The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 15

Deaths, 4B Weather, 5B Florida, 6B LOCAL SECTION MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1999 www.herald.com She Herald JOAN FLEISCHMAN School Board WE PRAY FOR PEACE member revives prayer issue Love unleashed DOWN THE AISLE TT "7hen Lori Fagenholz mar-m ries Stovo Noatrand at the Biltmore April 10, her bridesmaid Ashleigh all gussied up will trot down the aisle with her. Hopefully, she wont bark. Ashleigh is a 10-year-old miniature schnauzer. Cant imagine getting married without her, Fagenholz says. Tm not advocating breaking the law, but our kids should know they can pray, says Marta Perez, who is hosting a conference.

Jesus and Me prayer group an allowed to pin sectarian pam phlets to lockers and make publi announcements about reviva meetings. By contrast, at Hialeah High, student prayer group meets of campus and is registered as a non sanctioned extracurricular club. Joe Oliver, director of the Fel lowship of Christian Athletes, saic his group has also met resistenci at some schools. Im not going to chase the Firs Amendment and yell and holle and scream, thats not the Chris way, Oliver said. The Chris way is that you love people ant just step off campus.

It shouldnt be that way, say: Alexander Kapetanakis, a loca civil rights attorney. It becomes a little fiefdom, hi said. You have little sections Dade County that are freer thai other sections based on the princi pals philosophy. Four years ago, Kapetanaki represented a South Miami Higl School student who was forbiddei from holding an after-schoo prayer meeting on campus. Schoo officials later changed thei By SABRINA WALTERS Herald Staff Writer A year after the Miami-Dade School Board rejected two controversial plans to expand religious activities in public schools, a new board member is reviving the issue at a forum tonight to brief parents and students about their rights to pray on campus.

Board member Marta Perez points to the recent rash of student violence, including the shooting death of a Braddock High senior, as a clear indicator of the great need for spiritual guidance at school. Children who have a religious upbringing seem to do better morally, said Perez, who was elected last November. Im asking the legal and spiritual community to help us because there is a general lack of respect for others among our adolescents, a general lack of moral strength. I know this is a public school system, but all Im asking is that we find some way within the law to do this, said Perez, who is hosting a conference on School Safety, Inside and Out: Ethics, Morals and Spirituality at Sunset High School. Im not advocating breaking the law, but our kids should know they can pray.

The meeting, which is free and open to the public, is aimed at addressing widespread confusion over what is permissible and prohibited religious speech in schools, because the rules change from campus to campus. At Coral Park High, for instance, a Bible-study club meets regularly in the school and is registered as a school-sanctioned organization. Student members of the Ashleigh are a package deal. Fagenholz, 41, is director of PR and marketing for Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Nostrand, 49, president of Hospitality Finance Company, is known as Mr.

Ashleigh Taxi for his vol unteer work on local taxi reform. Fagenholzs tailors, brothers Bonji and Comt Ramos, fashioned a collar for the pooch from extra material from the brides Scaasi beaded white satin gown. Price: $12, including two fittings. Wedding day, Ashleigh will visit The Dog from Ipanema, where owner Jarbas Godoy, 47, will give her a shampoo, hand blow dry and a spritz of French cologne. Rabbi Barry Tabachnikoff of Congregation Bet Breira doesnt mind.

When he married comedian Jarry Lawia at the Sonesta in 83, a doggie was under the chupah. PLEASESEE PRAYER, 21 SERBS GATHER: Seven-year-old Juliann Beck of Boca Raton lights a candle during a Sunday morning service at St. Simeon Serbian Orthodox Church. Flyover changes aim to guide drivers safely South Florida Serbs unite in fear, frustration, anger You know what the NA TO forces are? They are the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. MILUTIN TAMASIJEVIC, South Florida Serb And we pray for peace.

In Broward, some protesters waved the Yugoslavian and Serbian flags, while others carried long, slim candles cupping the top with their hands so the flames wouldnt blow out. Those who had neither held placards stating such things as Clinton Stop Aggression, NATO Shame on You, 19 Against 1 and I am proud to be Serbian. Can you say you are proud to be an American? More than 200 Serbs took to the streets of downtown Fort Lauderdale on Sunday afternoon to voice their outrage over the bombings in their homeland. Walking in a funeral-like procession, they strolled up and around the the flyover have been blamed fc most of the more than 500 crashe at the site. The indecisive drivers ofte crash into other vehicles, caus other vehicles to crash into their or slam into the 1-95 concret median or the plastic poles tha separate regular lanes from the flj over entrance.

When workers finish rebuildin the approach, the plastic pole may be removed and the doubl solid line will be widened an lengthened into a four-foot-widi buffer zone. While some critics fear th change will simply displac crashes, some experts say this i unlikely because the approach wi begin before a bend on the higl way that now obscures th approach to the flyover. Expert believe that once the project is fir ished, drivers will have moi ample warning that a change i road configuration lies ahead. Vehicles usually travel bet wee 55 and 70 mph in non-rush-hoi traffic in the area. At that speed, vehicle usually covers 80 to 9 PLEASESEE FLYOVER, 2 By ALFONSO CHARDY Herald Staff Writer A year behind schedule, workers have finally begun fixing the Golden Glades interchange flyover, where hundreds of crashes have killed at least three people and injured dozens since 1995.

