Lemmel

She told them they couldn't do it. Couldn't get 120 parents -- or aunts or uncles or grandparents -- to show up for parents day at Lemmel Middle School in Baltimore. Not my seventh-graders, said Principal Jacqueline Frierson. Sixth- and eight-graders? Sure. Those middling seventh-graders?Can't do it.She told them on the intercom. She told them in the halls. She told them she was so sure they wouldn't do it that if they did, she'd do something crazy. Like stand on the roof of the school and apologize.

Amid an emotional debate over Baltimore's bold experiment in school privatization, the city awarded another contract yesterday to the Minneapolis company that manages 11 public schools.Superintendent Walter G. Amprey touted the agreement, which gives Education Alternatives Inc. control of noninstructional services at William H. Lemmel Middle School as another step in his plan to radically restructure the management of public schools."Change does not come easily, but we certainly know that we cannot continue what we were doing in the past," Dr. Amprey told the city's Board of Estimates.

More than two dozen Baltimore schools got new principals last night, as the school board approved Superintendent Walter G. Amprey's latest staff changes.Among them are new principals at some of the city's highest-profile and politically well-connected schools, including Roland Park Elementary-Middle and Mount Washington Elementary schools.But a group of parents from Lemmel Middle School already have launched a protest over replacing Eldon Thomas with Elizabeth Williams without community consultation.

Jerry Scherer, a retired army sergeant, is in his first year as a public school teacher in Northwest Baltimore. Thursday, he came close to tears, but not for the reasons you might think.It wasn't the frustration of trying to teach AIDS and drug abuse prevention to a class of sixth-graders who yelled, slammed doors, threw pens and occasionally punched each other. It was because in a place that fills so many with despair, he continues to see hope."It's the idea that people's lives can be changed," he said during a rare quiet moment between classes.

Claiming that students from a neighboring school for troubled youths threaten the safety of William H. Lemmel Middle School students, a group of West Baltimore residents picketed in front of both schools yesterday and said they want the alternative school moved.Members of the "Parent Academy of Lemmel Middle School" also said that students at the Baltimore Alternative Middle School cause problems in the community before and after school."How are kids going to learn if they're scared to go to school," said Winnie Gibson, the grandparent of a Lemmel student.

Shawn Johnson, an eighth-grader at William H. Lemmel Middle School, says many of his friends have fallen prey to the temptations of the streets.He sees the older boys standing on street corners for hours daily asking younger boys if they want to make some easy money.He sees the clothes and jewelry they wear and the wads of cash they flash."And I just keep right on walking when they talk to me because I've got something better to do," says Shawn, 14.The Baltimore Urban League has kicked off a program that is intended to direct youngsters such as Shawn away from the drug culture.

Shawn Johnson, an eighth-grader at William H. Lemmel Middle School, says many of his friends have fallen prey to the temptations of the streets.He sees the older boys standing on street corners for hours daily asking younger boys if they want to make some easy money. He sees the clothes and jewelry they wear and the wads of cash they flash."And I just keep right on walking when they talk to me because I've got something better to do," says Shawn, 14.The Baltimore Urban League has kicked off a program that is intended to direct youngsters away from the drug culture.

As they moved to address several recent acts of violence in city middle schools, Baltimore school administrators today had to confront two more cases that sprang up in West Baltimore.Yesterday, a teacher was attacked by a group of students he was escorting at Booker T. Washington Middle School and a new student was beaten with a nightstick by a non-student at William H. Lemmel Middle. Neither was seriously injured.Several eighth-graders at the Booker T. Washington Middle School were detained overnight at a youth center in Laurel after they allegedly attacked a teacher while he escorted them to class after they had eaten lunch in the cafeteria.

Dr. Walter Amprey apologizes for running a little late, but things are getting crazy in his schools once again.This time, it's the clubbing of a student at William H. Lemmel Middle School.Later in the day, it'll be an attack on a teacher at Booker T. Washington Middle School.A week ago, it was a fight that hospitalized a kid at Lombard Middle School.And 13 students hurt in a stampede at Herring Run Middle School.And a day of disruption that cost a principal her job at Hampstead Hill Middle School.

On the last day of classes, principal Gwendolyn Cooke announced to the students at Lemmel Middle School that two eighth-graders had gotten pregnant during the school year.It was considered good news. In previous years, up to eight students at the West Baltimore middle school had gotten pregnant. Cooke credited Campaign for Our Children, a program that encourages abstinence, with the drop.Campaign for Our Children Inc., an ongoing five-year drive to persuade 9- to 14-year-olds to delay sexual activity for at least one year, is part of Lemmel's curriculum.

