The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 18

Page 2b Wednesday, September 26, 2001 The Sun in Anne Arundel Maryland America should be proud of Islamic influences The Education Beat Gregory Kane Reform means thinking big nies and private citizens doing the discriminating," Goering said. "It looks like government officials are being helpful" in fighting against such discrimination. One such government official is Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, who met with area Muslim leaders at Morgan State University on Friday. Two days later, the mayor was in Catonsville attending the Islamic Society of Baltimore's open house. "He was trying to gain insight into the concerns and issues of the Muslim community," mayoral anecdotal but compelling from Baltimore public school teachers who say that Muslim students are the most disciplined and motivated.

In a school system where lack of discipline has been noted as the major reason for the absence of learning and achievement, do you think Baltimore's teachers would welcome more Muslim students or fewer? Steiner spoke of a Muslim store owner who shortchanged a guy 6 cents. The store owner left his store and found the man to return the 6 cents. Most of us would have forgotten about it, but for this devout Muslim, dishonesty was dishonesty, whether it was for 6 cents or $6 million. If we were to check the crime and teen pregnancy rates among Muslim Americans, we might be pleasantly surprised. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the country.

America's 6 million Muslims outnumber some Christian denominatidns such as the United Church of Christ and the Assem- bliesofGod. In a nation that all but champi- ons promiscuous sexuality, where consumption of booze the No. 1 gateway drug to the harder stuff -is advertised as practically impera-: tive and where the word passes for high-class movie dialogue, the moderating influences of true Is- lam are sorely needed. It is those bigots who obviously yearn for a return to America's "hang 'em high" I days of lynching and virulent rac- ism who need to take a hike. spokesman Tony White said of O'Malley.

Imam Adam Sheikh of the Islamic Society of Baltimore said O'Malley and 15 area Muslim leaders discussed "what we would be able to do to unite the citizens of Baltimore." Sheikh said no member of his mosque has reported any discrimination or harassment since Sept. 1 1, but White said a young woman at the open house worried that Muslim women may be more visible targets because they're readily identifiable by their dress. The woman's concern went beyond threats of violence, White said. "She was talking about being denied employment opportunities or being turned down when buying a house," White said. It takes courage for political leaders such as O'Malley and President Bush to stand up and condemn anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry after thousands of American lives were lost to terrorists.

The rest of us have to show such mettle, challenge the bigotry around us and say to the yahoos: Hey, America needs more Muslims, not fewer. Right now, our intelligence agencies are begging for anyone who speaks Arabic or Farsi to come forth and work as interpret- ers. When the worldwide terrorist networks are taken down, it will be because a group of loyal Muslim Arab-Americans has infiltrated them and identified their leaders and locations. Talk-show host Marc Steiner of WJHU told me there is evidence State's new DWI law goes into been largely abandoned by middle-income families. On any school day, 5,000 high school students in the city are absent.

The dropout rate is the highest in Maryland. Combined average SAT scores are are commonly in the 700 to 800 range (of a possible And course work is so unchallenging that none of the neighborhood schools but Patterson and South? western offered Advanced Placement courses last year, according to a recent Abell Foundation report. (Those two schools had but three AP courses.) Another problem is physical. Consider three schools opened in the last major round of high school construction in Baltimore at the turn of the 1970s. Lake Clifton was then the largest high school in the nation and proud of it.

Walbrook and Southwestern were a pair of fortresses designed as much to keep people in as to welcome them. Who knows what the planners and architects were thinking? Officials at Lake Clifton, a school with 120 classrooms, a mile of corridors, a half-million square feet of floor space and so many exterior doors that it was a security problem from the day it opened, bragged about its size. One official said it could accommodate 4,000 students, though it never had to. But at least Lake Clifton (now Lake Clifton-Eastern) with its sprawl, will lend itself to Russo's deconstruction. Not so Southwestern, a dark, partly windowless building with the look and charm of a prison.

All of these schools are 30 years old this month, and they're showing their age. So are many other city schools, high and otherwise. "I thought I'd seen some of the worst in New York City," Russo said. "We cannot be proud that adults, not children, have let these schools deteriorate. It's mind-boggling." Smaller, of course, is better.

