The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-23)

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METRO

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2021. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE B

RELIGION

Inside the fraught effort to

create a Christian

nationalist Internet for

right-wing netizens. B

RETROPOLIS

Charlotte County, Va., is

set to unveil a marker

honoring a Black man

killed at the courthouse. B

OBITUARIES

Abdul Qadeer Khan

became known as father

of Paki stan’s nuclear

56 ° 65 ° 66 ° 62 ° bomb program. B

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 2 p.m.

68

°

Precip: 15%

Wind: WNW

6-12 mph

BY JENNA PORTNOY

T

he pandemic has complicated life for every-

one, but social distancing, mask-wearing

and other practices to reduce the spread of

coronavirus present particular challenges

for people with disabilities who rely on service

animals.

Organizations that train dogs — often Labrador

and golden retrievers, among other breeds — are just

beginning to see what the first classes of pandemic

puppies can do after 18 months of diminished

socialization and exposure to public places.

Dog-handler teams have had to adapt to virtual

training, different commands and new ways to keep

their skills sharp in order to avoid uncomfortable and

potentially dangerous situations.

This is especially important, trainers and people

with disabilities say, as more people return to their

pre-pandemic routines of taking public transporta-

tion and attending in-person work and school.

The challenges vary widely based on a person’s

disability, but some of the most effective tools for

preventing transmission of covid are particularly

problematic for people who are blind or visually

impaired and for people who are deaf or hard of

hearing.

SEE SERVICE DOGS ON B

New cases in region

Through 5 p.m. Friday, 2,632 new

coronavirus cases were reported in

Maryland, Virg inia and the District,

bringing the total number of cases

in the region to 1,532,799.

D.C. MD. VA.

+114 +863 +1,

63,588 554,456 914,

Coronavirus-related deaths

As of 5 p.m. Friday:

D.C. MD.* VA.

+0 +14 +4 4

1,186 10 ,785 13,

* Includes probable covid-19 deaths.

BY HANNAH NATANSON

With the school year well un-

derway, Northern Virginia dis-

tricts are still fine-tuning the lo-

gistics of learning amid the coro-

navirus pandemic — while redou-

bling efforts to fight it.

In Fairfax County, school offi-

cials on Tuesday shared that the

school system of 180,000 will

launch comprehensive testing

programs for unvaccinated stu-

dents and staff members starting

in November. The district is also

brainstorming ways it can help

vaccinate children under 12 once

the federal government approves

the vaccine for that age group,

Superintendent Scott Brabrand

said, including by holding vacci-

nation clinics at school and trans-

porting families to other vaccina-

tion sites.

Brabrand highlighted that cor-

onavirus cases and quarantine

numbers are declining week-to-

week in Fairfax County Public

Schools and said rates of in-

school transmission are vanish-

ingly low. In the past month, he

said, 567 students and 147 staff

members have reported contract-

ing the virus, representing about

0.35 percent of the population.

“One-third of 1 percent,”

Brabrand said, repeating the

number for emphasis. He added

that “there has not been one case

of school closure in FCPS.”

The vast majority of children in

the Washington region are back

in classrooms this fall, some for

the first time in a year and a half.

Children learning in-person have

faced a raft of safety measures,

including mask requirements

and, for student-athletes, vaccine

mandates. The precautions ap-

pear to be working: The only

school closure reported so far in

the D.C. area this academic year

came in Prince William County

Public Schools this month, when

the Northern Virginia system was

forced to make an elementary

school online only for about a

week because of a coronavirus

outbreak.

Unlike neighboring school sys-

tems, Arlington Public Schools

decided to offer remote learning

to any parents and students that

preferred it. At a school board

meeting last week, officials with

the Northern Virginia district

said their virtual learning pro-

gram was working well for the

more than 600 children who

chose it. Ninety-five percent of

online students in Arlington are

logging into Canvas, an online

learning platform, and accessing

Microsoft Teams, a videoconfer-

encing tool, officials said.

A total of 630 students are

engaged in virtual schooling this

year, Arlington officials said,

SEE SCHOOLS ON B

In N.Va.

districts,

precaution

abounds

Schools redouble efforts

to fight virus as children

learn in classrooms

BY DAN MORSE

To make her 6 a.m. shift at

Dunkin’ Donuts, the young immi-

grant from Nepal — just 4 feet,

10 inches tall and 96 pounds —

made sure to be waiting for the

5:35 bus. She did so the morning of

Oct. 6, 2017, walking from her

home in Gaithersburg and taking

a spot near a m an she’d never seen

before.

