The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 11

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Sunday, July 31, 1994 B2. Th8 Scene In Philadelphia and Its Suburbs Educators often order them apart. Parents say each case differs. 2 schools of thought; on twins birthday this weekend. An incredible thing happened that day 10 years ago, in addition to his birth.

We were living in Connecticut, it was our first child, and we arrived nervously at Hartford Hospital before dawn. As we settled into a labor room, a resident walked in. He was handsome, unshaven, exhausted, like a character out of St. Elsewhere, which was popular at the time. He had been awake all night, delivering babies.

As matter-of-factly as one can in these situations, he prepared to examine my wife. "Hi," he said routinely. "My name's Neville Graham." By Mary Ruoff ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. Deanna keeps repeating the word see. But she's not pointing out the phys-' Indonesian team.

At home she is a national karate champion. She practices about two hours a day. She says she prefers kata to kamite. "Kata is safe," she said. "Nobody attack us." As she said this, she pretended to sock herself in the mouth.

And then giggled. "I don't want to fight," she said. The secret to karate, she said, is "speed, strength and power and practice!" She and her teammates have been here for more than a week. Many of them attended a karate camp at Drexel University before the tournament. Tara Dingman, 14, came from Winnipeg to compete.

She is a black belt. As we watched the young children, 9 and 10, 1 asked her how a generally out-of-shape 37-year-old American journalist would do in a fight against these kids. "They'd probably put up a pretty good fight," she said. Eagles score one in Dolphin country Two kids from Wallingford, who moved to Florida last year, won a contest to name a new school in their new neighborhood. They named it after their favorite NFL football team, the Eagles Eagle Point School.

John and Michael Blong, 8 and 5, suggested the name because they The Philadelphia Inquirer VICKI VALERIO Canada's Sean Parkin (front) duels with Japan's Daiki Koga at the Civic Center. (See "Plenty of chops and ical similarities, striking even identical twins, between her 9-year- old sons, Kirk and Kyle. Or how the skinny, blond, eyed boys sometimes glance at each other before answering questions. Or the remarkable difference their handwriting. Or how one is more Evans is responding to literature on educating twins that says it's of- 1 ten unwise to put them in separate classes during the first few years of V' school and that says the decision should be made case by case with.

parents. She and her husband, Rob- ert, feel vindicated. Years ago Deanna Evans heard about a TV show that urged parents not to force twins to be apart. But the couple were largely going on instinct when they battled a South Williams-) port Area School District practice that put twins in separate classes by first grade. The story has a happy ending, with Kirk and Kyle Evans reportedly V.

among the top students in their sec-, ond-grade class at Central Elemen-tary School. But the twins had to repeat first grade after doing poorly in separate classes the first time around. Back then, they hated school. Their mother admits she's bitter about a practice she feels robbed her sons of a year of a happy childhood. "What right do they have to tell me what's best?" she said.

All too often, according to organi- zations that offer support and educa- tion to parents of twins and other multiple-birth children, schools mandate or push parents to twins in separate classes. Educators' have rarely studied the topic and on a personal belief that separating twins fosters individuality. Talks with principals and educa-. tors in several school districts around Williamsport suggest the practice is common. But some signaled that change was It" here or could be coming.

All wel- corned information on the topic and -agreed it was scarce. I To help fill that void, the National Plenty of chops and kicks, but the smiles hit home Black belts from 40 countries Japan, Indonesia, Israel, South Africa, Brazil and Canada, to name a few are in Philadelphia this weekend, moving in bare feet, with the swiftness of wind, the force of thunder. More than 500 adults and 500 children are here for the fifth World Shoto Cup Tournament at the Philadelphia Civic Center, the world's largest international karate competition. The finals begin at noon today for a $20 admission. Friday's competition belonged exclusively to the kids, ages 7-17.

They competed in kata forms and kumite contact. Their speed and grace and control was remarkable. But best was their smiles. Citra Renati Putri, 10, of Jakarta, Indonesia, lost in the second round of kata. A brown belt, she did not appear disappointed her face shone like Olympic gold.

How did it go today? "Not lucky," she said, smiling. Why did you travel all this way for a tournament? "They chose me. I come." Do you want to earn a black belt? "Of course." She is among 30 members of the Rural Pa. wary of new sentencing GUIDELINES from B1 "To operate and implement the programs, we need more staff and more dollars," Wagner said. "This is going to choke the smaller counties." The county has two officers assigned to adult probation, each with a caseload of at least 75, which is in the upper end of the recommended range.

Wagner said the county needs five more probation officers. A community service program would have to be developed from scratch, tying up the probation staff. County officials also would have to expand the use of a local drug treatment center. In nearby Clinton County, District Attorney Ted McKnight said substance abuse programs alone would cost $100 million statewide. "When you don't provide the money to take care of the treatment, all you have is a reduction in the sentence," he said.

