Community Service

Fans of irony don't often come across such a tidy package as the one offered in local newspapers on January 28.The papers led that day with the public viewing of Thurgood Marshall's coffin at the Supreme Court in Washington. Mourners who were quoted spoke sadly of the Baltimore native's passing, but proudly of what he represented. They made special note of his advocacy of the downtrodden and his belief that we all owe something of ourselves to society.The metro pages told of an event with a different spirit, taking place 30 miles away in Annapolis, at the same time as the Marshall viewing.

THE DAUGHTER of Dorsey Hall residents Robert and Lisa Black is a 16-year-old junior at Wilde Lake High School. Last month, Robin Black was awarded a bronze medal as one of Maryland's top youth volunteers in the 1999 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.Robin is one of many Columbia teen-agers whose positive contributions provide a counterbalance to the popular image of teen culture.The awards are presented annually by Prudential Insurance Co. of America and the National Association of Secondary School Principals to honor middle and high school students at the local, state and national levels for community service.

A Westminster man, who could have been sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $250,000 for manufacturing explosive devices, was granted probation before judgment yesterday.Mark J. Bauerlien, 38, of the first block of Ward Ave. pleaded guilty, placing himself at the mercy of Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr.To impress Bauerlien with the seriousness of the charges, Burns ordered the defendant to perform 250 hours of community service within 18 months and placed the self-employed carpenter on five years' probation.

Three men who pleaded guilty to illegally dumping used tires on a vacant lot in southern Baltimore were sentenced to 100 hours or more of community service, according to a Maryland assistant attorney general.The guilty were identified by prosecutors as Sanquel E. Prince, 26, whose last known address was in the 3700 block of Koppers St. in Violetville; Al K. Singleton, 25, of the 4600 block of Pimlico Road; and Bobby S. Queen, 26, of the 3000 block of Oakford Ave. in Northwest Baltimore.Each man was fined $5,000, which was reduced by Judge David Mitchell to $1,000.

State's program of student service lasts a lifetimeBrian Sullam, in his Feb. 15 column, is absolutely correct that meaningful service learning projects can instill in students a lifelong habit of citizenship and civic involvement ("Community service plan needs reform, not relief").Make-work activities that fulfill the state's requirement but make little or no impact on the community do a grave disservice to students, because they fail to show them the joy that comes from participating in public life.

In a meeting yesterday with the Greater Baltimore Committee, state legislative leaders endorsed a proposal for a "community court" in the city that would handle misdemeanor crimes and sentence offenders to treatment programs and community service.Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House of Delegates Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. told the GBC, which is leading the effort to establish the court, that they will support legislation to create one.Modeled after a court in New York City, a community court handles cases in which defendants, who are charged with such misdemeanor crimes as prostitution, minor drug offenses and loitering, plead guilty immediately and are sentenced to community service, such as sweeping streets or cleaning up graffiti.

Nearly 80 percent of Maryland's high school seniors have completed their community service requirement for graduation, but only half of the Baltimore City 12th-graders are finished.With about three months left until graduation, they have not put in the necessary 75 hours of community service in activities such as reading to youngsters at neighboring schools or helping the disabled.According to a report to the Maryland State Board of Education yesterday, more than 36,000 members of the Class of '98 are done.

Grass-roots activists doing community service on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. may apply for grants to promote community activism and social awareness.The 3-year-old program run by the Washington-based nonprofit Corporation for National and Community Service sets aside up to $500,000 nationwide for such projects as tutoring, senior citizen activities and environmental cleanup on Jan. 18, King's birthday.Last year in Maryland, students at Frostburg State and Loyola College won grants.

Anne Arundel's Republican delegates are trying to get county public school students out of performing the 75 hours of community service required for graduation in Maryland.Their bill, introduced in the House last week, would allow the Anne Arundel school board to lift the requirement. Efforts in previous years to end the requirement statewide have failed.The requirement, known as service learning, takes up class time as students do such things as scrape gum off desks, said Del. James E. Rzepkowski, one of the sponsors.

Anne Arundel's Republican delegates are trying to get county public school students out of performing the 75 hours of community service required for graduation in Maryland.Their bill, introduced in the House last week, would allow the Anne Arundel school board to lift the requirement. Efforts in previous years to end the requirement statewide have failed.The requirement, known as service learning, takes up class time as students do such things as scrape gum off desks, said Del. James E. Rzepkowski, one of the sponsors.

