Fellow Students

Nearly everyone in the hallways and classrooms at North County High School in Glen Burnie knew Walter Brooks Jr. They didn't know him because he was one of the school's top athletes or one of its top students when he graduated last spring. He was neither. Most knew him because of an oversize personality that his friends and family say was matched only by the size of his heart. Brooks, 18, died Wednesday after a brief illness; his parents said they were told by doctors that the cause was swine flu. "Everyone loved Walter," said Andrea Hunt, who had known Brooks since the sixth grade and became best friends with him in high school.

ELDERSBURG -- Students from South Carroll High School will present a "total-student" production at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the school auditorium."

Jurors in the sex-abuse trial of former Catholic schoolteacher John J. Merzbacher won't be able to examine personnel records that showed the teacher received superior evaluations during at least part of the period when he is alleged to have raped and molested a female student.M. Cristina Gutierrez, Mr. Merzbacher's lawyer, yesterday withdrew her bid to enter the evaluations into evidence after Judge Robert I. H. Hammerman said he would allow the Baltimore Circuit Court jury to see some, but not all, of the documents she had gathered from the personnel files through a subpoena.

It was no secret that Bogdan Dabrowsky was nervous about working with perchloric acid, one of the nastiest chemicals in the laboratory. He had expressed his concerns to both his faculty adviser and other Johns Hopkins graduate students.He would even wait until the lab was empty to work with the acid. He wanted to make sure no one else would be at risk.So Mr. Dabrowsky was alone in a Hopkins lab the night of March 23, when a beaker of hot acid mixture exploded in his hand. Robert Oberle, a student working in a nearby lab, heard the boom.

Five Annapolis Middle School students were charged with food poisoning after serving a batch of just-baked cookies sprinkled with liquid dish detergent to the principal, a teacher and some fellow students.The eighth-graders, apparently dissatisfied with how their home economics class assignment had turned out, decided to squirt dish washing liquid on the cookies and offer them to unsuspecting students and teachers, officials said."One of the students thought that if they swallowed the tainted cookies, bubbles would come from the mouths of the people that ate them," Anne Arundel County Lt. Ray A. Pearson said.

Moving from Buenos Aires to Baltimore last summer, I expected many differences between college life in Argentina and in the United States.But I wasn't prepared for the drinking scene.The first Friday of school, the lobby of the Winwood Towers student residence at Loyola College had a parade of staggering students. Some students were lying on the floor and sprawled over the couches. Empty cans, spilled beer and vomit littered elevators and corridors.I had always thought that "Animal House" was a Hollywood fantasy, but that night I was in the middle of it. And the movie ran all year long.

Mount Hebron High School students got a glimpse of Asian culture and a taste of the continent's geography and diversity in two assemblies yesterday, both highlighting traditional costumes and ways of life.The events depicted various aspects of Asian life, including traditional costumes, the martial arts and Korean fan and drum dances.Students also got a first-hand perspective on Asian and Asian-American life from fellow students who told their stories to the assembled group."I learned more about Asia than I did before," said Vesime Omer, a 17-year-old junior, noting that, prior to the program, she hadn't known that Russia was a part of Asia.

Playing "hooky" or violating the school dress code can earn you a one- to three-day suspension from school, or "disciplinary removal," as it's called these days.But school officials are experimenting with an even tougher punishment for certain offenses that keeps the student in school.No more staying at home playing Nintendo and raiding the refrigerator. No more sneaking out the door after mom and dad have gone to work.Instead, those students can expect a steady diet of schoolwork in a special room for up to three days, under the watchful eye of a teacher's aide.

Hammond High School sophomore Dave Brewer remembers when his parents sat him down to talk about sex."They took it very seriously," he said. "Their whole philosophy is it is for marriage and it is not something you take flippantly."He shared those frank discussions at Tuesday's Hammond Student Speak Out, where a group of 25 young people in the school cafeteria discussed sex, relationships, parents and other topics important to them."Students really needed a time to come in and express themselves," said 15-year-old sophomore Hansel Henry III. "We haven't done that before.

COLLEGE PARK - The natives were restless, but not unruly. Eight days after a plastic-bottle-throwing incident marred a game against Atlantic Coast Conference foe Duke, Maryland students responded - for the most part - with boisterous cheers and reasonable behavior during a 69-54 Terrapins win over Clemson at Cole Field House yesterday. The students, who couldn't escape the unwanted attention from local television outlets and newspaper reporters, refrained from the actions that got them in trouble - namely, the tossing of any bottles, ice or batteries at their visitors from South Carolina.