"You have, in effect, decriminalized a lot of these acts." Perry County's solution is to ignore the guidelines. The probation office may take a case or two as needed, but officials plan to continue sending offenders to the 116-bed county jail, which is less than half full. "We don't have the personnel to really have an intensive probation program in addition to the regular caseload," said Bruce Althouse, a county adult probation officer. "We don't have electronic monitoring. We don't have the money for that." Criminal justice officials often say alternative sentences are cheaper than prisons, but the cost difference only applies to counties with overcrowded prisons, a study says.

The Pennsylvania Economy League estimated the annual cost of housing a prisoner at $20,000, compared with $4,000 for one of the more expensive alternative programs. But those estimates assume the need to build new prisons and incorporate fixed costs like utilities and security. Food and medicine costs for housing one additional prisoner are closer to $2,700, the report found. Jim Strader, manager of criminal justice programs with the state Commission on Crime and Delinquency, said alternative programs can be even more expensive for smaller counties because they have fewer cases. The larger counties can become cost-efficient by developing specialized programs targeting certain offenders, he said.

Delaware County District Attorney Bill Ryan, the president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said he feared counties might try to cut costs by offering inferior substance-abuse treatment programs that do more harm than good. "The overwhelming problem is insufficient money and insufficient infrastructure, which includes trained counselors and trained experts in the field of drug treatment," he said. to at least $3 million ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRISBURG Tuesday's Pennsylvania Wild Card Lotto jackpot will be worth at least $3 million because no players matched all six winning numbers drawn Friday. Lottery director Charles W. Kline said two players matched five of six numbers plus the wild card and won $15,614.50 each.

The winning numbers were 02, 10, 26, 42, 43 and 47. The wild card number was 31j, Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs recently published a guide fory educators, "Placement of Multiple Birth Children in School." "Research and study of experts' opinion regarding classroom place- ment has proven that mandatory sep- But, hey, it's too late now. The kids didn't get the colors they wanted. The board picked green and gold. (Reggie White up in Green Bay might like those.) 10 years after: A recollection My son is celebrating his 10th eral teenagers" who accosted Rumph.

"It may have been over him asking for money." Doctors at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Division, say Rumph was shot; the medical examiner says he was stabbed. No one heard any shot, Quinn said, and there were no powder burns to indicate short-range gunfire. Paramedics came. A shopper retrieved a rag from his car and tied a tourniquet around Rumph's left arm, Rodgers said, and said something to those who didn't want to go to the man's aid. The wound probably punctured an artery, said Quinn.

Rumph died at Einstein nine days later. Bernard Rumph, 42, can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt his uncle. "He didn't really mess with anybody. That is basically what he was about. I guess he was out so long, staying at home would have killed him." He was sitting in the Rumph family's living room on Price Street, a wood-paneled room filled with family photographs colorful shots of children, black-and-white portraits of servicemen, and pictures of the Rev.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. "He was a loner," the nephew said, "but he wasn't lonely.

He liked to be by himself. He had a few people he could talk to." In the driving rain Thursday morning, many of those people gathered at the Thompson-McGill Funeral Home on West Coulter Street for Hercules Rumph's "home-going service." Twenty-four relatives packed the first four rows of the paneled chapel; another 40 or so people sat at the back and sides. Those who opened the program for the service encountered an old photograph of a young man in his 1,. Wj. lu tf.

sJLi.i. Associated Press Associated Press aration of multiple birth children is ineffective and can be detrimental to the educational and emotional lZ. growth of these children," the fore- word of the 20-page booklet warns. My wife was breathing through a contraction. When she finished, she said, "Did you say your name was Neville Graham?" The resident rubbed his eyes.

He sensed he was entering the Twilight Zone. "Did you grow up in Yardley, my wife continued. "Yes," he responded, certain he was now in the Twilight Zone. "Did you go to St. Ignatius School?" "Yes." "We went to school together.

You were in the same grade as my brother Bobby!" Michael Vitez early 20s in his Army uniform, his soft features and wide eyes framed by pins and epaulets and patches. "God!" one woman said putting her hand to her cheek as she turned to the picture. The woman laid down a copy of Wednesday's Germantown Courier next to her, turned to the headline: "The value of a person's life: Beggar dies after being shot." "So sad," said a woman behind her. The obituary the family wrote for the program was brief: Grew up in Germantown. Educated in the public schools.

Enlisted in the Army in 1955. "He lived a quiet life," it read. "He loved children and people. He departed on July 20, 1994 at Albert Einstein Hospital after a brief illness." The Rev. Helen Watkins, of the West Oak Lane Church of God, told the story of Lazarus the beggar, who was received in heaven upon his death.