A number of studies have demonstrated that. A report due out today from the nonpartisan research organization Public Agenda will say it again. New York (led initially by Russo) and Chicago are further along the path to reducing school size than Baltimore, and Congress is considering legislation to offer extra funding to schools with 600 or fewer students. Correction: Bus trip took 36 hours, mission achieved Last Wednesday's Education Beat focused in part on the unexpected bus ride home of a group of Montgomery County middle-schoolers who were on a student exchange trip to Wyoming during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Writing before the group from Farquhar Middle School in Olney arrived home, I overstated the time of the nonstop trip on two chartered buses. It was 36 hours. I also left the impression that the Farquhar youngsters did not complete the activities planned in Wyoming, including a trip to Yellowstone Park. By Howard Libit SUN STAFF Maryland law enforcement officials vow to step up their war against drunken driving this weekend as a tougher new state law goes into effect. The law which lowers the blood alcohol level needed to convict someone of the most serious drunken-driving offense from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent was passed in the spring by the Gen EUSSO: dig's education chief plans on conrerting large buildings lo contain groups qfseparalelf) (hewed schools.

By Mike Bowler 6wTn STAFF ARMEN V. Russo, the city schools' chief executive officer, is tackling one of the daunting tasks for which she was hired: the reform of Baltimore's troubled high schools. Russo told a breakfast meeting of the Fund for Educational Excellence Monday that she'll begin with six to eight of the city's nine "neighborhood" high schools she refuses to call them "zoned" over the next two or three years. They'll be called "Innovation High Schools," and Russo plans to go i beyond the academy concept that's been tried with mixed suc- cess in Baltimore during the past few years. If all goes well and if she gets i the funding from public and private sources Russo wants to do i with the Baltimore schools what she did two jobs ago with Julia Richman High School in New York City.

That large, impersonal school, then slated for closure, was transformed into a group of five small schools, each operated around an academic theme. The common strand of what was renamed the Julia Richman Education Complex is "academic rigor, and we can do that in Baltimore," said Russo. You have to hand it to her. She thinks smaller is better, but she doesn't think small. If she can pull this- off, they should make her CEO for life.

She's right that the zoned high schools cry out for reform. They've Lottery r- Maryland DayDaily 270 Pick 4 9931 Night Daily 264 Pick 4 5376 LOtto, Sept. 22 040506113048 Cash in Hand, Sept. 25 02131819212324 Let It Ride, Sept. 25 2102 Information: 410-783-1800 Code 6020 Delaware DayDaily 445 Play 4 8130 Night Daily 910 Play 4 6492 Lotto, Sept.

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25 1113232628 Night Daily Night Pick 4 Night Cash 5, Sept. 25 Lotto, Sept. 22 192831414447 Information: 804-662-5825 District of Columbia Day Lucky 659 DayD.C.4 1728 Nfght Lucky 216 NightD.C.4 4178 HotFive, Sept. 25 05 10 19 23 32 041316182334 Information: 202-678-3333 Multistate Games Big Game, Sept. 25 2742 39342340 SUNDlALYi IV wvs mi inimmfflon semr Tbr Hafanmrt sac mW I 410.783 1800 OME AMERICANS are happily, perhaps eagerly, embracing the racial profiling of Middle Easterners and Arabs in the wake of the terrorist bombing Sept.

11 of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. We never learn, do we? Just how we'll do this profiling of Arabs is not clear. Arabs come in all complexions. They range from the late Syrian President Hafez el Assad who, if you put him in America, would look like a regular white guy to those very dark with kinky hair. Put Sudan's Arab population in America in Western dress and you'd be hard pressed to distinguish between them and African-Americans.

But that hasn't deterred America's yahoo element from harassing and attacking those they think "look" Arab or Muslim. But the common rabble may be a bit confused. One of those attacked and harassed was an American from India, a member of the religious sect known as the Sikhs. Sikh men have beards and wear turbans. Apparently, our more bigoted countrymen can't tell a Sikh from a Muslim.

