The Star-Democrat from Easton, Maryland • Page 3

Thursday, Jun 1, 1989 Th Star-Democrat Pay 3 A maryland state review 'W2r' I 1 id a AP l.asrrpholo Handshake from the boss New facility opens for mentally ill youngsters ANNAPOLIS (AP) The opening of the state's first residential treatment center for mentally ill youngsters underscores the challenges of a health system confronted by more children who are younger, sicker and more violent, a state official says. From 1983 to 1987, the number of children under 12 years old requiring hospitalization for mental illness rose 450 percent in Maryland. To cope with the increase, Maryland plans to open next month its first state-run residential treatment program designed specifically for children. The 10-bed unit is to be located at the Carter Hospital Center in Baltimore. Children with severe psychiatric problems are not only younger, but they also are sicker, more violent and harder to treat, said Joan Gillece, assistant to the director of the Mental Hygiene Administration.

For example, a 4-year-old Montgomery County boy, who was repeatedly abandoned by his drug-using parents, was so agitated that he needed four adults to hold him down. A 6-year-old girl, sexually abused since birth, has tried taking off her clothes at school and seducing one of her foster parents. A Baltimore boy, by his 10th birthday, had deliberately set dozens of fires, the first one in the bed he shared with his prostitute mother. The state has treatment beds for 270 youngsters at seven facilities, but each of the sites is usually over capacity, with waiting lists of several weeks, Gillece said. Last year, 225 juveniles were sent out of state for treatment because there were not enough beds in Maryland.

Mental health professionals in Maryland attribute the growing number of troubled children to the same problems that have increased demand for foster care, drug treatment programs and homeless shelters. AIDS, alcoholism, child abuse, drugs, divorce and poverty all play a part, said Janice Stevenson, regional coordinator of mental hygiene for central Maryland. "They are undergoing traumas that leave them with a diluted sense of who they are and where they fit in the scheme of things," Stevenson said. Gillece said the significance ot that became apparent in October, when seven boys at Crownsville Hospital Center in Anne Arundel Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney presents a diploma to Matthew Lee Welborn, an 1989 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, as Rear Admiral Virgil L. Hill superintendent of the academy, looks on.

Cheney gave the graduation address to the 1,064 graduates of the 139th class. Study sought on black dropout gap Gunman killed during holdup WOODLAWN (AP) A gunman was fatally shot during a holdup attempt at a Woodlawn grocery store Tuesday and the store manager, who scuffled with the intruder, was wounded, police said. Roscoe Smith, 33, of Baltimore, died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center shortly after he was shot in the chest, Baltimore County police spokesman Stephen Doarnberger said. The store manager, Rodney Wolfe, 23, of Millerville in i Anne Arundel County, told police the man announced a holdup and forced Wolfe into a back room of the super-. market.

A struggle ensued between the two men, who were both armed, and both fired shots, Doarnberger said. Wolfe was wounded in the arm and was treated and released at Baltimore County General Hospital. Two men were arrested and charged with armed robbery and handgun violations. They were Kenneth Pace, 37, Baltimore; and Glen Taylor, 41, whose address was not available, Doarnberger said. Attorney gets probation, resigns CUMBERLAND (AP) The attorney for the Allegany County Commission was given three years probation and resigned after pleading guilty to falsifying documents in violation of the state's water pollution control laws.

Lee C. Barnett, the county's attorney and president of a coal mining company called Hi Note was sentenced to probation by Washington County Circuit Judge Fred C. Wright III on the condition that he resign the county post. He also was ordered to ask the Maryland Court of Appeals to strike his name from the list of attorneys allowed to practice law in the state. Attorneys for the state's environmental crimes unit said Barnett, 65, signed records to show results of water sampling that was never done.

PG police brutality alleged LAUREL (AP) A Laurel man says he saw officers strike a motorcyclist with their fists and nightstick, but police said the cyclist was intoxicated and resisting arrest. The incident was the third in the past three weeks in which excessive force has been alleged. Michael Hooper, 30, said a man was sitting on a motorcycle about 12:30 a.m. Sunday when he was approached by two officers, who pulled the man from the vehicle and hit him with their fists, then with a nightstick. Lt.

Mark Wright, a police spokesman, said the officers had responded to a report of a disorderly man, possibly armed with a knife. Wright said the motorcyclist, Norman James Marsh, 24, of Phoenix, told the officers that he had no license or registration. "They asked him a second time and the man said, 'You'll have to kill me tcTget Wright said. Marsh, who is being held in the county correctional center, was charged with failure to produce a driver's license and registration, driving without tags and resisting arrest. Teen returns from youth home HAGERSTOWN (AP) A Hagerstown teen-ager has returned home after serving more than eight months in a Michigan youth home for armed robbery.

