Students

A prominent Ellicott City blogger and businessman was stabbed to death by his daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend, who plotted with the 14-year-old girl to kill him so the two could run away together, Howard County police said Friday. Dennis Lane, 58, was found before dawn in his Winding Ross Way home. Police charged Jason Anthony Bulmer and Morgan Lane Arnold, both students at Mount Hebron High School, as adults in his killing; they both face conspiracy and murder counts. Both were held without bail, according to online court records.

A University of Maryland, Baltimore County student was stabbed early Saturday in a residence hall on campus, police said. About 6 a.m., two men who knew each other started fighting inside Erickson Hall, said Maj. Paul Dillon of the university's police department. The student was stabbed in the arm during the fight, Dillon said. The injury is not life-threatening, he said. Cody Kradz, 22, was arrested off campus and charged with first- and second-degree assault in the stabbing, Dillon said.

The 19-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing Dennis Lane allegedly told investigators that his girlfriend had instructed him to kill her father and his fiancee, specifying the number of times each was to be stabbed in the throat - 10 for him and 15 for her. Jason Anthony Bulmer charging documents In a conversation at school hours before the Ellicott City blogger and businessman was killed, Jason Anthony Bulmer said, 14-year-old Morgan...

Being called to a congressional hearing can be an intimidating experience for national leaders, business executives and even elected officials. But Gorman Crossing Elementary School fifth-grader Tobi Arewa is getting used to it. "At first when I am called to do public speaking I would be so scared. There was a time when I would speak and I just froze," Tobi said. "Now that I know I just did it, it's fun and awesome to do it. " Tobi and other Gorman Crossing fifth-graders recently took part in the Howard County school system's Simulated Congressional Hearings, a performance-based assessment that challenges groups of four students to present oral statements before a panel of professionals who portray a congressional committee.

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.

A snowball stand's success depends on two key things: hot weather and lots of hard work, say Baltimore-area purveyors of the summer treat. Add those ingredients to the crushed ice and syrup concoction that has long been a regional favorite, and summertime entrepreneurs say they can make a decent living during the season's warmest weeks. "A lot of people think it's easy to start it," said Margo Torsell, who along with family members runs a three-year-old stand on Liberty Road in Randallstown.

Letter writer Gary Bohlke suggests that Coppin State University has failed and should be closed ("Admit Coppin is a failed institution and close it," May 7). I disagree strongly. The outreach programs at Coppin State receive high marks. As a current month-long visitor to Baltimore, I have participated regularly in outreach programs at Coppin, and my experiences there have been nothing short of fabulous. Coppin's wellness program offers Baltimore residents use of modern athletic facilities for various sporting activities at a very low cost.

St. John's College senior Babak Zarin says that, according to school lore, ghosts at McDowell Hall often made such a commotion that hall residents held seances to tell them — politely — to keep it down. Kathy Dulisse, director of community programs, said that once when she was alone on the second floor of the Carroll Barrister House, she caught a glimpse of a cloak of someone heading upstairs. She subsequently headed up to see who it was, and no one was there. Security officer Henry Smith said that one night this past summer at 2 a.m., while leaving the school gymnasium, he heard a "powerful whistling sound" close by. Later, while reading pamphlets in another building, he came across a story about a so-called ghost named "The Whistler" who makes the same sound in front of the gym during the early-morning hours.

David Tager and others have expressed dismay over the "higher math" that has been imposed upon kids ("Don't force higher math on our kids," Nov. 5). But schools would be doing students a great disservice if they relaxed the math requirement in today's environment. If we only require students to study what excites them, I'm afraid that many students would opt out of literature, history, psychology or languages as well as math. Moreover, if future voters don't understand math, how will they be able to make intelligent decisions regarding the multitude of issues involving science and economics in tomorrow's headlines?

Before Lauren Preston opened the cover of the book "Spring" to read to her pre-kindergarten class at Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School, her students excitedly told her why, and showed her how, the season was underway. Daffodils - not just "yellow flowers" - were appearing from beneath the soil, they said. Hyacinths were blooming, they demonstrated with the slow unfolding of their tiny fists. And butterflies were emerging, the students showed by flapping their curled arms. In pre-K classrooms around Baltimore's school system, subtle changes like interactive reading are having a substantial effect in helping prepare 4-year-olds for elementary school - addressing an achievement gap that city schools have faced for years.

