SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU C7
ey said in a text. “We could have
contributed to exploring all ways
to mitigate the challenges the
lane closures will cause.”
Ragina Ali, a spokeswoman for
AAA Mid-Atlantic, questioned
why motorists weren’t given
more notice about lane closures
on such a major artery, even if the
emergency work is necessary.
“While we recognize road and
bridge repairs are a major incon-
venience and create added con-
gestion, they’re necessary for the
safety of all road users,” Ali said.
“Sadly, we’ve seen far too many
incidents across the country
where structural problems with
bridges were not addressed, re-
sulting in tragedy.”
DDOT will either replace or
repair the deteriorated beams de-
pending on the availability of
materials, Lott said. The goal is to
enable the bridge to safely sup-
port the weight of regular traffic
until a full rehabilitation can be
done in a couple of years using
federal funding the city expects to
receive as part of the recently
approved $1.2 trillion infrastruc-
ture bill, he said.
DDOT also plans to use federal
infrastructure funds to rehabili-
tate the H Street bridge in North-
east Washington near Union Sta-
tion. That bridge also is rated in
“poor” condition, Lott said. The
city also plans to replace the
Lorraine H. Whitlock Memorial
Bridge, also rated as “poor,” on
Benning Road NE over Kenil-
worth Avenue and CSX tracks.
The Arlington Memorial
Bridge reopened fully in Decem-
ber 2020 after a two-year rehabil-
itation project that cost $227 mil-
lion.transportation watchers by sur-
prise.
Arlington County Board Vice
Chair Christian Dorsey (D) said
DDOT is right to prioritize motor-
ists’ safety over convenience. But
he questioned why DDOT didn’t
discuss with county officials a
decision that will create “substan-
tial delays” for bridge users and
“systemic impacts elsewhere.”
“Arlington should have been
consulted before such conse-
quential action was taken,” Dors-time and try to complete the work
before the onslaught of summer
tourist traffic.
The bridge, which typically
carries more than 150,000 vehi-
cles daily, has not had a major
rehabilitation since it opened in
1964, Lott said. A DDOT spokes-
man said the steel beams have
corroded over time from the salt
mixture laid down for snow-
storms.
News of the sudden partial
closure caught local officials andwere being overly cautious,” Lott
said.
The partial closure comes just
as many commuters are starting
to return to the office and as
traffic volumes have continued to
rebound during the pandemic.
The work won’t start until ma-
terials arrive — a schedule that
could be affected by pandemic-
era delays in the supply chain,
Lott said. However, DDOT offi-
cials said, they wanted to limit
stress on the bridge in the mean-have a consultant inspection ev-
ery two years since it was rated in
“poor” condition in 2018, officials
said. The city has a consultant
inspection done annually and
does its own inspections about
twice a month, a DDOT spokes-
man said.
DDOT Director Everett Lott
said Saturday that closing some
lanes to limit vehicle weight on
the bridge was “something we’ve
been talking about.” However, he
decided Friday to close the inner
lanes about 10 p.m. after hearing
the forecast for up to two inches
of snow on Sunday, which would
require plows and other heavy
equipment on the bridge. DDOT
tweeted a traffic advisory at 10:45
p.m., saying the lane closures
were “effective immediately.”
“Out of an abundance of cau-
tion and in anticipation of the
snow tomorrow, we wanted to
make sure we didn’t put any
additional pressure on the
bridge,” Lott said Saturday.
Lott also had in mind recent
failures of aging bridges in other
cities. A Pittsburgh bridge col-
lapsed last month, hours before
President Biden was scheduled to
arrive to highlight new federal
funding to repair and replace the
nation’s aging infrastructure. No
one was killed, but several people
were hospitalized. A 3.3-mile
bridge over the Mississippi River
in the Memphis area also closed
for three months of emergency
repairs last year after alarmed
inspectors called 911 to report a
large crack in a critical steel
support beam.
“We wanted to make sure we
BRIDGE FROM C1
3 lanes of Roosevelt Bridge close f or 3 to 6 months of emergency repairs
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, foreground, carries Interstate 66 over the Potomac. Behind it is the
Arlington Memorial Bridge, which reopened fully i n late 2020 after a two-year rehabilitation project.when Shipley got arrested, I
realized it wasn’t in my head. It
actually happened — and it just
took me longer to recognize than
it should have. I felt like no one
was protecting me. No teachers,
no administrators, no parents
recognized the signs. A lot of
people were scared to say no to
him.”
