Parents

Angie Miller and her steely-eyed focus transmitted into the homes of 10-plus million American Idol viewers won her 50,000 followers in the Twitterverse the week of the show's Top 10 reveal -- nearly 18,000 more social media fans than her next highest competitor. More than two months later, the 18-year-old  Beverly, Mass., native tripled her followers, effectively blowing away the other wannabes on the cyberspace portal. Why then didn't the magic of the 140-character phenomenon carry her into Thursday's finale?

Lisa and Eric Grevin's southern Anne Arundel County home bustles with activity, with six children playing, doing homework and getting ready for dinner. With three adopted children and three foster children, it's not exactly what the Grevins pictured when they decided to start a family — but now they say they couldn't imagine life any other way. "It changed our lives," said Eric Grevin, 41, of the couple's decision to serve as foster parents. "It made our lives richer and fuller, and I'm so glad we did it. " The Grevins recently were named Foster Parents of the Year for Anne Arundel County and will be honored at a reception with Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley at Government House in Annapolis in June.

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

This letter is in response to Stephen Musselman's opinion letter about the HCPSS Wellness Policy revisions. In his letter, Mussleman claims that the HOCO PTA's are taking a "hard lined stance against student health… . " The PTA's oppose the proposed revision to the Wellness Policy that mandates any food/beverages given or sold to students on school system property after school would have to comply with yet to be written HCPSS Nutritional Guidelines....

They likely won't recognize each other Saturday as they go to the gate for the 138th Preakness. Orb, the Kentucky Derby winner, and Departing, a horse some believe could be the only one capable of ending this year's Triple Crown chase in Baltimore, will be thinking of nothing but running. They will be two of nine horses trying to get to the front. Before they ever officially became racehorses, they were just two of eight horses in a field on the Kentucky farm where they were born.

For many Howard County parents, a child's senior year in high school is one of the most proud and exciting times in their lives. It can also be one of the scariest. What many teen-agers call rites-of-passage and coming-of-age events that "everyone" does can be wild, unchaperoned, risky activities. That's why the PTSA at Oakland Mills High School and the Centennial High School Parent Support Network put together a program this week called "Everything a Parent Ever Wanted to Know About Prom, Graduation and Senior Week, But Was Afraid to Ask."

Imagine that you can hear what other people are thinking about you, or that you wake up each day but you can't turn off your dreams and nightmares.In some sense these are the kinds of torments faced daily by many of the nation's two million or more schizophrenics, people such as Russell E. Weston Jr. -- a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, according to his parents -- who stands accused of the murders of two Capitol Police officers Friday.Medical experts and relatives say schizophrenics are the victims of a nightmarish illness that is still only poorly understood.

Your editorial, "Invisible lives" (April 11), is a perfect example of the circular logic that further dooms the unfortunate children you want to help. The article describes the various abnormal, frightened and selfish behaviors of characters in the Lamont Davis trial and very properly identifies those as self-defeating, self-inflicted wounds. In my opinion you go off track when you express frustration that "most Americans refuse to take any responsibility for" the actions of this "frustrated and despairing underclass."

While I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject of education, the commentary by Larry Schmidt and Dallas Dance ("What kids need to compete," March 2) is yet another in the series of opinion pieces by "experts" appearing in The Sun overlooking the essential ingredient to any plan hoping to build a better education for our children. That essential ingredient is the parents. Boring perhaps, but as with most things, start with the fundamentals first. Get parents on board, improve those that are already on board, and you'll probably get to skip past half of the hurdles you currently have in the classroom and finally enjoy the pie in the sky which makes up the bulk of these expert opinion pieces.

Andrés Alonso doesn't get it - as evidenced by his decision to demote principals because their students had poor test scores ("Principals union head protests demotions," Aug. 24). Well, here was his chance to reach out to parents and ask for help. Why not? As a leader, Mr. Alonso lacks the foresight and intestinal fortitude to bring into the equation the parents of underperforming students. Here was his teaching moment. Isn't he considered the lead teacher of our school system? Can't he and his staff think this through and try another tactic?

The world recently learned of the astounding story   of the three women who were found alive in a house in Cleveland after being kidnapped on the streets about 10 years ago. Two of the women were teenagers when they disappeared.   I've never been one to let sensational news guide by parenting. I send the kids off to school each day without thinking of the terrible Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I try not to think of all the people who die in car accidents when I hand the car keys to my 16-year-old son.   But every now and then I stop and wonder if I'm making the right decisions in the freedom I give my kids.