An attorney for the family of an Anne Arundel County 7-year-old suspended from school after being accused of nibbling a pastry into the shape of a gun says he met with school officials Wednesday in an attempt have the student's suspension expunged, but no resolution was reached. Park Elementary School student Josh Welch was suspended in March for two days after school officials accused him of shaping the pastry into the form of a gun and waving it around. School officials sent a letter home to parents saying the student had been removed from the classroom for making "inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class.

Congratulations to Tim Marcin, winner of Washington College 's Sophie Kerr Prize, worth $61,192 this year. The 22-year-old  from Wilmington, Del., who is headed to Northwestern University, plans to pursue a sports writing career. That's a worthy goal -- to follow in the footsteps of luminaries such as Ring Lardner and Roger Angell. (I'd even toss John McPhee into the crowd.) According to the college, he submitted "poems whose subjects included teen romance, the music of Bob Dylan, and up-close perceptions of his father's well-worn coat, and the red stitches on a baseball.

Kaci DeWitt-Rickards remembers being a chunky kid with a steady diet of Burger King chicken tenders, vanilla milkshakes and Papa John's pizza. By her sophomore year in college at the University of Miami, her adolescent pudge had ballooned into a weight problem. The 5-foot-4 exercise physiology major hit her heaviest weight ever that fall in 2010, weighing in at 167 pounds. She felt bad about herself and didn't have a lot of energy. But most of all, she felt like a hypocrite as she studied for a career to help people stay fit. "If you're going to go out and teach a healthy lifestyle, you have to live it," DeWitt-Rickards remembers a professor saying that fall semester.

Coppin State University should enroll higher-caliber freshmen, focus more on transfer and returning students, and reorganize its academics and administration, a committee plans to report Wednesday to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. The recommendations, from a panel convened in December to study Coppin State, are meant to turn around the stressed institution, one of Maryland's four historically black colleges and universities. The school has one of the lowest six-year graduation rates for first-time, full-time students in the country at 15 percent as of fiscal year 2012 and is underenrolled by more than 2,000 students, the committee said.

Morton "Jerry" Baum, founder and executive director of the Fund for Educational Excellence and a retired clothing manufacturing executive who was a tireless champion of city public schools, died May 5 from complications of Parkinson's disease at his Roland Park home. He was 87. "I first met Jerry in the 1980s when he was executive director of the Fund for Educational Excellence," said Brian C. Rogers, chairman of T. Rowe Price, who had served as a member of the organization's board.

St. Mary's College of Maryland has only locked in about two-thirds of the students it needs for a full freshman class next school year, a shortfall that could cost the public liberal arts school $3.5 million in lost tuition. Though the school's admissions department is trying to fill about 150 vacant spots, the president warned faculty and staff to prepare for budget cuts. "All of the numbers on this campus are small numbers, so this has a large impact," said President Joseph R. Urgo, who since becoming president in 2010 has revamped the school's admissions department.

Coppin State University has a serious problem with very low rates of student retention and graduation. Last December, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents created a Special Review Committee to look into this problem further and make recommendations. This is of special interest to me, as I served as a member of the faculty at Coppin for 12 years, from 1999 until 2011, including service as Faculty Senate president in 2005-2007. Historically, Coppin's core mission has been to provide much-needed access to quality higher education for the citizens of Baltimore City, especially African-American men and women who often must contend with social and economic barriers because of race.

Barry Fitzpatrick, the principal of Mount St. Joseph High School, resigned Tuesday after officials there discovered "inappropriate" communications with students, the school said in a letter to parents. The school did not detail the content or the type of communications but said the "proper authorities" had been notified, school president George E. Andrews Jr. wrote in the letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he could neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

First Financial Federal Credit Union honored students from the area's three public schools with scholarships of $3,000 each during its annual meeting in Timonium last month. Among the recipients were: • Sarah Anderson, Catonsville High School • Lindsay Yerrid, RICA Catonsville Educational Center • Melissa Miller, Lansdowne High School • Jacob Badin, Western School of Technology and Environmental Science. To qualify, students were required to be First Financial members, have a minimum unweighted grade point average of 2.5, be involved in school and community activities, and submit an essay, an academic reference letter, and a character reference letter.