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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2010


D.C. teachers get ‘standing ovation’


Kennedy Center event honors 662 ‘highly effective’ instructors


BY BILL TURQUE Like most of the celebrity


presenters at Monday night’s Kennedy Center tribute to the District’s top public school teachers, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters recalled one who made an indelible mark on his life. In Grohl’s case, it was his


mother, a Fairfax County teacher for 35 years. “She was up before the sun


every day, grading papers, and every night when it went down,” said Grohl, who grew up in Springfield. The tribute, a Standing Ova-


JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS


AMarine carry team lifts the transfer case containing the remains ofMarine Lance Cpl. Terry E.Honeycutt Jr. ofWaldorf upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base onMonday.Honeycutt died while serving in Afghanistan, according to military officials.


Doll found hanging from noose at church Pastor calls incident


early Sunday, authorities said. Amaintenanceman found the


at City of Zion in Laurel ‘very disturbing’


BY MATT ZAPOTOSKY Laurel policewere tryingMon-


day to determinewho hung a doll from a noose in front of an AfricanAmerican church on Lau- rel Park Drive late Saturday or


doll, which was hanging from a tree in front of the City of Zion Church, about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, said Gregory Strong, the pastor. Someone had written racial slurs on the doll, alongwith references to President Obama, he said. “This was meant to rattle our


congregation,” Strong said. “Very disturbing, very disturbing.” Strong said he called police, and the doll was removed before


congregants arrived for services. He said he thought the doll was meant to scare congregants in the days before Tuesday’s elec- tion. “This was not coincidence,” he


said. Jim Collins, a Laurel police


spokesman, said that officers col- lected fingerprints from the doll and rope and remained in the area, undercover, looking for sus- pects. There were no leads Mon- day, he said.


tion for D.C. Teachers, was orga- nized by the D.C. Public Educa- tion Fund, the nonprofit fund- raising arm of the public school system, to honor the 662 instruc- tors judged “highly effective” under the city’s new IMPACT evaluation system. Proceeds from the event will go to the fund. The tribute was staged with touches of award-show glit- ter and polish by George Stevens Jr., producer of the annual Ken- nedy Center Honors. “If you got paid by the hour,


you’d probably be making about $1.50 an hour,” said News4 an- chor Jim Vance, who hosted the evening. New York Times colum- nist Thomas Friedman, interim


He said thewords used and the


way they were written indicated that the incidentwasnot anact of teenage vandalismbut an orches- trated effort by an adult. He said that police had not received any recent reports of similar inci- dents but that officers would investigate this one thoroughly. “This was something that


somebody really planned,” he said. “We would love to appre- hend these people.” zapotoskym@washpost.com


Technicality sinks suit over ambulance fee fliers


Complaint about county-produced message files too late


BY MICHAEL LARIS A Montgomery County judge


saidonMonday thatacounty-pro- duced campaign flier advocating ambulance fees was designed to intimidate voters, but he dis- missed a suit challenging govern- ment campaigneffortsbecausehe


ruleditwas filedoneday late. The government flier says


blocking the fee could result in: “Longer Response Times for Am- bulances” and “Increased Risk for Our Families and Property,” among other things. “This is not an attempt to do


anything other than, in some ways, frankly, intimidate people andget themtovote for the ambu- lance fee,” Circuit Court Judge RobertA.Greenberg said. Greenberg ruled that there is a


10-day statute of limitations for voters to challenge such disputed


election activities after they learn about them.Thatwouldhavebeen last Thursday, he said, but the suit was filed Friday. Greenberg did notaddressthequestionofwheth- er county campaign activities in recent days and weeks have been legal, as the county says. County officials say fee opponents have sought to intimidate voters with their literature. Most of the county’s 900 opera-


tional fire and rescue personnel have beenworking to educate the public about the ambulance fee, Montgomery Fire Chief Richard


Bowers said. “I don’t like theword ‘campaign,’ tobehonestwithyou,” he said. Hundreds of firefighters will reach out to votersTuesday as well,he said. On Sunday night, police re-


ceived a report of an assault at the Gaithersburg Washington-Grove Volunteer Fire Department. After a career firefighter put a pro-am- bulance fee banner on the front a ladder truck, the firefighter said a volunteer grabbed and pushed him as he sought to tear it down. No chargeswere filed. larism@washpost.com


Head of Alexandria Country Day School resigns BY KEVIN SIEFF The head of Alexandria Coun-


try Day School has resigned, and the Alexandria Police Depart- ment has opened an investiga- tion based on information pro- vided by school officials. In an e-mail sent to parents