What suddenly happened to

her — grabbed and thrown down a

dark embankment into the woods,

cocaine shoved in her face, beaten

unconscious and then raped — is

something she lives with every

moment.

“Before the crime, I was a very

strong and independent person.

This incident changed my whole

life,” she wrote recently.

It also led to a four-year investi-

gation and prosecution, conclud-

ing this week with an hour-long

hearing in Montgomery County

Circuit Court when the assailant,

David Lee Williams, 31, was sen-

tenced to 45 years in prison.

During the attack, court rec-

ords show, Williams choked, bit

and used an unknown object to

carve lacerations into her back.

She awoke naked, bloodied and

covered in dirt, with her clothes,

phone and belongings gone. She

tried to rise but fell, got back up,

and stumbled home to call the

police.

“He forced her to expose her

SEE SENTENCE ON B

Man receives

45 years for

attack, rape

Police say he shoved

drugs in face of woman

waiting for bus in Md.

BY VANESSA G. SÁNCHEZ

In the spring of 1999, Argelia

Rodriguez took on a new, ambi-

tious job with two ambitious core

missions: doubling the rate of

D.C. students who enroll in col-

lege and tripling the number of

those who graduate from high

school.

Since the first day the District

of Columbia College Access Pro-

gram (DC-CAP) came into exis-

tence, Rodriguez has been run-

ning it, building a legacy of serv-

ice that created opportunities and

a college-going culture for the

most disadvantaged youths in the

District. Now, after 22 years as the

nonprofit organization’s presi-

dent, chief executive and archi-

tect, Rodriguez, 62, has an-

nounced that she is stepping

down at the end of the school year.

“ We’ve been able to break the

cycle of poverty that comes from

undereducation, because we

know those kids will go to col-

lege,” said Rodriguez, who will

continue to support DC-CAP as an

adviser.

“Our goal was to create this

culture, to jump up the numbers

and keep them there,” she said.

“We’ve done that.”

When the program began, few-

er than 1 in 3 D.C. high school

graduates enrolled in higher edu-

cation institutions and only 15

percent would graduate from col-

lege within 10 years, according to

DC-CAP data. Poverty and a lack

of opportunities in the District

kept higher education out of

reach for low-income students of

color, Rodriguez said.

To close the gap, a group of

eight executives, including some

current DC-CAP board members,

successfully lobbied Congress in

1999 for legislation to establish

the DC Tuition Assistance Grant,

a program that affords D.C. high

school graduates the benefits of

in-state tuition at state colleges

outside Washington. DC-CAP

then placed college advisers in

SEE RODRIGUEZ ON B

Head of D.C. college access program leaving

Nonprofit’s chief helped

disadvantaged youths for

more than two decades

BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST

“We’ve been able to break the cycle of poverty that comes from

undereducation,” says Argelia Rodriguez.

Preparing pandemic puppies

Service dogs are graduating as their handlers face new virus-related challenges

PHOTOS BY AMANDA VOISARD FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: Janette Ra y, 59, demonstrates how her service dog, Cheshire, assists her with daily tasks. “Shessie,” 2,

is Ray’s th ird service dog. “What people don’t understand is he is th e reason I get up in the morning and

have the energy to go to work,” said Ray, who lost an arm to sarcoma as a child.

BY JUSTIN GEORGE,

IAN DUNCAN

AND LUZ LAZO

Metro will extend lower levels

of service for at least another

week, saying the transit agency is

sketching out a path to allow its

7000-series rail cars — stricken

by problems with wheel assem-

blies that led to a derailment this

month — to return to use.

Metro General Manager Paul J.

Wiedefeld said the basic service

Metro has offered since pulling

60 percent of its rail cars from

service will extend through Oct.

31. In his first public comments in
    nearly a week, amid a National
    Transportation Safety Board in-
    vestigation, he said the transit
    agency hasn’t set a t imetable on
    boosting rail service back to nor-
    mal levels.
    “It’s been a difficult week for
    people who depend on Metro,”
    Wiedefeld said Friday, his com-
    ments coming hours before Met-
    ro was forced to evacuate a train
    that afternoon for the second
    time in 11 days.
    It capped a tumultuous week
    for a transit agency that had been
    on the rebound in recent weeks
    as more riders were turning to
    transit amid a gradual return to
    office work. The Blue Line train
    derailment, NTSB probe and ba-
    sic levels of service frustrated
    riders weeks after the transit
    SEE METRO ON B

Metro

to keep

reduced

service

NO TIMETABLE FOR

RETURN TO NORMAL

Days after derailment,

a train is evacuated