting 30 low-performing elementary and middle schools, focusing more on achievement gaps on county- mandated Standards of Learn- ing, or SOL, tests and less on school socioeconomic and racial demographics. “If we’re serious about closing the gaps, we need to look at all schools. And part of it is not just adding teachers. It’s about get-


ting them resources and coordi- nation that these schools simply didn’t get 10 years ago,” said School Board member Stuart D. Gibson (Hunter Mill), who at- tended a meeting of county and school officials in Falls Church Tuesday. Twenty top-priority schools


have been selected for leadership training by staffers at the Univer- sity of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Curry School of Education.


But some supervisors and Fair- fax School Board members are concerned that a handful of schools that had improved enough to get off the priority need list could falter if they don’t receive continued attention. About five schools that were cov- ered under Excel will not receive additional needs-based resources under the pilot program. “How are we going to know


that somewhere along the line, when there is trouble, there’s go- ing to be some rescue there so that our students will succeed? Some of us became attached to the fact that there were suc- cesses,” said Supervisor Cather- ine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill). County and school officials


have been publicly feuding for months, mostly over funding is- sues. Two Fairfax supervisors — Hudgins and Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) — threatened to vote down the county’s $3.3 billion budget this year be- cause of the money, or lack there- of, for low-income school pro- grams. About half of the county’s budget is allocated to the 170,000-student school system. School officials note that the


achievement gap in reading and math standardized testing scores has lessened in recent years. Dur- ing the 2006-07 school year, about 68 percent of students at economically disadvantaged schools passed the annual SOL tests. During 2008-09, about 85 percent of students passed, an increase of 17 percent. The full Fairfax Board of Su-


pervisors is expected to vote on providing $1.3 million for the Excel program at its July 27 meet- ing.


kravitzd@washpost.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52