Monday afternoon, David Ayres, president of the school’s board of


trustees, wrote that the board “asked for and received Exie Harvey’s resignation.” Alexander “Exie” Harvey had


been head of the school for 10 years. Alexandria police spokeswom-


an Ashley Hildebrandt wouldn’t discuss the basis of the investiga- tion, which school officials com- municated to the department within the past 24 hours. “No


criminal actions or charges have been established or confirmed,” she said. Harvey denied that he was


forced to resign and said he was unaware that school officials had prompted a police investigation. “I swear on a stack of bibles


that never came up,”Harvey said. “I chose to resign because I want to spend more time with my family. It’s time to smell the


Foxy disguise doesn’t fool police Va. owner of wild animal charged after pet’s Halloween stroll draws attention


BY MARTINWEIL The fox might have escaped


notice, except for the costume it was wearing. It was a skeleton costume,but after all,Sundaywas Halloween. On Sunday, Fairfax County po-


lice animal control officers seized the fox, named “Swiper,” from its owner, Alayna Sitterson. Police saidMonday that Sitter-


son, 20, of theHerndon area, was charged with unlawful posses- sion of wildlife after she was seen walking the fox about 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Reston Town Center. The police said Swiper would


be held at the county’s animal shelter until it was determined whether Virginia’s wildlife agen- cy would issue what the police said was a required special per- mit. In an interviewMonday night,


Sitterson said Swiper had just been returned to her. “I’m holding him,” she said by telephone. Whenshewentto the shelter to


pick him up, she said, Swiper ran to the door of his cage “and started wagging his tail.” A spokeswoman for the county


police said Swiper had been re- leased, adding that more detailed discussions with the Virginia De-


“I was bawling. It feels really good to know that he is mine.”


Alayna Sitterson, owner of “Swiper,” a fox that was confiscated by police and later returned to her.


partment of Game and Inland Fisheries cleared the way for Swiper’s return. Legal details were not immedi-


ately available, but Sitterson said she was certain that her owner- ship of Swiper, which she de- scribed as a silver cross fox, was completely lawful. Foxes, she said, had always been her favorite animals.


When she decided this year to


get one, she said, she “did it within the law.” She said she had obtained


Swiper from a breeder in another state and raised him since he was 7 weeks old. The costume he was wearing,


she said, came from her family’s pet beagle, which had died. The beagle and the fox were


about the same size, and it was suggested to her that it would be cute if Swiper wore it. So on Halloween, she said, she


dressed Swiper in the skeleton suitandtookhimoutonhis leash. She said she thought someone


had noticed her with Swiper and called police. As she left a store, she said, an officer blocked her car. Animal-control officers then came and took the fox. “I was bawling,” Sitterson said


Monday night. But with the return of Swiper,


she was feeling great. “It feels really good to know


that he is mine,” she said. weilm@washpost.com


roses.” Alexandria Country Day is a


K-8 private school with 228 stu- dents. It prides itself on its small class sizes and charges more than $20,000 in annual tuition. sieffk@washpost.com


LOTTERIES November 1


DISTRICT Mid-Day Lucky Numbers:


Mid-Day D.C. 4: Mid-Day DC-5:


Lucky Numbers (Sun.): Lucky Numbers (Mon.): D.C. 4 (Sun.): D.C. 4 (Mon.): DC-5 (Sun.): DC-5 (Mon.): Daily 6 (Sun.): Daily 6 (Mon.):


MARYLAND Mid-Day Pick 3: Mid-Day Pick 4:


Night/Pick 3 (Sun.): Pick 3 (Mon.): Pick 4 (Sun.): Pick 4 (Mon.): Multi-Match:


Match 5 (Sun.): Match 5 (Mon.):


VIRGINIA Day/Pick-3: Pick-4: Cash-5:


Night/Pick-3 (Sun.): Pick-3 (Mon.): Pick-4 (Sun.): Pick-4 (Mon.): Cash-5 (Sun.): Cash-5 (Mon.):


*Bonus Ball 6


For late drawings and out-of-area results, check washingtonpost.com/lottery


1-8-2 0-7-4-0


3-6-0-0-5 9-3-3 2-8-8


0-5-4-4 1-5-9-3


9-9-1-7-6 4-5-8-6-7


20-21-27-29-32-35 *24 2-12-13-16-27-32 *36


0-6-8


3-6-0-1 9-0-0 6-1-3


0-2-0-3 2-1-7-4 N/A


2-3-12-20-37 *34 15-16-22-24-26 *36


0-9-8 8-2-3-0


4-5-13-20-28 0-7-4 N/A


3-8-2-0 N/A


4-6-12-21-30 N/A


202-334-6200


GHI washingtonpost.com CLASSIFIEDS


C304 A 2x2.5 LOCAL DIGEST MARYLAND


Man sentenced for trafficking girls A Prince George’s County man


was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison for transporting underage girls into the District for prostitution, including a 12- year-old foster child he was rais- ing. Shelby S. Lewis, 42, of Temple


