GIVING BACK Grant helps veteran-owned businesses. A-5
The Gazette
ENTERTAINMENT: Alternative metal band brings new music to Fillmore Silver Spring. A-10
GERMANTOWN | CLARKSBURG DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
25 cents
Worth its weight in gold
Police look into arrest of 16-year-old in Germantown
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014
Girl Scout from Germantown hosts event with beach party theme for autistic children, receives Gold Award n
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER
BY
STAFF WRITER
Ladan Mohamed, 16, of Germantown, hosted a “Beach Party” last month for autistic children in her community, giving them a place to hang out and participate in activities with their peers. The event, which was held at the Germantown Community Recreation Center on July 26, occurred after months of planning and is the project Mohamed is using in order to receive a Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouts. “My sister has autism and I just noticed that children like her don’t get the same opportunities to hang out with their friends,” Mohamed said, adding that her sister, Leila, is 12 years old. Mohamed, who has been a Girl Scout for almost eight years, had to submit a proposal to an official board in Washington before she could go ahead with the project and must send in a final report before she can receive her Gold Award, With the help from Beth Lewis, Leila’s former special education teacher at Clopper Hill Elementary School, Mohamed was able to organize her plan and figure out the logistics to actually make it happen and run smoothly. “With my experience as a teacher of students with autism, I was able to help bring the ideas from concept to reality,” Lewis said. On the day of the party, nine children
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BY
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Ladan Mohamed (left), 16, of Germantown recently hosted a party for children with autism, including her sister Leila Mohamed, 12, at the Germantown Community Recreation Center. The gathering was for Ladan’s Girl Scout Gold project.
Waters Landing expands, upgrades Portables gone as Germantown school welcomes back students
pet,” said Principal Tina Shrewsbury about the images of blue-gray dolphins imbedded into a section of new floor in the newly expanded school. Thanks to two new additions, Waters Landing is expected to enroll about 690 students this fall, about the same as last year. However, all will be inside the school instead of some of them outside in portable classrooms that are now a thing of the past. “It’s a pleasure to have everyone in the building under one roof,” Shrewsbury said.
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VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
When students return to Waters Landing Elementary School in Germantown on Monday , they will not only see a bigger and brighter school but also reminders of the dolphin they recently adopted at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. “You don’t usually get dolphins on a car-
See SCHOOL, Page A-6
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Waters Landing Elementary School principal Tina Shrewsbury and assistant principal Troy Clarke stand in the school’s new addition.
County’s agricultural fair closes until next year Weather cooperates for event’s final weekend n
BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
The nine-day Montgomery County Agricultural Fair came to an end on Saturday and Martin Svrcek, executive director of the fair, estimates a total of 215,000 people attended, even though severe weather conditions closed the fair on Aug. 12. “A rain on the final Friday or Saturday is absolutely brutal, but rain on a Tuesday is not bad from a business side because it’s one
of the slower days on the grounds to begin with,” Svrcek explained. “But even our slow days are busy days, they’re just not as busy as the busiest days.” Tuesday’s closure, however, did affect one of the fair’s scheduled, special days for community members. “The most affected people were our senior citizens because Tuesday is the fair’s senior day,” Svrcek said. “We plan so much for them. There’s a trolley that goes through the fair grounds that we don’t offer any other day.” Because special events such as military and family days were already slated later in the week, tying up buildings and personnel,
INDEX Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
B-9 A-2 B-6 A-10 A-9 B-1
Volume 31, No. 33, Two sections, 24 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
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RECYCLE
KATE S. ALEXANDER AND VIRGINIA TERHUNE
The Aug. 10 arrest of a 16-year-old in Germantown has sparked a Montgomery County Police investigation to determine if excessive force was used by the officer, and at least one council member is asking that the results be made public. The teenager was handcuffed and taken into custody about 7:30 p.m. near Century Boulevard in the Germantown Town Center shopping area and filmed by Washington TV station WJLA. In a letter to Police Chief J. Thomas Manger Friday, Councilwoman Cherri Branson asked the chief to release the results of the investigation. “I ask that you keep the public and the Council informed about the review of this incident,” Branson (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring wrote. “As you know, recent events around the nation have caused many people to raise questions about the use of force by law enforcement officers. It is imperative that residents of Montgomery County believe that the use of force is
See INVESTIGATION, Page A-8
Youth leader gets 40 years in prison for sex abuse case n
Judge calls former Germantown resident ‘one pathetic human being’ BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
senior day could not be rescheduled, said Svrcek, who noted that the fair has been hosting the special event “seemingly forever.” While bad weather caused this upset, it could have been a lot worse in Svrcek’s opinion. “The weather is our biggest nemesis, but also our biggest asset,” he said. “There were cool temperatures and only one day of rain.” Elana Diestel of Derwood manned her booth for the duration of the fair, selling Headbands of Hope. For each headband or buff (a headwrap for boys) sold, the organization donates a headband or buff to a child
A former youth leader with Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing four boys in the 1980s and early 1990s. Nathaniel Morales, 56, a former Germantown resident who moved to Las Vegas, was convicted in back-toback trials in May. The first trial involved three boys who attended the now-defunct Montgomery County Covenant Academy, where Morales was a teacher. The second involved another boy who attended a Washington, D.C., church with Morales in the early 1980s. The boys, now adults, testified that Morales molested them at group sleepovers, in their homes and at a church retreat. Thursday’s sentencing hearing applied to both trials. The Gazette does not usually name victims of sex crimes.
See FAIR, Page A-8
See ABUSE, Page A-8
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INSIDE TODAY
August 21, 2014 1934323 1934325
Councilwoman wants investigation results made public STAFF WRITERS
See GIRL SCOUT, Page A-8
BY
FALL SPORTS PREVIEW: Clarksburg field hockey has the numbers, now looking for more wins. B-1