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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010


Police increase U-Md. patrols after robberies


Students are urged to be vigilant after 5 incidents in 3 weeks near campus


by Matt Zapotosky Police in Prince George’s Coun-


ty and at the University of Mary- land are beefing up patrols and considering forming a task force after a rash of armed robberies near the campus. In the past three weeks, Prince


George’s police have recorded five robberies in the College Park area — at least three involving student victims, authorities said. The crimes have prompted police to beef up patrols and urge students to be vigilant, especially when walking alone at night. “We’re obviously concerned for their safety, and we want to make sure that there are no more rob- beries,” said Maj. Robert Liberati, commander of the Prince George’s police district that en- compasses College Park. “This many students are of course go- ing to stick out, and I think we do go through a bit of this every year at the beginning of the semester.” None of the robberies occurred on the U-Md. campus, and police have recorded 19 robberies this year in the College Park area, down from 22 at this point last year. Still, U-Md. police are pub- licizing the cases to encourage students to stay vigilant, and the university police chief, David B. Mitchell, said he was considering organizing a task force to focus on the problem. The most recent robberies oc-


curred within minutes of each other Monday night, and investi- gators think the same people might be responsible for both. In each case, police said, two people were robbed at gunpoint — the first at 10:25 p.m. on a trail in the 9400 block of Osage Street, the next at 10:29 p.m. in the 5100 block of Navahoe Street, Liberati said.


According to a campus news


alert, none of the victims had any university affiliations, and all were walking home. Liberati said he was not sure whether the vic- tims were students.


Elisa DeCesaris, 21, a senior


psychology major, said that she has a friend who lives in the area where the most recent robberies occurred and that she used to regularly walk on the trail. Seeing the news alert, she said, “hit a lit- tle closer to home than usual,” and it reminded her to be aware as she walks off campus. “We’ve always been told to be conscious of our surroundings,” she said. “It’s not a change. . . . It’s starting to be in places that we know.” The three other robberies in- volved student victims. About 2 a.m. Saturday, police said, four people tackled a student who was walking on Hartwick Road at Princeton Avenue and took cash from his wallet. The incident was similar to an


Aug. 29 robbery in which five people attacked three students waiting at a bus stop on Berwyn House Road about 1:30 a.m., po- lice said. Two of the students were able to run away, but the third was punched several times and robbed of cash, police said. It was unclear whether the cases are connected, Liberati said. Police have made arrests in one case — a robbery that occurred about 1 a.m. Aug. 27 in the 8600 block of Baltimore Avenue, Libe- rati said. Three students were mugged, he said. Two people were arrested and charged with robbery — Makthe Ndongo, 22, of Greenbelt and a 15-year-old — and officers have a warrant for a third suspect, Theo Davis, 23, of Northwest Washington. Patrol of- ficers found Ndongo and the 15- year-old in the area shortly after the robbery, authorities said. Students milling around the U- Md. campus Thursday said they were being extra careful on late- night walks alone and were try- ing to travel in groups when pos- sible, although the robberies had hardly gripped the campus with fear. College Park, many students said, has several robberies every year; it’s only unusual that they have come in such a spurt at the beginning of the school year. “Last year, they kind of tended to kind of come at a steady pace, but more spread out,” said Alex Gran, 19, a sophomore history major. “I’ve never felt unsafe on campus. It’s only when you get off campus.”


zapotoskym@washpost.com


4th MetroAccess driver is accused


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Transportation, a subcontractor for MV Transportation, police said. Mike Healy, a Challenger vice president, declined to say whether Kingston is still em- ployed and referred all questions to Metro. Jeff Delinski, deputy chief for


Metro Transit Police, said MV Transportation provided a crimi- nal background check that showed that Kingston had no previous arrests or convictions. Kingston was immediately sus- pended from the MetroAccess service and will remain suspend- ed while the case is pending, po- lice said. The four alleged attacks on


MetroAccess passengers are un- related, Delinski said. Even so, he said, police are planning a one- hour training program for cur- rent and prospective MetroAc- cess drivers to explain “what’s ac- ceptable, what’s appropriate and what’s lawful” when interacting with passengers. “In my opinion, these were crimes of opportunity,” Delinski said. “The suspects saw an oppor- tunity and took advantage of it.” Frenney said in April that driv- ers would be “retrained on sensi- tivity and appropriate behavior.” She said Thursday that the “issue was part of the quarterly safety meetings that the drivers are re- quired to attend,” but was check- ing on the extent of the training provided. The arrests mark another set- back for MetroAccess, Metro’s federally mandated service for the people with disabilities who can’t use standard buses and trains. The long-troubled service is Metro’s most expensive and has been plagued for years by reports of passengers left stranded and drivers unfamiliar with the Washington region getting lost. Asked whether MetroAccess is safe, Delinski said: “There are an awful lot of very good MetroAc- cess drivers out there who do


good work. It just so happens a few bad apples made their way into the ranks.”


