Walking To School

Lisa Haenel's killer probably has confided to someone close to him about the crime, and homicide investigators say that person's life could be in danger."

I continue to witness the same dangerous pattern of driver behavior, ignoring pedestrians and the crosswalk, as cited by Barbara Schuessler ("Safety measures failing students using busy South Rolling Road," Catonsville Times, Jan. 11). Despite the efforts of the State Highway Administration to improve the crosswalk, there is still not enough visibility and attention to make motorists take notice. I suspect that many are aware that the crosswalk is there, but choose to ignore it or they are ignorant of the law altogether.

A man loitering near Harper's Choice Middle School in Columbia Wednesday afternoon exposed himself to two students as they walked past, Howard County police said.Officers searched the area but did not find the man.Police said two teen-age girls walking to the school in Harper's Choice Village saw a man standing on the corner of Hesperus Drive and Eliots Oak Drive about 1 p.m.After they walked by the man, they looked back and saw him unzipping his pants and exposing himself. He zipped his pants back up and sat down.

County police are looking for a gunman who robbed a Glen Burnie gas station Monday.Police said the man walked up to the window of the station in the 7600 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard at 2 p.m. and asked for a pack of cigarettes. When the clerk reached for the cigarettes, the robber put a gun to the window.He told the clerk to give him all the money. The clerk gave him all the money in the cash drawer and the robber ran away.Police described the robber as a white male in his mid-20s.

Linda Kennard does everything she can to keep her kids safe - all 30 to 40 of them. The crossing guard teaches the newcomers walking to Rodgers Forge Elementary School the rules: no sticks, no running. She places orange cones on the traffic-calming island, where street signs have been knocked down several times. She has children and adults wait behind a painted line on the sidewalk before they cross, just in case a car jumps the curb. For Kennard, who has helped children across Stevenson Lane at Lanark Road for more than two decades, teaching children to walk safely is an important part of the job. Without such guidance, "when they're old enough to do it themselves, they'll be doing it wrong," she said.

Two children walking to school yesterday found the body of a man who had been stabbed at least 50 times lying near a side entrance to a Northwest Baltimore elementary school.Officials at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School said the boy and girl, both 9, found the body in grass about 7:20 a.m. They ran to the principal's office, where staff members called police.Teachers kept students who arrived for 8:30 a.m. classes away from the homicide scene, and a social worker and psychologist assigned to the school, in the 3700 block of Greenspring Ave., helped youngsters deal with the incident.

It's not hard to imagine why parents of students in Brentwood Park whose children are on the boards to be walkers when the new Red Pump Elementary School opens this fall. The school is across Vale Road from the neighborhood, and Vale Road is a busy road. Moreover, drivers don't always show the care and caution they should when on our roadways, especially at the commuting times that coincide with walking to school times. Still, the problem isn't one that's unique to the Red Pump school and the neighborhoods it will be serving.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Southeastern District Officer assaulted/arrest: Officer Donald Schultheis was responding to a backup call for an officer about 3 a.m. yesterday and was driving in the 3300 block of E. Baltimore St. when the operator of a stolen car cut him off and struck the police car. Police said Schultheis was not injured and that the teen-age male driving...

A Glen Burnie woman was killed and her husband and their three children injured Monday night in a two-vehicle collision on Route 3, Anne Arundel County police said. Wanda Jean Schulze, 34, was pronounced dead at North Arundel Hospital about 10 p.m., about an hour after the car in which she was riding collided with a pickup truck at Route 3 and Old Stage Road in Glen Burnie, according to a news release issued yesterday. Police said Schulze, her husband, Terry Matthew Parker, 44, and the children were in the family's 1993 Ford Taurus about 9 p.m. when Parker, the driver, attempted to turn left at a yellow light from Route 3 onto Old Stage Road.

Annapolis' three mayoral candidates are to lay out their visions for the city during a one-hour debate at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Bay Ridge Inn.The Greater Annapolis Chamber of Commerce is bringing together Democratic incumbent Alfred Hopkins, GOP candidate Larry Vincent and independent candidate and former Mayor Dennis Callahan to talk about the expansion of the Jennifer Road jail, the city's economy, taxes, crime and business regulations.Organizers say the debate is open to the public with advance reservations.