The Capital from Annapolis, Maryland • Page 1

DIRECT PHONE NUMBER FOR WANT ADS 268-7000 OTHER DEPARTMENTS 268-501! (Eapital on Page 2 VOL Xa NO. 317 ANNAKHS. MAKYIAKD, TUESDAY, DECEMKK 30, 1975 cv l- I FIFTEEN CENTS 111 Key School is ffutted bv re THE SKY ITT UP with flames lest night as firefighters battled the three-alarm blaie at Key School's multi-purpose build- Annapolis Elks sued by mother of young player by TOM ing in Hilbmere Firefighters remained on the scene for six houn. By DAVID HDGHES SUff Writer Firemen stood by helplessly for almost 45 minutes last night as a three-alarm fire raged through the largest building at Key School in Hillsmere Shores. With the nearest water three- fourths of a mile away, only the 1,000 gallons aboard' the "first two pumpers on the scene were poured on the fire before hoses could be laid to the South Hiver.

That small supply was exhausted in a few minutes. Then, firemen had little to do but wait as the two-story, 50 100 foot building burned. "I never felt so useless in all my life," assistant county chief Paul Haigley commented to one of his men as they stood and watched the blazing roof, waiting for water. This morning, with, the' 1250,000 building finished in 1970 a total loss, fire investigators were talking to three juveniles and an adult about the fire. The four were arrested by county police and charged with breaking and entering at the school's main classroom building next door shortly before the fire was reported by two passing youths.

Firemen said they also found a broken window in the destroyed "mini-gym" when they arrived shortly after the first alarm was sounded at 8:35 p.m. First on the scene was Firefighter Nelson Phipps arid two pumpers from the Eastport station. Seeing flames spewing from the roof, he rang in the second and third alarms. Minutes later, the water was gone and approaching firemen could see the flames from the Bay Ridge Plaza shopping center. Annapolis Alderman David 0.

Colbum, who arrived shortly before 9 p.m., remarked that, "there's no water. They, were here and they never had any damn water. What can thev do?" By the time water from the South River began coursing through first one and then another hose, Haigley had arrived from his Cape St. home, where he was watching" the Maryland-Seton Hall basketball game when he was ByKSREN HOSIER andDOUGSTRUCK StaffWriters The. mother" of fr-year-old Tony Byrant, who'was dropped from an Annapolis Elks Club midget football team this fas allegedly because he is black, is suing the Elks forviolating her son's constitutionalrights.

In the suit filed in U. S. District in Baltimore yesterday, Glenna Bryant asked the court to award'her in damages for "mental pain and resulting from the embarrassment of being discriminated against," and to order the.Elks to end their discriminatory practices. The suit charges that the Elks not only violated Tony's rights by preventing him from using the Elks athletic facilities which are considered "public bet conspired to conceal their discriminatory act from investigating agencies. Bryant had enrolled Tony on the Efts-sponsored 65- pound football team Aug.28and paid the SS registration fee.

Shortly after, she received a letter from the Elks advising her that Tony had been ac- But on Sept 3, Mrs. Bryant Thomas A. Hardesty, head coach of the team, told her that conld notplay because the Efts didn't want any blacks on team. Hardesty and two assistant coaches confirmed the story ttatHardesty had been ordered Efts leaders to dismiss Tony because of Ms race in with the Evening Capital. 'AS.

Jthree coaches quit their jobs', in protest.OD Lloyd coach of one of the five.fwtbalf.teams spori-. 1 sored by the Efts, Issued a "'several days" later explaining that tony and two white boys had been "dropped from the team because-it was three players over its Sfrplayer limit and those three the last to register. Assistant coaches.Sichard Van Sycov and Ronali Barco branded White's explanation "an outright The FBI investigation of the dismissal several days later-vaf- the request of the U. JDffice of Civil Rightsand county threatened to withdraw financial support from the county league in whicKJthe Efts teams play. County Executive ftbert A.

