basis of sex.

When Hornung and a group of

other moms prevailed in January

2020, she thought she’d be able

to keep her promise. Virginia

was the 38th state to approve the

ERA. According to Article 5 of

the Constitution, which says

Congress can add an amendment

once three-fourths of the states

ratify it, the ERA was in.

Instead, very little happened.

Journalists wrote up wonky dis-

patches, and Virginians marched

in the streets, but Congress

didn’t announce the new amend-

ment, and the archivist of the

United States declined to certify

it.

SEE ACTIVIST ON C8

A few years ago, Kati Hornung

made her family a promise: As

soon as Virginia ratified the

Equal Rights Amendment, she’d

be done. She’d stay home. She’d

find a job that paid, and she’d

save up enough to cover college

for her son and daughter.

Hornung had worked

throughout nearly the entire

Trump presidency — free — to

add the amendment to the U.S.

Constitution. She’d attended ral-

lies. She’d carted her kids around

Virginia in a van she’d turned

into an ice cream truck, and

she’d spent three legislative ses-

sions in a row asking lawmakers

to ratify the measure, which

prohibits discrimination on the BY CASEY PARKS

KLMNO

METRO

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE C

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

Social worker Sarah

Collins Fernandis helped

found an oasis for D.C.’s

poorest Black people. C3

LOCAL OPINIONS

After a Montgomery

school shooting, students

posted on social media

rather than call 911. C4

OBITUARIES

Betty Davis, 77, a free-

spirited funk singer and

songwriter, soared in the

36 ° 34 ° 35 ° 32 ° mid-1970s. C9

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

High today at

approx. 12 a.m.

38

°

Precip: 80%

Wind: N

7-14 mph

BY LIZZIE JOHNSON

Maayan Harris was midway

through her sophomore year

when she injured her back row-

ing. But even then, she knew she

couldn’t miss practice.

She’d joined Walt Whitman

High’s crew team in 2017 as a

freshman at the Bethesda, Md.,

school, and it had quickly be-

come a huge part of her identity.

She knew the sport was good for

her mental health, too. After her

parents’ divorce, the teenager

struggled with depression, she

said in an interview. Rowing

helped clear her head.

What didn’t help — or rather,

who — was the head coach, Kirk

Shipley. A popular social studies

teacher at Whitman, he had led

the parent-funded club team for

nearly two decades and was not a

man who could be easily chal-

lenged. Despite Harris’s back in-

jury, he pushed her to continue

rowing.

“Finish the piece,” Harris re-

calls him saying, even as she

sobbed with each stroke. She

managed to get through practice,

she said, aggravating her injury

and ending her season early.

When Harris graduated from

Whitman last May, she said she

was still reeling from Shipley’s

emotional abuse, including his

callous reaction to one of the

worst moments of her life.

But even Harris, now 18, didn’t

understand the full extent of the

allegations about Shipley’s toxic

behavior. It was only after she

had moved to Philadelphia for

nursing school that she learned

Shipley — a three-time All-Met

Coach of the Year who regularly

sent athletes on to Yale, MIT,

Brown and other top colleges —

had been arrested and charged

with sexually abusing two for-

mer Whitman rowers.

While those women — one

who graduated in 2013, the other

in 2018 — have not spoken

publicly about their experiences,

the charges have prompted Har-

ris and other Whitman rowers to

confront their own troubled in-

teractions with the 47-year-old

former coach.

Hundreds of those athletes are

still waiting to learn more about

the case against Shipley, who was

scheduled for a status hearing

Monday in D.C. Superior Court.

But, according to court docu-

ments, he and Assistant U.S.

Attorney Caroline Burrell have

filed a continuance motion “as

they continue to work out a plea

deal.”

Shipley previously pleaded

not guilty to the charges.

However, a 14-page criminal

complaint that accompanied

Shipley’s arrest in August includ-

ed dozens of graphic text mes-

sages, detailing how Shipley had

cultivated sexual relationships

with the two students.

The former coach and his

SEE ABUSE ON C7

More students come forward after Md. coach’s charges

FORMER ROWERS ALLEGE GROOMING, ABUSE

Hundreds o f athletes wait to learn more a bout case

The District and Virginia d o not

report coronavirus cases and

deaths on Saturday and Sunday.