Work began two weeks ago when crews set up construction barricades at the northern approach to the southbound flyover site of most of the accidents. The $600,000 project, scheduled to be completed in June, involves lengthening the flyover approach and adding signs to give drivers more time and space to decide whether to enter it, said Brian Rick, a Florida Department of Transportation spokesman. Drivers switch lanes largely to avoid what appears to be an exit ramp instead of an aboveground extension of 1-95. The project is intended to improve motorists guidance through the Golden Glades interchange by alleviating any confusion, Rick said. Wavering drivers who change lanes at the last minute to avoid By ELAINE DE VALLE And JACQUELINE CHARLES Herald Staff Writers While the fighting in Yugoslavia went on Sunday, South Florida Serbs 5,500 miles away prayed for peace and protested against NATOs attacks.

About 60 angry Serbs and Americans of Serbian descent crowded into a makeshift chapel in the fellowship hall at St. Simeon Serbian Orthodox Church, 175 NW 154th which is under construction. In Broward, about 200 Serbs gathered to protest. The Rev. Stokan Cirkovich led the prayers in Serbo-Croatian in North Miami-Dade.

We pray for our people, for the Serbian nation, to protect our lives, to protect the people in Kosovo, said Nicholas Lazarevich, translating for the priest. For strength so we can survive and resist the NATO attack. We ask God to help us win over our adversaries and our enemies, and to forgive all the souls that will die or have died in the conflict, Lazarevich echoed the priests words. All broken up Former Miami Commissioner Humbarto Hernandez, now Inmate No. 50330-004 at Federal Detention Center in Miami, filed for divorce from Either, his wife of nine years.

No big surprise. Esther, 35, a schoolteacher, fessed up to sleeping with her hubbys lawyer, Jose Quinon, during Hernandezs vote-fraud trial. Marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken, says the petition. The couple has two daughters, ages 8 and 4. Hernandez, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard will sentence him on May 13. He also got a year in state prison in the vote-fraud case. His new lawyer, Milton Hirach, is appealing. Humbertico represents himself in the divorce.

Anaataaia Garcia represents Esther. Judge is Richard Fador. Power punch? A 62-year old baby sitter is suing a Miami couple for negligence. She claims their little boy socked her in the eye after watching a Power Rangers episode. Paulina Echeverri says Robbia Roberta' punch caused her to go blind in her right eye.

Happened in November 97, she says, when the child was 4. His folks, H. Clay Roberta and wife Liaa, failed to warn her of the violent propensities of their son, says the lawsuit. The couple, both lawyers, also failed to supervise his activities and allowed him to watch unsuitable TV shows andor videos. Says dad: I dont see how Im responsible and the law doesnt allow a 4-year-old to be responsible.

Shes the one who was hired to supervise. I wasnt even there. His homeowners insurance, State Farm, denied Echeverris claim, he adds. Echeverri underwent eye surgery at Bascom Palmer and has racked up at least $33,000 in medical bills, says her lawyer Timothy Barket. The Roberts who have three kids and another on the way no longer use Echeverri.

Circuit Judge Amy Doan has the case. Club scene Salsa singer Willy Chirino is opening a private club called Zara-banda in Coral Gables, atop the 550 Biltmore Way building. Same spot where Havana Hideaway, a cigar club, went belly up in 97. But Chirino, 51, figures to make it bringing in his pals, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and sax man Paquito Rivora. Chef is Jool Rodriguez, once personal cook for Sly 8talkno.

Membership: $300. PLEASESEE PROTEST, SB Problem-plagued smart signs still not much help to drivers Jon Nakamatsu, winner of the 1997 Van Cliburn Piano Competition and Miami's 1995 Chopin National Competition, returns to South Florida as soloist with the New World Symphony in the Lincoln Theatre. Review, 2B. Anti-drug agency boss suspended during probe By USETTE GARCIA Herald Staff Writer Pending an FBI investigation into allegations of corruption, Doug Hughes has been suspended from his job as director of the local branch of an international drug-fighting agency. The South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force relieved him of duty March 5.

Hughes, 54, a former Miami-Dade police major, is the man responsible for development of the national agency in 1990, now under the auspices of drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey with 25 districts. Hughes continues to draw his 1 00,000 annual salary. Whether it the investigation goes well or it goes poorly, it doesnt matter, Hughes said. It wont destroy my life.

Hughes is depending on his reputation for integrity to absolve him. So do friends like retired Miami-Dade Police Capt. Marshall Frank, once a homicide detective with Hughes. Forget squeaky clean, Frank said. Hes almost Charter achoolt may be ready for a boom, thanks in part to a governor who supports the concept and a Legislature looking at knocking down barriers to the concept.

Story, SB. saga of the smart signs a relatively sma but technologically significant transport! tion project hailed as a harbinger for th roads of the future. Giovanni Cestari, operations engine with the Florida Department of Transpoi tations intelligent transportation system in Miami-Dade County, said the glitch were minor and have since been correct But Cestari and other local DOT off cials said the testingwarrantyphase-i period for the signs has been extended an; way until at least June 3 because of tb problems. They involved burned-out light bulbs well as mechanical and power supply prol lems. Jose Abreu, the local DOT distrii secretary, said two signs also had softwai problems.

Cestari said that if necessary, DOT ca -activate them and flash messages to moto Once again, trouble has marred the operation of those pesky smart signs on Interstate 95 and other major roads around the Golden Glades interchange. The state transportation agency has refused to formally accept from the contractor 10 electronic message signs because of glitches, according to senior transportation officials. Smart signs are supposed to warn motorists about accidents and congestion down the road with messages triggered automatically by information gathered by the sensors and cameras. The glitches are the latest incident in the years-long, convoluted Look for today's agenda and The Herald's weather map and South Florida forecast on Page 5B in today's Local news section. PLEASESEE SIGNS, 1 PLEASESEE PROBE, 3B I 1 I.