Not signing the June letter
written by her teammates is one
of her biggest regrets.A panic attack
In a private Facebook group
that was created after Shipley’s
arrest, former rowers have dis-
cussed how Shipley manipulated
them — and how he contaminat-
ed a sport that had once brought
them joy and a sense of purpose.
Now, it’s difficult for them to
untangle their identity with row-
ing from the man who is accused
of victimizing their teammates.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of self
blame involved in these victims’
stories that they shouldn’t have,”
said Harriet Dark, who rowed for
Whitman and graduated in 2011.
In the group, rowers recalled
conversations and experiences
that they hadn’t framed as abu-
sive at the time: when Shipley
pitted friends against each other
for the chance to compete at the
Stotesbury Regatta. He even had
sisters race for the same spot in
the top boat.
One former student, who
rowed competitively at a top
college, remembered a time
shortly after her grandparent
died when Shipley surprised the
team with a 2K competition.
When she confided in him that
she wasn’t in the right mental
space, he told her to do it anyway.
“That was probably one of the
worst pieces of my life,” said the
woman, who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity because of the
nature of the charges against
Shipley. She recalled having a
panic attack as she rowed. Stop-
ping, she said, wasn’t an option.
“I always knew he made me
uncomfortable, but there was
this element of, ‘He’s your coach,
and if you don’t adhere to what
he wants, that will impact your
placement in the boat,’ ” she said.
“Now, we’ve truly realized that he
was a predator. Processing that
fact, that I was around that type
of person — day in and day out
for years — is terrifying.”
Shipley’s court appearances
have been rescheduled repeated-
ly, leaving Harris unable to shake
her former coach from her mind.
She said she sees Shipley in men
bundled in hats and winter coats,
with the same height and build
as her former coach.
On her walks to class, Harris
often passes a dark gray Volks-
wagen parked on her street.
Shipley, she knows, had the same
vehicle. Harris realizes they
aren’t the same sedan — but
every time she walks past it, she
finds herself pausing.
“I have to do it,” Harris ex-
plained. “I have to think about it.
It doesn’t feel like a choice.”
She checks to make sure that
the vehicle isn’t his.board to apologize for renewing
his contract despite two investi-
gations into his behavior.
“We are incredibly sorry for
the pain and anguish that all of
our athletes and parents are
experiencing,” the board told
families of Whitman rowers in
an email. “We regret offering
Shipley a position for this fall
season and, in retrospect with
what we now know, that was
clearly the wrong decision.”
After Shipley’s arrest, the girl
said she began having night-
mares in which the coach raped
her. She feels uncomfortable and
anxious being alone with her
male professors during office
hours and with male coaches at
practices, she said. She still grap-
ples with not feeling heard.
“We were winning, so who
cared?” the rower said. “I told
myself it was all in my head. ButLater that month, Shipley
asked to speak with her in his
classroom, the teen said. She
repeated to him that she thought
his behavior was inappropriate.
When it was time to leave, he
asked if he could give her a hug.
She said no.
“I firmly believe that Shipley
groomed me,” she wrote in an
Aug. 16 email to the parent board
after she learned he had been
rehired despite the complaints
by her and her teammates. “... I
hope you understand that as a
vulnerable 15 year old who was
looking for support on mental
health issues, there was a ques-
tionable power dynamic be-
tween us. ... I just want to move
on which I am unable to do while
knowing Shipley feels no re-
morse for his actions.”
Shipley was arrested a week
later, prompting the parent-dependent” and like a “married
couple.”
Though her teammates
warned her that Shipley’s behav-
ior wasn’t normal, she said she
didn’t believe them — until one
spring afternoon in 2021, when
she was helping her coach repair
the oars on a boat. He reached for
a screwdriver that she’d been
holding between her thighs.
“That’s when it really clicked,”
the teen said, “that he was com-
fortable reaching between my
legs.”
Soon after, she said she con-
fronted him about his behavior,
telling the coach that she
thought she was being groomed
by him. Shipley screamed at her
and called her a name, she said,
so she reported him to the parent
board, a group of mothers and
fathers who volunteered to over-
see the program.Potomac River. Shipley coached
there as well as at Whitman.
Sometimes, the girl said, Ship-
ley spoke about the 2018 gradu-
ate who later accused Shipley of
sexually abusing her. Shipley re-
ferred to her as a “cancer” and
claimed that she “ruined the
team,” the rower remembered.