This is the first of two parts. Sometimes, preventing violence means getting the buses to run on time. That's why the city's school police chief, Marshall "Toby" Goodwin, marched up and down the sidewalk on a street off Gwynns Falls Parkway on the opening day of classes, a BlackBerry pressed to his ear, barking orders, talking to a transit supervisor sitting in her SUV, pleading for help. Students from one of three high schools inside the old Lemmel complex were pouring out, the first of three staggered and carefully choreographed dismissals.

As parents and educators react to Andres Alonso's plans to close failing schools and expand successful ones, the Baltimore schools chief is proposing a central office reorganization to help principals execute increased responsibilities. The $1.27 billion budget proposal unveiled this week would cut the central office by 15 percent, or 179 positions. Employees will have the option of applying for other jobs within the system, including more than 50 new positions to assist principals with troubleshooting as they head into a second year of decentralized management.

With his hands cuffed behind him and his feet in leg irons, 14-year-old Timothy Oxendine was escorted by a correctional officer yesterday into a Baltimore Circuit courtroom, where he pleaded not guilty in the fatal stabbing of a teenager at a West Baltimore middle school last month. Oxendine was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the stabbing of Markel Williams, 15, on Nov. 21. Williams' body was found outside William H. Lemmel Middle School. Oxendine surrendered to police several hours after the incident.

In recent days, teachers and administrators at William H. Lemmel Middle School learned of a rift between two boys they thought were friends. They tried, unsuccessfully, to get their parents to come in for a conflict-resolution session. And then on Friday, 15-year-old Markel Williams was found outside the West Baltimore building with fatal stab wounds to his upper body, the first killing on city school grounds during school hours since 2001. Timothy Oxendine, 14, is charged with first-degree murder.

On the Friday of American Education Week, Baltimore's mayor found herself inside a city middle school, addressing teachers in the gym and then students gathered in a hallway. Sheila Dixon should have been celebrating a week dedicated to learning. Instead, she was helping students and teachers mourn. Outside William H. Lemmel Middle School near Mondawmin Mall, a 15-year-old student had been fatally stabbed behind the building, next to an adjoining charter school. Police officers lined the street in front of Lemmel and had cars, emergency lights flashing, at every intersection around the corner on Gwynns Falls Parkway, where two other schools emptied out. A police helicopter circled overhead.

A 15-year-old student was stabbed and killed outside his West Baltimore middle school yesterday afternoon, the first killing of a youth on city school grounds during school hours in more than 20 years. Police got a call for an injured person shortly after 1 p.m. and found the boy in the back of William H. Lemmel Middle School suffering from multiple stab wounds to his upper torso, according to Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. The teenager was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Gwendolyn G. Lamont, a retired educator who had taught in Baltimore public schools and at several area colleges, died of cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 77 and lived in Ashburton. Gwendolyn Griggsby was born in Nashville, Tenn., and later moved to Baltimore, where she graduated in 1941 from Dunbar High School. She earned her bachelor's degree in English in 1945 from Howard University, and later a master's degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University.

On November 19, 2004, EDLO ALLEN SANDS On Tuesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICE, 4101 Edmondson Ave. from 3 to 8 P.M. On Wednesday, Mr. Sands will lie in state at Ebenezer AME Church, 20 W. Montgomery St., where the family will receive friends from 11 to 11:30 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410)945-27002004, MRS. SANGAREY, renowed Liberian journalist, writer, lecturer and grass roots activist, devoted mother of Charles M. Sangare and Louis Jr. Sangare King.

With the verve of a motivational speaker, 12-year-old Rodrick Johnson stood beside his decorated science board explaining its purpose. But for the seventh-grader with the rapid-fire delivery, the science presentation crossed subject lines to incorporate creative writing, geography and math. At West Baltimore's William H. Lemmel Middle School - where pupils have routinely scored below average on standardized tests - Rodrick is one of hundreds of pupils who are being "taught outside the box," according to Principal Vera Holley, in an attempt to make learning fun and help raise test scores.

MELAKI KING, dressed in a black shirt and khaki pants with a stately Afro adorning his 13-year-old head, draped his arms in a paternal gesture around the shoulders of the two college-age women seated beside him. He then advised them on how best to cut the pictures that would be used for the collage. "I'm a collage person," he announced, not with braggadocio, but with an air that hinted Melaki King, William H. Lemmel Middle School seventh-grader and member of the Principal's Club, was simply speaking the truth.