Melissa Kay Munday, who turned 19 last week, came home last week. She pleaded guilty in October to a May 1987 armed robbery in which her former boyfriend killed a gas company courier in Michigan. Jerry Wayne Strickland was sentenced to life in prison on convictions of murder, armed robbery and using a firearm in commission of a felony. Ms. Munday, whose testimony helped convict Strickland, had been sentenced to the youth home until she turned 19.

She lives with her parents and son in a Hagerstown trailer park. She ran away from her home in Hancock with Strickland in April 1986. Morgan State University, Coppin State College, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Bowie State University have lower retention rates for sophomores than do the University of Maryland at College Park, St. Mary's College or Towson State University. Coppin's sophomore re-enrollment rate is 55 percent, UMES' is 64 percent and Bowie's and Morgan's are 65 percent.

Those figures have not varied in the past 10 years, the commission report says. By comparison, UM College Park and St. Mary's College had 83 percent sophomore retention rates and Towson State University's was 82 percent. The retention rate for students remaining in college until graduation is increasing, the report shows. Fifty percent of all freshmen who entered school in 1984 had graduated or were still in school last fall.

That figure is 7 percent higher than the graduation rate of the class of 1977. The graduation figures disturbed Lawson because, when the figures were broken down school by school, some historically black institutions ranked low. BALTIMORE (AP) A member of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, troubled by a persistent gap in the rates of black and white students who return to college after their first year, is seeking a study on the issue. According to Commissioner Quen-tin Lawson, vice chairman of the higher education panel, the commission's figures show that 80.5 percent of white freshman re-enrolled for a second year at the state's public four-year schools in 1987, while only 68 8 percent of black students returned. The rates at which students return to college have increased for all stu dents during a 10-year study period that began in 1977.

Rates for whites show a steady, moderate rise and those for blacks show declines as well as increases. The disparity between the rates for white and black students has persisted, however. The gap caught Lawson's attention when the figures were released in early April. He said Tuesday he wants the commission to seek answers to why more black students don't re-enroll after their freshman year and why more black students don't remain in college to graduate, a 17.7 percentage point gap compared to white students. "I am gravely concerned over the statistics," Lawson said.

"Certain aspects did alarm me. I want the commission to gather the necessary information so we can understand why." Lawson said the problem could stem from a lack of financial resources, poor college preparation and frustration over not being able to adapt to college life. To get a better idea about the problem, Lawson said he plans to ask the commission to begin interviewing students who drop out of college. Retention of college students is a topic the higher education commission plans to discuss when it meets June 9 in Annapolis. By then, more data will be available that breaks down by sex rerriain in college as well as1 identifying which Maryland counties produce students who remain in college and graduate.

Lawson said he is concerned about recent figures showing that the state's historically black institutions County assaulted several patients and three nurses before escaping. Alter a lengthy internal review, Crownsville's staff concluded in March that the disturbance resulted from an increase in court-referred patients who had histories of ag NEVER BEFORE AT THESE gressive behavior. Such youths, who are typically diagnosed with what is known as chronic "conduct LOW PRICES disorders," represented less than a third of Crownsville's juvenile population in 1983. Evacuation plan set ELKTON (AP) Federal Environmental Protection Agency officials say they will release details Thursday of a contingency plan to evacuate neighbors of the closed Spectron Inc. chemical recycling plant in case of fire or explosion.

Fear of a fire or explosion prompted federal agents to take over the site in Providence Valley last week. wmim 3 Ty-y Vs I i ft, 4 104 PECIIM Ob TheMeuiawe Saved Witkto IS Mhwtes JDPor PRICES STARTING AS LOW AS A I EE 10-13 8-K 9-12 I 6-15 7'i-12 7-13 LSAVEI PRESENT AT TIME OF PURCHASERS'! cushion-soft insole. Yet lightweight Twin 5169su Ea Piece 2000 OFF EACH Ghcrrif rrr Full 4Lrf Ea Piece I22-47M TWIN SET FULL SET QUEEN SET Wnca ttN Sfcvatt tmhk VIM UnlwCrd AHMmf ip.mt EMton. Md Dover St 'JIT UH" EACH $40 OFF each Queen $56900 se. King $69900 ALL MODELS REDUCED i i wrr each mnuoeii Limited Time Qner HTSll ThSy I Ar Patented Cl Posturepedic "3 5 1 Bar 9'Miontfwmit Hinoe-Adxxi Oftst Ccxlt bo" sp' "M) COOP'''On w.lh Itad.ng OMho WCWI Iwil kS luDPO'l pon (Ml l.fmovi JU.

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