Eventually, Shipley began mak-
ing comparisons between the
girl and the 2018 graduate. In
one moment, the teen said, he
would tell her that she was “so
much better than anyone else on
the team.” In the next, he would
also accuse her of “ruining the
team.”
By her senior year, the rower
said she and the head coach were
bickering so much that, in a
meeting before the prestigious
Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Phila-
delphia, an assistant coach at
Whitman described them as “co-attorney did not return calls for
comment.
In the six months since Ship-
ley was released as the case
moves through court, Harris said
she has struggled to contain her
anxiety, recalling the times Ship-
ley minimized her pain or left
her teammates in tears. She’s
also returned to an incident that
unfolded soon after the pandem-
ic began in March 2020 — and
with it, the return of her depres-
sion.
Harris, then a junior, attempt-
ed suicide. She was hospitalized,
missing the crew team banquet
and the last few weeks of school.
When Shipley found out, Harris
said, the coach had only one
question for her:
“So, how did you try to do it?”
Being ‘groomed’
When seven graduating sen-
iors drafted a letter to the team’s
volunteer parent board in the
spring of 2021 that they hoped
would get Shipley fired, one
teenager decided not to sign it.
The girl — who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because
of the nature of the charges
against Shipley — was worried
that reporting the coach’s behav-
ior might anger him and jeopar-
dize her college rowing experi-
ence. She said she also consid-
ered him her best friend.
The girl had rowed for Whit-
man for four years and was
recognized as a top athlete. By
her sophomore year, she’d
earned a spot in the team’s
fastest boat. Her talent caught
Shipley’s eye. They began texting
during the school day and talk-
ing on the phone after practice,
she said. She had a boyfriend, but
she also realized she cared deep-
ly for her coach, which confused
her and filled her with shame.
“All I wanted was for him to be
happy and proud of me,” she
said. “He knew everything about
me. He knows things about me
that no one else does.”
When she tore a muscle that
should have healed in a matter of
weeks, she said Shipley encour-
aged her to keep training, which
only worsened the injury. Even-
tually she was relegated to prac-
ticing in a storage closet in the
Whitman gym, where she and
other injured rowers used erg
machines and stationary bikes.
Shipley explained that he didn’t
want younger rowers seeing the
team’s fastest girls not partici-
pating in the full workouts.
At the time, the girl thought
Shipley was offering her support
and kindness, she said. He creat-
ed a training schedule for her
and contacted the crew coach at
his alma mater, the University of
Pennsylvania, on her behalf.
Some evenings, he would Face-
Time with her, she said, telling
her “how amazing” she was.
Her junior year, she met him
alone for coffee at a Starbucks
near D.C.’s Thompson Boat Cen-
ter, where athletes from 13 high
schools and two universities
practice and compete on the
ABUSE FROM C1
Charges prompt others to confront interactions with coach
LAURA CHASE DE FORMIGNYRICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST
TOP: Walt Whitman High School rowing coach Kirk Shipley at a team workout in 2019. Shipley held onto his job through two
investigations into his behavior. L EFT: A collection of medals won by a Whitman rower. RIGHT: T he Bethesda campus of Whitman High.BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POSTBY MARTIN WEILNot only did Saturday offer a
third consecutive day of spring in
February, but its warmth seemed
all the more notable on the eve of
a predicted Sunday snowfall.
Considered on its own merits,
Saturday offered another demon-
stration of the thermal versatility
of February. It showed that a
winter month need not condemn
us to winter’s harshness.
Instead, on a day when our
average high was only 48, Satur-
day reached 62. That extended a
streak of days in the 60s that
started with Thursday’s 62, and
continued with 67 on Friday.
It also showed that not all
unusually warm February days
need look alike.
O n Friday, with its 67, brilliant
sunshine seemed to symbolize a
joyous rejection of w inter.
Saturday’s sun appeared more
briefly. Its light seemed thinner
and paler, often merely sensed
behind a gray curtain of cloud.
But at 62 degrees, Saturday’s
high temperature matched the
average high here of early April.
B y its warmth alone, Saturday
seemed a sign of meteorological
benevolence, more generous
than we might expect of mid-Feb-
ruary.
It may snow Sunday. Lawns
may wear white coats. But such a
reversion to winter’s type might
only confirm our sense of the
surprising comforts and merits of
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.THE DISTRICTSaturday bringsthe week’s finalwinter respite