Pascal later postjed the action to withdrky." funds pending the outcome "pt the FBI probe which after than three months in progress. Sod Boggs, an attorney with the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing wMch is representing Mrs. Bryant said this jaorning that they decided to go ahead with the suit without waiting for the FBI report "while the evidence is stifl fresh." Another committee attorney. Jay P. Mufteen, explained that the suit is based on evidence that the 33-player limit would not have gone into effect until two weeks after Tony's dismissal and the statements of the assistant coaches.

(Continued 5) called. Haigley took charge when he arrived shortly after 9 p.m. While other responding engines worked on laying a relay of hoses to the South River, Haigley organized the men deployed around the building. At 9:17 one hose filled and a deck gun atop a Cape SL Claire fire engine began to spray the first continuous stream of water on the fire. The jet of water arced above the building and cascaded down on the burning roof.

By this time, 43 minutes after the first alarm, the fire had turned the all wood interior into an inferno. Smoke billowed from the roof as the wind carried a shower of sparks across Carroll Drive to threaten the roofs of nearby- houses. Cracks up to two inches appeared in the concrete block outer wails of the building. At 9:25 p.m., the second hose filled with water and a group of firemen moved in to spray water through a door. The 75 firemen eventually had four hoses lined up along Hillsmere Drive to supply the effort and trained more and more hoses on the flames.

At 9:37, one firefighter percbed atop a ladder truck that had swung him above the building began to spray a stream of water through the partially caved-in roof. This was one of the few effective ways to get water inside what firemen described as a virtually "windowless building." Firemen moved through the door at the rear of the building to spray water inside, but backed out after a few minutes. Haigley said that he didn't want- his men to risk their lives standing under a cracked wall that might collapse at any moment. Chief Harry W. Klasmeier arrived to take charge by 10 p.m.

People living across the street from the burning building used fire department ladders to climb onto their roofs to douse them with water from" garden hoses or lines from fire trucks. None of the roofs caught homeowners doused a few "hot spots" created by One fire department officer; (Continued on Page 7, CoL 1) Students, alumni watch tear fully as school burns ByJOANMOWEB Staff Writer A stunned collection of students, parents, teachers and alumni, tears streaming down their faces, trickled to Key School NO SHOW TONIGHT The second floor of Key School's "mini-gym" was a stage and musk room before last night's Pinto kr Wtmi Maze gutted the $250,000 building. Muskal instruments and art works were lost in the fire: Plea for probation denied jchool's'activities programs--the 5250,000. maiding was the center of the school's art and music' programs, both of which are "taken very seriously," according to David Badger, the headmaster. It also housed the stage and photography lak As-scores of firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours.

small groups from the tightly-knit private school- arid its graduates huddled in the shivering weather. They had come fronu Severna Park, West Annapolis and Eastport on learning of the fire. Alumni like Kim Nyland, a.1974 graduate, watched some of her" first art work go up in was inside that building was priceless; school kept.the students' art in there," she said as mascafa.ran down her face. Music, teacher Nancy Sufrick, who lives in house, the school owns abaci 25 yards from the buflding, said her students lost "all our instruments including a xylophone and a glockenspiel." Another music teacher, Birgitta Warner, was "too upset to come out," according to Margaret Wallace, who came to the fire because "aH my friends are associated with the school- Mrs. Warner's irreplaceable records, musical scores and brignTaT compositions were inside the building.

Students were speechless when asked what the fire would mean to the school. "It's really hard to explain what it means to me--in the heat of the blaze," said one senior. Brad Bortner, another senior, "couldn't imagine what school will (Continued on Page 8, CoL 1) Sprouse gets 15 years in wife slaying ByKARENHOSLES StaffWriter Edward F. Sprouse, the meek accountant from Larthicum who murdered his wife and hid her body in the sandy crawl space beneath their house, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison. His attorney expects him to be out in less than three years, "if he doesn't kfll himself first" Public Defender T.