Once tormented, now comforted. As the hymn "Near the Cross" played from a tape, someone in the first row wailed loudly. "I'd hate to live in a world where no one would shed a tear over my passing," the pastor said. The rain had stopped by the time the funeral procession had made its way to Fairview Cemetery in Willow Grove. The mourners, their numbers down to less than 20, placed flowers on the blue metal casket with its personalized plaque.

Hercules Rumph was lowered into the same ground that 20 years before had embraced his mother and, six years before, his father. He was buried in a separate plot, however, somewhat distant from his family. The section, a new one, is called: Freedom. For this reason, Mothers of Twins strongly recommends that placement of each set of multiples be evaluated on an individual basis." were homesick, said their mother, Lisa. The school board in Weston, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, wasn't aware of the reason behind the name at the time of the selection.

After all, a couple Miami Dolphins players live in the neighborhood. Hercules Rumph in his Army days in the late '50s. This photo was in the funeral program. It was hot, about 86 degrees, as 5 p.m. approached on Monday, July 11, and tne siuewuixs were packed on the avenue near Greene Street.

Rodgers looked out the plate glass window to see Rumph stagger. Rumph held out his left arm and blood poured down onto the sidewalk. His face wore a look of astonishment. He touched his right hand to the wound then tried to walk toward Greene Street. He made it to the flower store two doors down, before collapsing.

Rodgers saw one man. Street vendor Charles Shelton, 23, saw two. Homicide Lt. Thomas Quinn said that witnesses suggest V'it was sev ft -'3 I 17 V' Educators should consider whether the twins are identical or fraternal, their personalities, any earlier sepa- ration experiences, and parents' views, states the booklet, which cites research and writings on the issue. Some twins may thrive when to- Picking up the pieces after a deadly tornado, a resident sifted through clothing in Limerick, Montgomery County, Friday.

Three people were killed and more than 20 injured when the twister struck during a storm Wednesday night, destroying 15 homes. Mean streets claim a quiet, gentle loner gether, while separation can cause anxiety in others. Reasons to sepa- rate include big differences in intellectual ability and "constant togeth- erness." "We are concerned about the indi- viduality of our children, but we also know there is a very strong bond there, and it needs to be treated carefully," said Lois Gallmeyer, exec- I utive secretary of Mothers of Twins. TwinLine, a research and support organization based in California, strongly recommends that twins be in the same class in preschool and kindergarten. I "Great temperamental or physical differences" or an "imbalance" in their relationship could warrant an exception to the rule of thumb.

Start-" ing in first grade, the decision should be evaluated on a yearly basis, "based on the twins' needs and the parents' wishes." The Evanses said Bruce Mosser, Central Elementary School principal, resisted the idea of putting their twins in the same class after they did poorly apart. A letter from a doctor I was required before the school con- sidered the change, which Mosser 0 approved. RUMPH from B1 never begged." When the manager objected, Rod-gers would have to move Rumph along. All that time, Rodgers never heard the man's voice. Those who did said his words rarely rose above a mumble.

"He spoke in a very humble way, a voice that sounded as if he had not been awake too long. The voice of a person very far away," said Mary Ann Cur-rieri, a Germantown writer and child advocate. It took years for Currieri to break through. One day, back in the 1970s, Currieri lost one of her son's toys on top of the Salvation Army bin that used to be near the train station. She jumped, but couldn't reach it.

Then, she recalls, this dark brown-skinned man in tattered clothes and an old paint cap whispered, "I'll help you up" and lifted her to the top of the bin. When she turned around, the man was gone. She'd see him after that at various places on the avenue. She'd speak. He'd look keep going.

Eventually, he began to return her nods. Mornings, she'd say something about the weather. "He'd always agree." But that was it. When she'd offer to buy him a coffee, he'd say, "No thanks." She never could convince him to walk over to St. Vincent's for a hot meal.

From some acquaintances and relatives of his, she learned a few details about the man she saw on Chelten Avenue nearly every day for two decades. He'd finished high school, come from a solid Germantown family, served in the Army. There's as much mystery surrounding the death of Hercules Rumph as there was abcut his life. separation has been the school practice because of the belief that it encourages twins to develop ually, Mosser said. Separation starting in tary School in Williamsport.

L' Isabelle Knouse knows firsthand. Her fraternal twin girls aren't ex- tremely close for twins, but she would have liked them to start kin- dergarten together at Lose this fall, t. "They school officials told me J-every time I talked about it that they will be separated. There's no ifs.X ands or buts." There, teachers believe separating twins is best, said principal David i Michael. "Historically, I don't know where all that comes from, he said.

"It has seemed to be the best way. It's hard to say that it really is.".