Kingston was arrested at his home on a warrant charging him with third-degree sex offense, fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault, police said. He was released from custo- dy Monday after posting bail, ac- cording to Montgomery County court records.


Kingston could not be reached for comment Thursday. A man who answered the phone for a number listed in the same last name said that he was a cousin and that he would ask Kingston or his lawyer to call back. Court records did not list a lawyer. Montgomery prosecutors are preparing an international arrest warrant for Tanveer Fayyaz, 31, who was a driver for MetroAccess subcontractor Regency Cab. He is accused of raping a 36-year-old mentally disabled woman after he picked her up from an adult- care center in Silver Spring on July 8, Delinski said. Police think Fayyaz fled to Pakistan, Delinski said. Jose Del Castillo, 55, of Gai- thersburg, another MetroAccess driver, was charged in April with sexually assaulting a female pas- senger in Prince George’s County on Jan. 28. Police said Del Castillo pulled over and fondled the wom- an after picking her up from her Temple Hills home. He is sched- uled to go to trial in Prince George’s later this month, police said.


Another MetroAccess driver,


Harry Delain, 31, of the District, was fired in February after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman on a bus. Delain was not charged with a crime. MetroAccess passengers can


report suspicious or unsafe be- havior by calling Transit Police at 202-962-2121.


shaverk@washpost.com


Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.


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KLMNO Starting out on the right hoof


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MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST


Logan Charles, left, helps his father, Brian, hang part of a tarp to shield the family’s steers from the sun ahead of the Prince George’s County Fair, which opened Thursday in Upper Marlboro.


Student says teacher fathered her child


Suit alleges D.C. school staff knew they had sex but did nothing about it


by Bill Turque Staff at a D.C. high school sus-


pected that a teacher was having sex with an emotionally dis- turbed student in his darkened classroom but did nothing to stop the encounters that led to her pregnancy, according to a lawsuit filed by the student in U.S. Dis- trict Court this week. Ayanna Blue, 20, a senior at Shadd Transition Academy in Southeast Washington, said in the suit that paternity tests show a better than 99 percent prob- ability that Robert Weismiller, 58, a teacher until he was laid off in October, is the father of her daughter born Nov. 28, 2009. The suit also alleges that Weis-


miller, who has worked in public and charter schools in Virginia and the District, “has had inap- propriate relationships with oth- er students in the past.” Weismiller, who reportedly lives in Ocean City, did not return a cellphone message Thursday. The suit alleges that he met Blue when she was a student in his class and began a five-month relationship with her in fall 2008, having sex with her in his class- room and car. The suit quotes Weismiller as telling Blue, then 18, “If I was 30 years younger, I


would marry you.” It was not until May last year, when Blue reported to school of- ficials that she was pregnant, that an investigation began, the suit alleges. It cites five staff members who told investigators that they had either seen Weismiller alone with Blue in his classroom or had heard rumors that the two were having a sexual relationship. They include an educational aide who said that Blue would en- ter Weismiller’s classroom when he took other students to lunch and that he saw her there up to four times a day. A clinical psy- chologist said that Blue would “frequently visit” Weismiller’s classroom and that he’d see them there with the lights off. Scott Gilbert, Blue’s attorney, said the District failed his client by enabling continued exposure to a sexual predator. “It’s an utter disgrace, from top


to bottom,” he said. “She received no help, of any kind, from the school. They were very good at sitting on their hands.” Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee denied the allegations and said Thursday that the school sys- tem acted in a timely and respon- sible manner. She said Shadd offi- cials first learned of the relation- ship from a teacher and acted promptly to remove Weismiller from the classroom. Weismiller was placed on ad-


ministrative leave May 5, 2009, and the allegations were reported to D.C. police. But Rhee said that because Blue was 18, the matter


was referred to school system in- vestigators. Rhee said staff state- ments cited in the suit did not of- fer definitive proof that Weismill- er and Blue were having an intimate relationship. With Weis- miller denying his guilt, the situa- tion became “a he said, she said.” Although the suit says that


Weismiller was cleared of mis- conduct, Rhee said that is not true. She said the matter was kept open until a paternity test could prove that he was the father. Before the test could be done,


Weismiller was laid off in Octo- ber, one of more than 200 D.C. teachers laid off because of what Rhee described as a budget crunch. Rhee referred to Weis- miller — but did not name him — in an interview published in the February edition of Fast Com- pany magazine. In discussing her justification for the layoffs, she said she “got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children.” The comments triggered a fire- storm of criticism, and Rhee later sought to clarify them by saying that only one was alleged to have had a sexual relationship. She was referring to Weismiller. Rhee said Thursday that the school system was bound by a “criminal standard” of proof and that had Weismiller been fired as a result of the investigation, the action would have been “over- turned in a heartbeat.” “This is the unfortunate thing.