Hills pleaded guilty in December 2009 to four felony counts and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to con- current terms for each count. “If I could make the sentences


consecutive, Iwould do so,” Sulli- van said after a grim sentencing hearing, which Shelby’s family, children and two of the victims attended. Lewis admitted prostituting a


12-year-old girl for two years after he became her guardian, a 13-year-old girl for approximate- ly three years, and two girls, 14 and 16, for shorter periods, ac- cording to a statement by the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. All lived with Lewis and his children. Two adult pros- titutes were found at Lewis’s home when police executed a search warrant. “These depraved crimes are


nothing less than modern-day slavery,” Machen said. “We know that too many children are still suffering in the shadows, and our office will aggressively work to liberate victims fromsex traffick- ers.”


—Spencer S. Hsu


Woman charged in killing after dispute A Southern Maryland woman


shot and killed a 55-year-oldman and stayed at the scene until authorities arrived, St. Mary’s County officials saidMonday. Joanna J. Findlay, 40, ofHolly-


wood was charged Sunday with second-degree murder in the death of Gary Alan Trogdon, according to the county’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations. She was being heldMonday in the St. Mary’s County jail. On Saturday, county deputies


responded to a home on Little Cliffs Road in Hollywood after a report of a domestic assault,with shots fired during the dispute.


They found Trogdon dead inside the home. Findlay was there and was detained, authorities said. —DanMorse


Gaithersburg speed camera is torched There is burning through a red


light and then there is burning the speed camera. The Montgomery County Fire


Marshal is investigating the in- tentional burning of a county speed camera about 2:30 a.m. Monday onQuinceOrchardRoad and McDonald Chapel Drive in Gaithersburg. The box — about one-third of


the way up the light pole — housing the electronics for the camera was in flames when fire- fighters arrived, and they quickly extinguished the fire, said Assis- tant Fire Chief Scott Graham. The investigation shows the


fire was deliberately set and dis- abled the camera, Grahamsaid. So no chance the suspect was


caught on tape before the flame- out? “No ma’am,” Graham said.


“Based on the mechanics of how the camera operates, unless the suspect was running past at 35 miles an hour with a burning match, the camerawouldn’t have gotten it.”


—Mary Pat Flaherty


Bladensburg man is fatally shot A Bladensburg man was shot


and killed early Monday in an area of Prince George’s County that has seen a spate of homi- cides in recentmonths. AlfredMassey III, 25, was shot


multiple times about 2:30 a.m. in the 3400 block of Dodge Park Road — near where two homi- cides took place in less than two weeks in September. He was pro- nounced dead at the scene. Sources said at the time that


the September killings appeared to be unrelated, and Cpl. Henry Tippett, a PrinceGeorge’s County police spokesman, said he had no evidence that the most recent slaying was connected to either of the other two.He said this one might have stemmed from “drug activity,” though police had no suspects.


—Matt Zapotosky andMary Pat Flaherty


Durango? Colorado? Buy an SUV. Sell a truck.


chancellor Kaya Henderson, for- mer Redskins star Darrell Green and “Meet the Press” host David Gregory also appeared. Seven teachers were singled


out for special distinction: Ange- la Benjamin (physics), Woodrow Wilson High School; Roaenetta Mayes Browne (grades 6-8), SharpeHealth School; Sylvia Ew- ing (art), Kelly Miller Middle School; Charles Feeser (English), Benjamin Banneker High School; Deborah Flanagan (spe- cial education),BarnardElemen- tary School; Iver Ricks (early childhoodMontessori), Burrville Elementary; andMaria Samenga (fourth grade), Harriet Tubman Elementary. Each of the seven, who won a


$10,000 award on top of the performance bonus that all 662 standouts received, paid tribute to their students and colleagues. They also honored the craft of teaching itself — a lonely and often undervalued job. “It’s a huge part of who I am.


It’s not just a job,” said Samenga, who sported an arm-length set of tattoos that Grohl admired. The evening also marked a


curtain call for Schools Chancel- lor Michelle A. Rhee, who re- ceived a standing ovation from the audience. She was joined by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and presumptive Mayor-elect Vin- cent C. Gray. But the evening belonged to


the teachers, who reminded ev- eryone that itwas a school night. “See you early in themorning,”


Ricks said. johnstones@washpost.com


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