People sentenced for drunken driving or other infractions once again have a place to go for the community service part of their court-ordered penance. A new, state-funded alternative sentencing program began operating Tuesday from the Serenity Center, a volunteer-run 12-step program already serving recovering alcohol and drug abusers in a small, unpretentious building next to the Talbott Springs swimming pool on Basket Ring Road in Columbia's Oakland Mills. Using an existing $85,000 state grant, the program will get help from the county detention center staff and from state parole and probation officers to screen candidates for the program referred for community service by county judges.

When Laura Mullen scanned her seventh-grade daughter's last report card of the year, she spotted something unexpected: Hayley already had 70 of the 75 service-learning hours she needed to graduate. Months before, she'd only had 40 hours. And while Hayley had worked with her student government throughout the year, that didn't appear to be the source of the jump. "I have always thought it's mostly community-based hours - going out, volunteering," Mullen, of Baltimore County, said. But she and other parents have learned that the hours, once a point of fierce controversy, can accumulate through in-class projects and lessons.

The 15-year-old Robert Poole Middle School student whom prosecutors accused of sparking an attack on a city bus passenger in December was sentenced yesterday to a juvenile jail until a judge releases her or she turns 21. In arguing to send Nakita McDaniels to a secure residential treatment facility, Baltimore prosecutors revealed that the student body vice president had twice before led group assaults on lone girls, one of which ended with the victim stabbed...

C.C. BRYANT SR., 90 Civil rights veteran C.C. Bryant Sr., a civil rights veteran whose community service in Mississippi extended well beyond the turbulent 1960s, died Sunday at his home in McComb, Miss. Mr. Bryant and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee launched a voter registration drive in southwestern Mississippi in 1961. In the 1960s, he endured jail and threats, including the bombing of his family home and barber shop. Mr. Bryant once described McComb's violent summer of 1964 as "hell on earth."

A 20-year-old Woodbine man convicted last year in the shooting of a teenage schoolmate missed a Tuesday probation-violation hearing to address issues of his community service requirement because he said he did not receive notice of the hearing, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office said. Benjamin Mark Allen was convicted of reckless endangerment in June 2005 when he removed a handgun from his father's safe and accidentally shot Katie Lea Weyer, then 16, of Dayton, in the chest as he was showing her the firearm.

Navy Academy grads receive medals Nine recently commissioned Naval Academy graduates received Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medals for community service while midshipmen. Their community service included tutoring and mentoring in elementary schools, feeding the homeless, building affordable housing, planting trees, cleaning up landscapes and volunteer firefighting. The following graduates were presented with the medals: Marine 2nd Lt. Jeffrey A. Cummings; Navy Ensign Chelsea Rae Gaughan; 2nd Lt. Andrew Lamar Holmes; Ensign Leanne Rae Jefferson; Ensign Adam Christopher Jones; Ensign Andria Maree Jones; Ensign Kendra Leigh McClellan; Ensign Yasmin Marie Sauls; and 2nd Lt. Michael William Thatcher.

Houleye Sall has a reputation around Patterson High School for being a perpetually happy teenager. Whether she's playing lacrosse, studying English or performing community service, the senior always has a smile on her face. Behind that smile, however, lies a depth of appreciation for the lifestyle of an American teenager that few, if any, of her peers could ever comprehend. "The kids don't know. They just see me as a happy person going down the halls. They don't see me inside. They don't see somebody who's gone through a hard time," said Sall, 18. Few of her peers know that until six years ago, Sall lived in a refugee camp in the west African nation of Senegal.

Alex Pace walked the halls of a local nursing home, stopping at the patients' rooms to visit. During brief conversations she learned many of them were without families or visitors. "It made me feel good to be at the elder home," said the 13-year-old, an eighth-grader. "I wanted to make them smile and feel better. I'm close to my grandparents, and I got to help the elder people without grandchildren see what it would be like to have a granddaughter." Alex's visit was a small part of the extensive community service program offered at Harford Day School, which she attends.

Call it the evolution of Edward T. Norris: Top police officer. Convicted felon. And now, radio talk-show guest turned host. Norris is returning on Monday to the city that he once ruled as police commissioner to begin his 500 hours of community service. This is the last stage of the sentence he received after pleading guilty to federal public corruption and tax charges stemming from his time at the helm of the city force. He spent six months in a federal prison in Atlanta and is finishing up six months on home detention in his Florida home.

Former city police Commissioner Edward T. Norris, released from federal prison last month, is returning to Baltimore after all. Norris, who pleaded guilty to public corruption and tax charges in March, lost his bid yesterday to move his community service requirement from Baltimore to his new home in Tampa. Fla. "Edward T. Norris owes a moral debt to the citizens of the City of Baltimore," said U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett in an order issued yesterday. "The debt can only be repaid by community service in the City of Baltimore."