A Baltimore County parent who stepped in to bring warmth and cheer back to the high school that had a chilling cafeteria shooting was recognized Friday during the state's annual Parent Involvement Matters awards. The Maryland State Department of Education awarded Mary Kavanagh with the JoAnne L. Carter Memorial Award, in recognition of her special work with Perry Hall High School, according to a news release from the department. Kavanagh received the award, named in honor of Carter, a former deputy state superintendent who lost her battle with cancer in 2009, for a mural project she launched after a student opened fire at Perry Hall on the first day of school.

We share the editorial view that outgoing Baltimore City Schools CEO Andrés Alonso created a strong platform to sustain ongoing improvement in our schools ("School reform 2.0," May 12). But the editorial's call for more standardization around the system is off the mark. Instead, we urge the system to use this moment to engage parents, school leaders and others in a discussion about how we define a high-quality school. What does a good school look like and how do we measure it? In some ways, we know a good school when we see it: children are loved for who they are and challenged to be their very best.

The good news is that, in seven years of umpiring amateur baseball games in the Baltimore area, Frank Handley has had to give the thumb to only five adults. The bad news is he had to do it again a couple of weeks ago. But we're going to turn a negative into a positive today. We're going to get the message out - a reminder, really - that parents need to keep the ugly under control and set a good example for children. And parents who see and hear another behaving badly need to speak up. The story comes to us from Nancy Turner, who was so upset at what she saw during a Baltimore County recreational baseball tournament that she wrote me a detailed email about it. The game, on a Sunday morning in May, was for 11- and 12-year-olds.

For a decade, 1st Mariner's name adorned the Baltimore arena, but now the bank's parent company says it does not plan to bid for naming rights that expired last year. The bank's parent company has talked about the price for naming rights with Legends Sales and Marketing, a New York-based company hired by arena manager SMG Holdings to manage the sale. "We talked some numbers. We weren't close to what they're suggesting," said Dennis Finnegan, executive vice president of retail banking at First Mariner Bancorp.

As he stood in front of hundreds of kids last year at his football clinic at Calvert Hall, Ray Rice made a promise to those in the crowd. “When I make promises, I like to keep them,” the Ravens running back said today. “I made a special promise. We said that we were going to bring a Super Bowl back to Baltimore.” The comment was met with loud cheers by those who attended the second annual Ray Rice Day in Baltimore. “Being involved in the community is just something that, winning the Super Bowl or not, I know I'd be out here doing Ray Rice Day again and I'd be telling the kids the same message every day,” Rice said.

It was either when my 14-year-old daughter punched me as hard as she could after flying out to right field or when the coach took her aside to console her that "all softball dads are [unprintable word that nearly rhymes with lassos]" when I realized being a father to a high school varsity player is not nearly as easy as I'd expected. But here's my defense: Nobody taught me what it takes to be a supportive, loving parent to a high school athlete. Oh, the school's athletic director and coaches offered a preseason lecture.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Barely six months after a judge allowed a Florida teen-ager to remain with the man who had reared her after she had been switched at birth, the girl has suddenly moved in with her biological parents, with whom she had severed all ties.After a meeting Tuesday attended by both sets of parents, their lawyers and state-appointed guardians, 15-year-old Kimberly Mays left the YMCA shelter in Sarasota where she had been living for the past week and joined the family of Ernest and Regina Twigg in Sebring, about 70 miles from here.

When first-time mom Sarah Dorman has a parenting question, she often turns to a Facebook group of Baltimore women before her own mother. Her mother's probably not available at 3 a.m., and not familiar with the latest rules regarding infants and organic fruit or fretting over the contradictions in all those advice books - unlike some of Dorman's online peers. "It all goes through fads of what's the popular thing. What was really popular when our parents were doing it might now sound psychotic," said Dorman, 31. Three decades ago, for example, parents were told to place babies face-down to sleep, a distinct no-no today after doctors realized it increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

The necessity of a two-income family today often leaves parents scrambling for child care and juggling countless responsibilities. It is no wonder that young parents today may feel overwhelmed. There is good news, though, and a place to go to find some much-needed guidance. Jewish Community Services is offering a new parent discussion series that addresses some of the challenges of parenthood. These groups are free and open to the public once a month on Tuesdays, meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center at 3506 Gwynnbrook Avenue.