Therefore, virus case totals for the

region are printed Tuesday through

Saturday.

BY KATHERINE SHAVER

District officials abruptly

closed part of the Theodore

Roosevelt Bridge on a major com-

muter route between Washington

and Northern Virginia late Fri-

day, saying the span needed emer-

gency repairs after an inspection

found steel support beams had

continued to deteriorate.

The 58-year-old bridge, which

carries Interstate 66 over the Po-

tomac River, will be limited to

two outer lanes in each direction

while the three middle lanes are

closed for three to six months,

according to the District Depart-

ment of Transportation. Vehicle

weights will be restricted to 10

tons, putting the bridge off-limits

to Metro buses, tourist buses and

large trucks.

D.C. transportation officials

said a consultant’s inspection one

year ago found deterioration in

the steel support beams, and

DDOT inspectors saw in the past

week that the problem had grown

significantly worse. The bridge

has been federally required to

SEE BRIDGE ON C7

R oosevelt

Bridge lanes

shut down f or

urgent repairs

The pediatrician was

concerned enough that she gave

the family a referral to see a

cardiologist at Children’s

National Hospital.

At the hospital, after tests

were done, the mother and

daughter learned that Jaela had

a congenital heart condition

that, if left untreated, could be

fatal. They were told Jaela would

need open-heart surgery to

correct it.

“The thing that tripped me up

is there were no symptoms,”

Cierra says. “I think that is the

scariest part about it.”

Cierra is a popular artist in the

nation’s capital. Her bold, bright

SEE VARGAS ON C8

unbelievable to her mom, Cierra

Lynn Taylor.

“She was healthy,” Cierra says

on a recent night. “She was a

cheerleader. She wasn’t a

preemie. And I don’t drink or

smoke.”

As she tells it, she took her

daughter for a routine physical

that was needed for the 12-year-

old to participate in

cheerleading. Cierra assumed

they would be in and out and

then onto another task. But

when the pediatrician went to

listen to Jaela’s heart, she heard

a faint sound in addition to her

normal heartbeat. “She said it

was so faint that you’d have to be

skilled to catch it,” Cierra recalls.

Jaela Vonderpool

wasn’t just a

cheerleader. She

was a flyer.

She was the girl

other

cheerleaders

hoisted onto their

shoulders and

tossed into the air. She was the

girl who, in those moments

when her body filled with a

natural surge of stress, was

expected to look graceful and

fearless.

If you had watched Jaela

perform, you would have seen a

poised, petite rocket of a child.

That’s what makes what

happened last February still so

Theresa

Vargas

A 12-year-old cheerleader. A recently repaired

heart. And a different kind of Valentine’s story.

ALVIN BAILEY

Jaela Vonderpool was a healthy cheerleader last year. Then her

pediatrician heard a worrisome sound while checking her heart.

BY GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER

AND LAURA VOZZELLA

richmond — Gov. Glenn Young-

kin sat in a conference room near

the State Capitol last week and

lamented the “divisive” nature of

politics, then praised Democrats

for joining him on a measure to lift

school mask mandates.

But as he spoke of unity, his

office put out a statement saying

school boards that disagree with

him are “attacking their own stu-

dents” and “stunningly detached

from reality.”

Such mixed messages — pleas

for civility accompanied by a ver-

bal smackdown — are something

of a hallmark for Youngkin (R), a

political neophyte whose cam-

paign last year depicted him as

both a mainstream moderate and

a bright red admirer of Donald

Trump.

After a month in office, it’s be-

coming clear that the duality is a

feature, not a bug. Which is the

SEE YOUNGKIN ON C6

Youngkin’s

two sides

palpable in

first month

Governor has continued

stoking volatile issues,

even amid calls for unity

A trailblazing

Virginian takes her

campaign national

After pushing her state to ratify the long-sought Equal

Rights Amendment, she thinks more Americans are ready

JULIA RENDLEMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Activist Kati Hornung, left, works with graphic designer Makeeda Jordan this month at a print shop Hornung owns in Richmond.