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GERMANTOWN | CLARKSBURG DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
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Cyber forensics goes local Montgomery College hosts pilot program BY
SPORTS: Co-op ice hockey team succeeds with roster of young players. B-1
‘Demon Assassin’ defendant insane Sanford, who is accused of killing two children, was committed to facility
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SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN
STAFF WRITER
STAFF WRITER
On Friday, 45 high school students gathered at the Germantown campus of Montgomery College to solve a murder. The mystery was part of a cyber security competition at Montgomery College hosted in partnership with both Montgomery County Public Schools and New York University’s Polytechnic School of Engineering. Students from Poolesville High School and Montgomery Blair High School were a part of this pilot program based on a national competition organized by NYU. Each year, NYU’s Polytechnic School of Engineering hosts their Cyber Security Awareness Week High School Forensics Challenge, inviting teams of
A women accused of killing two children and trying to kill two more in Jan. 2013 because she and a friend believed demons had possessed the children pleaded guilty Friday and was committed indefinitely to a secure state psychiatric hospital. Monifa Sanford, 22, was deemed “not criminally responsible” for the crime Friday after Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl A. McCally found there was substantial evidence Sanford was delusional at the time. Sanford’s attorney, David Felsen, citing a state doctor’s report, told the court that Sanford had been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder that was on
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(From left) Poolesville tenth-graders Jessica Yin, Matthew Feng and Blair High School tenth-grader Daniel Chen compete as a team to solve a cyber security breach using clues provided on a cellphone at the Montgomery College Germantown campus on Friday.
the “schizophrenic spectrum.” Sanford, who is now taking antipsychotic medication, sufSanford fered from paranoia and auditory hallucinations, Felsen said. McCally ordered that Sanford be committed to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup until it was clear that she no longer posed a danger to herself or the community, but said there was no way of knowing when, or if, that would happen. State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after the hearing that the hospital was essentially a prison facility where Sanford can receive psychiatric treatment. “She could remain there
See SANFORD, Page A-7
Starr wants to stay Seneca Valley plans don’t disappoint at helm of schools See CYBER, Page A-5
Long-awaited Germantown school’s update is on its way n
BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
The impressive plans for the new Seneca Valley High School in Germantown were made public last week following the approval and unveiling at a school board meeting on Jan. 13. “Over the last couple of years we’ve had open public meetings. We invited people to come out to contribute to the design,” Principal Mark Cohen said. “Everything you see on the website and the plan was a collaboration between what we call the ‘design team.’” The plan calls for a brand new Seneca
Valley High School to be located, said Cohen, “in our own backyard.” Students will continue to attend the old Seneca Valley while the new building is constructed on school grounds near the football field. Construction is slated to start during the summer of 2016 and finish by August of 2018, giving teachers and staff time to move in to the new building. “You can see in the design different people’s designs and different people’s additions,” Cohen said. The building will consist of a three-story classroom section and a two-story public section, housing the cafeteria, auditorium and gym. In addition to adding space, the new building will add functionality that the old building is lacking. “The building really... it was old before its time. It has had, over the years, serious
air vent circulation issues,” Cohen said. Cohen explained the air ventilation issues cause a noticeably uneven temperature throughout the building. While part of the hallway may be cold, a few feet down the same hallway may be uncomfortably hot. There are also few windows, making natural light scarce. “The building is very institutional the way it looks like right now. Kids say jokingly it resembles a prison,” Cohen said. In order to receive the budget and approval for a project of this scale, Montgomery County Public Schools needed permission from the state as well as a formal feasibility study. “Those kinds of issues, they aren’t
See SENECA, Page A-5
Several board members commit support as decision deadline nears n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
In the home stretch of his first term, Superintendent Joshua P. Starr said he’s hoping for a second round leading the school district and is “in it for the long haul.” Two out of seven board members said they’re ready to support Starr. Others, however, are not yet picking a side, saying they’ll consider a range of issues before deciding. Starr, whose contract ex-
pires June 30, must make his official request to the county school board for another fouryear term by Feb. 1. The board will need to give him an answer by March 1. Starr replaced Jerry D. Weast as superintendent in 2011. He was hired at $250,000 per year. Starr’s current salary is $264,002, according to Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the district. The district has made progress during his three-and-a-half years, Starr said, and he and others have put “all the pieces in place to transform” the school system. “We’re on the cusp of doing
See STARR, Page A-5
Germantown SoccerPlex co-founder to serve U.S. Olympics n
Garrett Park attorney named to ethics committee BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
A co-founder of the multi-sport Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown who lives in Garrett Park recently was appointed to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s five-member ethics committee. “I’m thrilled — it’s the coolest thing in the world,” said Kenneth Salomon, an attorney with the Washington office of the Thompson Coburn law firm,
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based in St. Louis. Salomon replaces outgoing committee member Bill Ide on the committee, according to a news release from the firm. Salomon Founded in 2005, the USOC’s ethics committee deals with any potential conflicts of interest related to business dealings for the Olympics and the Paralympics. “It’s to be sure about dealings with sponsors and any kind of commercial
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relationships,” Salomon said. Those who serve on the committee also must submit personal financial disclosure forms, he said. Salomon, who chairs Thompson Coburn’s Lobbying and Policy Group, earned a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in 1967 and a law degree in 1970 from George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the law review. He has 40 years’ experience advising clients on government and public policy issues, including e-commerce, intellectual property, the Internet, telecommunications, education and student financial aid, according to the
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release. The appointment to the ethics committee came about through his friendship with John Hendricks, founder and former chairman of Discovery Communications, based in Silver Spring, Salomon said. Hendricks became a director on the full board of the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2007, according to the USOC website. “We got to know each other because our daughters played travel soccer together,” said Salomon, whose daughter Amy played in high school and also played on the University of Pennsylvania’s varsity soccer team for
four years. In 1996, the family went to the summer Olympics in Atlanta, where the U.S. won its first Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer, he said. Because of their commitment to soccer, Hendricks and Salomon in 1998 formed the Maryland Soccer Foundation, the nonprofit that developed the SoccerPlex, which opened in 2000. “The genesis of that was a dinner — his family and mine — at a restaurant in downtown Bethesda before going to a movie,” Salomon said. “Our lives were built around the
See OLYMPICS, Page A-7
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