Thursday, May 17, 2012
Phoebe Temkin is a short story contest finalist at Saturday's Gaithersburg Book Festival.
This is the second of three profiles of Rockville authors whose work is part of the third annual Gaithersburg Book Festival. The festival will be held on Saturday at Gaithersburg City Hall. The first two profiles feature finalists in the festival's second annual high school student short story contest. Click here for Wednesday's profile of Jasmine Smith. Phoebe Temkin, an 18-year-old senior at Richard Montgomery High School, was assigned by English teacher Davina Smith to write a short story for the Gaithersburg Book Festival’s student short story contest using the same line as her classmates. “Mrs. Smith has been fantastic in encouraging my writing,” Temkin said in an email. “She forces me to push myself to write and think creatively.” …
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Jasmine Smith is a short story contest finalist at Saturday's Gaithersburg Book Festival.
This is the first of three profiles of Rockville authors whose work is part of the third annual Gaithersburg Book Festival. The festival will be held on Saturday at Gaithersburg City Hall. The first two profiles feature finalists in the festival's second annual high school student short story contest. Jasmine Smith was lying in bed one night, unable to sleep, when the thought popped into her head: What if someone is watching me? That first question led to another: Why would someone want to watch me? And from those two thoughts on that sleepless night, Smith, a 17-year-old senior at Richard Montgomery High School, was inspired to write a short story that is among the 13 finalists in the Gaithersburg Book Festival’s second annual high school…
Friday, May 11, 2012
Richard Montgomery freshman's election signals 'student engagement,' incoming MCCPTA president tells The Gazette.
The incoming president of the county council of PTAs is defending the election of a Richard Montgomery High School freshman as one of the organization's officers. Richie Yarrow, 15, was elected recording secretary of the 48,000-member organization that represents PTAs from schools around Montgomery County, The Gazette reported April 30. "Richie, a freshman at Richard Montgomery High School, served last year as the vice president of Eastern Middle School’s PTSA. He was also president last year of Montgomery County Junior Councils, the county’s organization for middle school student government," The Gazette reported. Some delegates to the organization were surprised to learn they had elected a teenager. Delegates questioned Yarrow's ability …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Students at Rockville schools say they were largely unaware of the controversial fliers.
People can choose not to be gay, the fliers said. County schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr called the message “disgusting” and the actions of the organization publishing the fliers "deplorable." Rockville High School principal Debra Munk found the content problematic. But what did students think about the fliers, distributed earlier this year at some Montgomery County Public Schools by the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays? Did students at Rockville schools even notice? “I’m a big fan for the First Amendment, but they just made a lot of us so uncomfortable,” said Kelsey Lynn, an officer with Rockville High's Gay Straight Alliance. Lynn, a Rockville High senior, said she is one of the minority of students who paid …
39.086561
-77.116609
Rockville High School
2100 Baltimore Rd, Rockville, MD
/articles/pfox-fliers-would-have-offended-students-had-they-seen-them
384379
/locations/6684231
39.07815
-77.14557
Richard Montgomery High School
250 Richard Montgomery Dr, Rockville, MD
/articles/pfox-fliers-would-have-offended-students-had-they-seen-them
380066
/locations/6684232
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Willis Ibeh scores 19 points to lead the Patriots past the Rockets, 64-51.
Exactly five minutes into Tuesday night's home playoff game, Wootton Coach Chris Bohlen was visibly frustrated on the Patriots' sideline, questioning his team's shot selection as they failed to find a rhythm offensively. With his team trailing by one point and having made just one field goal, the sixth-year coach called a timeout and calmed his team down. Following the quick break, his team responded immediately and closed out the quarter on an 8-2 run. The fourth-seeded Patriots never trailed again and dominated the visiting Richard Montgomery Rockets en route to a 64-51 win before a spirited crowd at Wootton High School. "This group this season has been funny. We're still trying to figure out as a group what makes them tick," Bohlen said…
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Quince Orchard meets top-seeded Magruder and Wootton hosts Rockville rival Richard Montgomery tonight in the boys' varsity basketball regional quarterfinals.
Quince Orchard's and Wootton's boys' varsity basketball teams are each in the quarterfinals of the 4A West region bracket, but their journey to meet in the semifinals will take very different paths. The Cougars must go on the road to challenge top-seeded Magruder, while the Patriots, No. 4 in the region, stay home to face Rockville rival Richard Montgomery. Magruder a "Tall Order" for Quince Orchard Paul Foringer and his Quince Orchard Cougars have “a tall order” Tuesday night when they match up against Magruder (22-1) in the 4A West Region. “Magruder is one of the best teams I’ve seen in 10 years in Montgomery County,” admitted Foringer, who has seen his fair share of teams in 32 years of coaching. “There’s not a team in Montgomery County…
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
State's attorney's spokesman: Top prosecutor "knows Mr. Spear."
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office has turned over to prosecutors from Anne Arundel County the case of a teacher and coach from Rockville charged with having sex with a 16-year-old girl. The Montgomery County office will not prosecute Scott Duane Spear “to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” said Seth Zucker, a spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. The transfer of the case was first reported in The Sentinel. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy “knows Mr. Spear,” Zucker said on Tuesday. “Even though the state’s attorney himself would not be prosecuting the case he has asked another jurisdiction’s prosecutor to prosecute the case.” The transfer request is not unusual, said Zucker, who …
Monday, February 6, 2012
ABC7: Julius West teacher 'offered to take a polygraph,' attorney says.
The former Rockville mayor representing Scott Duane Spear, a Julius West Middle School teacher accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student who he coached at Richard Montgomery High School, says the accuser is making up the story, ABC7 reports. Steven VanGrack, who served as Rockville’s mayor from 1985 to 1987, told ABC7 that Spear “professes complete innocence and in fact what was interesting was he met with me and offered to take a polygraph.” VanGrack also suggested that the accuser fabricated the allegations against Spear, who also coaches boys basketball at Richard Montgomery, where media was barred from a game against Col. Zadok Magruder High School on Friday evening. “This could be a troubled young girl who is making allegations…
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Police say Scott Duane Spear had sex with a 16-year-old who he taught and coached.
A Rockville man who teaches at Julius West Middle School and coaches boys basketball and track at Richard Montgomery High School was arrested Thursday and is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student, county police said in a news release. Scott Duane Spear, 47, of the 1600 block of Auburn Avenue in Rockville, is charged with two counts of fourth-degree sex offense. Police said the department’s Family Crimes Division received information on Friday from an unnamed person who said that a 16-year-old Richard Montgomery student had told the source that she had sex with Spear. Spear, who teaches social studies at Julius West, had been the student’s teacher when she was in eighth grade and had been her track coach since 2009, according to …
Monday, January 23, 2012
RM boys basketball earns eighth win of season with victory over Wootton.
A loss last month to Wootton left the Richard Montgomery boys basketball team wondering who they were as a team. On Friday night, they showed what they were capable of, and gained a measure of revenge against their crosstown rivals, beating Wootton 51-45. “They outhustled us, they killed us on the boards, they killed us in the paint,” RM head coach Scott Spear said about the December game. “After the game, the speech was, 'Is this all we have? Are we going to be outworked by teams like this?' ... This was a big game because they embarrassed us in that first game, and we wanted to prove a point.” The first quarter was marked with several turnovers on both sides. Wootton senior Benjy Sokobin dominated in the paint. He scored eight of his 12…
Theresa Defino
3:50 pm on Friday, May 18, 2012
Fascinating story, Phoebe. I really liked it. Good luck at the festival! more ›