"It's angry lashing out by private citizens," said Susan Goering, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's Maryland chapter. Her organization has been receiving reports of individual occurrences of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment. "What we're hearing about seems to be mostly private compa- Sergeant pleads guilty in slaying of girlfriend BY A SUN STAFF WRITER An Aberdeen Proving Ground staff sergeant pleaded guilty yesterday in Harford County Circuit Court to first-degree murder in the February slaying of his fiancee during an argument at the couple's home. Elijah McNeil 36, of the 3500 block of Woodbrook Court in Abingdon, admitted he shot Mary Ann Mathiowdis, 39, 18 times with an Egyptian model AK-47 while his son and her two daughters were in the house. McNeil had been charged with first-degree murder and three counts of reckless endangerment.

In exchange for the guilty plea, the state's attorney's office, which had sought a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, lessened the sentence request to life in prison and dropped the reckless endangerment counts, said defense attorney A. Dwight Pettit of Baltimore. "We felt that under the circumstances and facts that that plea would be appropriate," Pettit said yesterday. Lisa H. Marts, who was assigned the case with fellow assistant state's attorney Jeffrey L.

Michael, said of the plea agreement: "I think it was best for all the parties. If the case had gone to trial, the children would have had to testify. This spared the family and the children from reliving the tragedy again." McNeil will remain in the Harford County Detention Center until his sentencing Nov. 27. There's something FREE KII'KliiiaM'iiil nan! 9k' of Thi Sun Page 2B on Saturday Update .3399 INFO CENTER SunDiftl Directory 1000 Talk Back 1800 3423 3564 3631 .6800 Dialing Direction! Using a touch-tone phone, call SunDial and enter the four-digit code of the category you wish to access.

Get targeted exposure for your company Sponsor a SUNDIAL category or this ad 410-332-6682 1 A "HT 1 -AW7 1 i 4 J. -si i 5 if I -nun mart Tii fi I taMhwaiMMit tm.hihii win i i i In i i i i i iaarf eral Assembly after years of lobbying by highway safety advocates. "I wasn't sure we would see .08 passed in my lifetime," said Brenda Barnes, executive director of the Maryland chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "It's something we've been working on for a longtime." At a news conference In Annapolis yesterday, state officials announced they will launch a campaign this week to publicize the law, which goes into effect Sunday. (u7l Anne Arundel Medical Center Superior Care.

Right Here. Right Now. www.aahs.org effect Sunday The campaign's slogan, "Don't, It's Just Not Worth It," will be featured in highway signs, radio advertising, posters in gas stations and convenience stores, and on drink coasters in restaurants and bars. State police officials say they'll operate at least two sobriety checkpoints this weekend, and $2 million in extra federal funding that Maryland received for passing the law will go to state and local law enforcement agencies. -i Online Live with AAMC Topic: Breast Disease October 4th and 1 8th from 8 to 9 pm If you have questions about breast disease, join others in a candid, interactive discussion with a team of specialists from AAMC's Breast Center.

This online discussion is the first of an ongoing series. To participate, go to www.askAAMC.org and click on the AAMC Amazing Medicine Series and post your questions ahead of time or join us live. You also may call askAAMC at 410-573-5490 or at 800-MD-NURSE anytime with questions or to learn more about AAMC's comprehensive team approach to dealing with breast disease. Grasmick is managing to! Here's a glimpse of Nancy S. Grasmick, the politician.

Six years ago, Republican chief state school officers formed a organization, the Education Leaders Council, as an alternative to the long-established and quite liberal Council of Chief State School Offi cers. But over the summer, with the appointment of Lisa Graham Keegan, former state superintendent in Arizona, as chief executive of the Republican group, it named to its board one of the nation's longest-serving Democratic state school chiefs Maryland's Grasmick. Grasmick said she expected to be active in both organizations and to learn from both. Month Code 5036 .5023 Johns Hopkins Medical .4003 .6020 8200 .7630 .6040 .3400 .3643 .3199 .3626 .3200 .4005 Today In History Books Teen Topics SunSource '11 IE Where Maryland of the Month: Hispanic Heritage Main Menu 1000 Starts Directory 5000 TV Movies 3300 Financial News 3000 National News 1145 World News 1146 Recipes 7000 Stockline 2000 Stock Update 3002 Bond Market 3004 Fun For Kids 3600 Fitness Report 3908 Science Nature 3800 Birdline Weather Lottery Indice en Espanol Horoscopes Soap Operas Music Seniors Mortgage Calculator Golf Tips Healthcare Traffic SUN orae Alive.".