I believe in innocent until proven guilty, but that [at] the same time


in cases like this, from a parent’s point of view, we want to say, bet- ter safe than sorry,” she said. Under the terms of the Dis-


trict’s contract with the Washing- ton Teachers’ Union, teachers laid off last fall are eligible to re- ceive retroactive pay covering about three years that they worked without a raise. Rhee said the District has no choice but to pay Weismiller. The District is scheduled to send out checks this weekend. “Sad but true,” she said. Rhee spokewoman Jennifer Calloway later said in an e-mail that the District was exploring its legal options about paying Weis- miller “in light of the conduct that has been alleged.” The lawsuit said Blue, who is


repeating her senior year at Shadd, continues to suffer emo- tionally and financially, having been forced to move out of her mother’s house and live in transi- tional housing. She fears she could end up homeless. It also says Weismiller still calls her. The suit, which seeks unspeci-


fied monetary damages against Rhee, D.C. schools and Weismill- er, depicts a chaotic and danger- ous atmosphere at Shadd during the 2008-09 school year. A special education consultant, Monique Bass, said frequent outbreaks of violence and lack of control in classrooms make the school “un- safe for any student and a breed- ing ground for lawsuits.” turqueb@washpost.com


Raising the undead in English class on zombies zombies from B1


up that has intermittently outsold the Jane Austen original. And “The Walking Dead,” the comic awaiting rebirth as an AMC TV series. And annual zombie walks in fashionable urban centers. “Right now we’re in a massive


surge of zombie entertainment,” said Blumberg, whose University of Baltimore course is English 333, a number that is — numerol- ogists, take note — exactly half of 666.


“On the most basic level, zom- bies are probably one of the most potent horror icons, one of the closest to us in terms of identifica- tion factor, in terms of reflecting ourselves,” he said. “The zombie is, simply, us.” Blumberg is curator of Geppi’s


Entertainment Museum, a shrine to popular culture at Baltimore’s Camden Yards. He has degrees from the University of Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-wrote the book “Zombiemania,” a schol- arly interest possibly surpassed only by his love for the venerable British science fiction series “Dr.


Who”. He teaches a UMBC course on the comic book as literature. “Zombiemania” examines 85 zombie movies “to die for.” The zombie course covers a mere 16 “classic” titles, from the 1932 Bela Lugosi vehicle “White Zombie” through last year’s “Zombieland,” the highest-grossing zombie film to date. “We’re looking at how the char-


acter of the zombie changes and evolves over the years and how it reflects our culture,” Blumberg said. Even before zombie films be- came self-aware and artsy, they betrayed the great societal fears of their times. Early zombies obeyed evil voodoo priests and seemed to channel the United States’ unresolved issues with race. Nuclear waste spawned Cold War zombies. Romero’s gore re- minded 1960s viewers of the nightly televised carnage in Viet- nam. Millennial zombies — not actually dead, but hungry and cranky because of viral mutation — mirror the post-Sept. 11 obses- sion with pathogen.


Blumberg pitched the course just as the university was rolling


out a new minor in pop culture. “We were trying to think of some interesting course to kick it off with,” said Jonathan Shorr, di- rector of the School of Communi- cations Design. “And 20 minutes later, Arnold wrote to me and said, ‘Are you interested in a zom- bie course?’ ” The class has 45 spaces and is nearly full, with a fairly even dis- tribution of men and women, zombie buffs and neophytes. “It’s not about zombies. It’s about how ideas in society ex- press themselves,” said Matthew Williams, 35, a junior who is tak- ing the course toward a bachelor’s degree in corporate communica- tions.


Collegiate zombie study is not without precedent. Brendan Ri- ley, an English professor at Co- lumbia College in Chicago, in- troduced a course called “Zom- bies in Popular Media” in 2007, a bit earlier in the national zombie revival. He thinks his was the first all-zombie course. It is a perenni- al entry on lists of oddest college classes. “It was kind of a fight to get it as a recognized course at the school,”


Riley said. “Because at first, it ap- pears to be kind of a frivolous top- ic.”


Students have responded with stirring interdisciplinary proj- ects. One music major, Riley said, “rewrote the libretto for ‘Okla- homa!’ to be all about zombies.” Steven Schlozman, a Harvard


Medical School professor who has written, only half-jokingly, on the neurophysiology of zombies, re- gards the awakened dead as per- haps the only cinematic monsters truly deserving of their own colle- giate course — the zombie as a sort of horror-movie everyman, ill-defined and unpredictable. Werewolves and vampires seem positively one-dimensional by comparison. “There’s this kind of raging de-


bate about what are the more ap- propriate zombies to discuss, the slow-moving zombies, as in ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ or the fast-moving zombies, as in ‘28 Days Later’ or ‘I Am Legend,’ ” Schlozman said. “How do you de- fine consciousness? How do you define human? There’s whole phi- losophy classes on it.”


devised@washpost.com


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