Pepper Spray

In the hardscrabble world of Baltimore County's east side, Jodie Ulrich stood above most of her Chesapeake High School peers. She was a member of the National Honor Society, played three sports, volunteered at a geriatric center and worked a mall job at night.Then she made a terrible mistake:The 17-year-old junior forgot to remove a canister of pepper spray from her key chain.When another student picked up the key chain and released some of the spray in a cafeteria, both were expelled for violating Baltimore County's strict rules of conduct, which lumps the protective spray together with guns and knives.

IF I'M LATE WEIGHING in here, blame it on naivete.As a hard-bitten, cynical, newspaper type, I'm supposed to expect the worst from our public officials. And yet, somehow, I still expect, if not the best, at least something approaching adequate.Is that naive or just plain stupid?Whatever, I was certain that Jodie Ulrich, the pepper-spray poster girl, would be back in Chesapeake High long ago, doing whatever it is that happy teen-agers do (don't ask).So, I held back, confident that the right thing would be done, while I looked into more pressing issues, like McDonald's dangerous experiments with Dijon.

Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was charged with failing a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers near Austin, Texas. Benson, 25, faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said. Benson was released from jail early yesterday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

A 35-year-old Pikesville man died Monday night after losing control of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Baltimore, hitting five cars and crashing through a Fort McHenry Tunnel toll gate before police caught up with him at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, according to a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority. Yakov Ostrovsky, of the 2900 block of Fallstaff Road, died of unknown causes after police sprayed him with pepper spray because he would not get out of his truck at the airport.

Baltimore County's school superintendent refused yesterday to intervene in the much-criticized expulsion of an honor student, instead calling for a month-long opinion poll on the district's disciplinary code.Dr. Anthony G. Marchione's comments at a news conference sparked an angry outburst by relatives of Jodie Ulrich, the Chesapeake High School student expelled in March for carrying a can of protective pepper spray."This is just passing the buck," her grandfather, 75-year-old Richard Wright, shouted, interrupting the news conference.

When a Baltimore County police officer assigned to Chesapeake High School in Essex tried to break up a fight this week, 16 students wound up going to the hospital as a result of exposure to pepper spray. That's something that should trouble school officials, parents and students at the school who might rightly worry that a similar event could happen again. We can't second-guess the judgment of the officer who decided pepper spray was an appropriate use of force. Police are regularly called on to make split-second evaluations based on the specific nature of threats and the likelihood that not using force could result in even greater harm to the public.

Officials at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport shut down two concourses for about an hour Monday morning, while investigators tried to determine the nature and source of an unusual odor. All checkpoints reopened by 10 a.m., after investigators removed what they believe was a can of pepper spray from a trash bin. Investigators discovered the item, which they are still processing, discarded in a trash can near the security check point at Concourse B. A passenger may have tossed the aerosol can before going through security, officials said.

Criticized by public officials, parents and some educators over the expulsion of two students for carrying pepper spray in school, Baltimore County's school superintendent said yesterday that he is re-evaluating the district's disciplinary policy.Dr. Anthony G. Marchione said he summoned the county's 26 high school principals to a late-afternoon meeting in Towson to discuss the code of behavior, including the classification of pepper spray as a weapon.He declined to provide details of the meeting, saying he would discuss the matter with his staff and comment further this week.

Responding to criticism of the school system's unbending discipline code -- and the expulsion of an honor student -- the Baltimore County schools superintendent last night outlined changes designed to give administrators more discretion in meting out punishment.Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione said "mitigating circumstances" would be considered to determine the length of time an expelled or suspended student would be kept out of school. They include a student's disciplinary history, attendance and "citizenship," whether readmission would cause disruption, and recommendations of the school staff, according to rules presented last night to the school board.

Two months after a Western Maryland inmate died after being subdued with three cans of pepper spray, the state prison commissioner has toughened guidelines for its use, according to an internal memo. Only a warden or assistant warden can authorize using chemical agents on inmates held in segregation units, wrote Frank C. Sizer Jr., commissioner of the Division of Correction. Previously, a senior correctional supervisor could approve its use, according to the division's regulations. "If chemical agents are used at any time, staff shall prepare a thorough report within 24 hours of the incident," Sizer wrote in the July 8 memo to wardens, which made no mention of the death of inmate Ifeanyi A. Iko, who was held in a segregation unit.