Joseph' Touhey appealed yesterday to county circuit court Judge Matthew S. Evans to set Sprpuse free on probation because "he is a man with severe emotional problems for whom prison is not the answer." Pointing out that Sprouse has already made two attempts on his life by taking drug overdoses while police were investigating his story that his wife'had disappeared, Touhey suggested that without proper treatment Sprouse will try it again. "I would hope that he will get the treatment he needs in prison," Evans said before he passed the 15-year sentence recommended by Asst State's Atty. Ronald M. Naditch in accordance with a plea-bargain agreement "If he doesn't get the specific treatment he needs, they (prison officials) are going to have a dead man on their hands," Tonhey said after the sentencing.

"This is a classic case of a man who is not legally insane but who has emotional problems which were the cause of the crime." Sprouse had originally entered a plea-of not guilty by reason of insanity, but was declared sane by examiners at the Cliftoa T. Perkins Hospital 'Center. (Confined on Page NY airport explosion kills 11, injures 50 (A?) A iaoiMeroBS explosion from a a locker sent a shrapnel shower of glass trmHck -j v-. i- "icttjii i-niujnna Airport At feast persons were BDed aad more than 50 oSiers injured. Tfee Mast, which officials said had the force of 20 to 25 SUCkS of drosjnSo unam vj tasua'soa nsfcced feagpge area to rubble Moadav evening aad sentdczeasofpersoasfJeeinsinnsinc Jfte ajrpert was qpfdsy evacuated awl dosed to aii traffic shortly after the 6:33 p.m.

explosion, forcing the canceHafioD or diversion of at least 45 flights and fouling the plaas of some 5 mn "TM Cases of child abuse on upswing 'Nesey neighbors' credited with rise in reported offenses ByPAMHACOSSTABLE SUffWriter Joucl ia with ber stepfather. She would do anything to please Mm. When he made ber pregnant in June, As workers searched the debris, there reoorts of as many as 14 deaths, but police at the airport said they (Contained oaPage 2 CoLl) giri tried to convince investigating county social workers 'Jiat a fcoyfriend bad doneit Although they eventually discovered mat me stepfather, a 46-year-old contractor, had once spent lOyearsina Georgia prison for raping ins natural daughter, they could never prove he had sexually abused The treadmill revisited, II Janet Sbe is stiB living at home, and waats to keep the baby. Pad's fatfter dropped him off at his Glen Burnie elementary school one morning, in September, beaten almost on- conscious. His mother vehemently denied Paul's story to school counselors that she'd hit him with a curtain rod, but after a police polygraph test, she broke down.

"He wet his bed again, and then lied about ft. I was furious. I hit him. I hit him." It was not the first time Paul, nine, had been beaten, and workers later learned his iBiaaie-ciass parents flaa singled him out from three brothers and sisters for otfeer bizarre punishments, denying him food and making him dress up in his sisters'clothes. Last month Paul's mother was convicted of assault and battery after ber lawyer plea- bargained a slate charge of child abuse, which carries a nne-to-15 year sentence.

She received three rears' probation. Pan! is Baltimore hospital for battered children. Paul and Janet (their names are fictitious) are two of the 91 nfumrci xXnmv reported beaten, kicked, burned, crwlly pomshed or sexually abused by their parents or other adults during the first half of this year.In 1974 129 cssss for the entire year, and before 3972 the county Department of Social Services received only about 25 reports pf suspected (Cootawd OB Pife 7, CoL 1) First-class letter will cost 13 cents If you grumbled when the cost of mailing a letter rose from eight to 10 cents, tomorrow you may remember the "10-cent stamp fondly. The U. S.

Postal Service is'raising the rate to 13 cents beginning at midnight tonight The U. S. Court of Appeals has stayed an order from U. S. District Court Judge John Sirica prohibiting a rate increase, which also affects post cards and second-class man.

after government lawyers said the post office would be unable to meet upcoming payrolls without the rate boost The service had originally planned to increase mailing rates Sunday. Sirica found the increase illegal because the postal service had not Mowed certain procedures is getting the increase approved. The Appeals Court will review Sirica's decision in detail later, and could possibly order a rollback in mailing prices to current rates afterwards. Tic is cz Inside On other inside pages Business it ews Classified Ads 1344 Crossword IS Comics 15 Dear Ahoy 15 Dr. lamb 15 Horoscope 15 People 6 Sports.

1041 Television 14.