friday, april 3 , 2020. the washington post eZ re B5
BY TOM JACKMANKenneth J. moore was a father
figure wherever he went. By day,
he helped counsel and guard
teenagers who had been arrested
in the District for the city’s Youth
rehabilitation Services. on
nights and weekends, he was a
dad to his three sons, two step-
children and many other youths
he encountered as his kids grew
up in Prince George’s County.
moore died Wednesday of the
covid- 19 disease caused by the
novel coronavirus, the head of
Youth rehabilitation Services
said. He was 52 and had worked
for the agency as a youth develop-
ment representative for more
than a decade, agency Director
Clinton Lacey said.
“His compassion and commit-
ment to our youth as a public
servant,” Lacey said in a letter to
agency employees, “will have a
lasting impact on countless
youth, families and DYrS staff.”
moore worked most recently
in the at-risk office in the Superi-
or Court in the District, accompa-
nying teens to court appearances
and coordinating their move-
ments between various city hold-
ing facilities for juveniles, ac-
cording to Andre Phillips, chair-
man of the fraternal order of
Police’s labor committee for the
youth agency. moore had been
quarantined for two weeks after
encountering a deputy U.S. mar-
shal who had been in the s ame
corridor of the courthouse and
confirmed with the coronavirus,
Phillips s aid, but it was not deter-
mined where exactly moore was
infected.
moore worked directly with
children at the New Beginnings
Youth Development Center in
Laurel, the Youth Services Center
in Northeast and the oak Hill
Youth Detention Center during
his years with the youth agency.
“He took his job very serious-
ly,” Phillips said. “He was the first
one to work and the last to leave.
He was always helpful to other
colleagues. Just a great guy.”
“He loved that job,” said his
son, Kenneth moore Jr. “He al-
ways worked with youth, trying
to get them on the right path.”
moore, who grew up in the
District, was divorced with three
sons. His oldest works for the
Department of Homeland Securi-
ty, his middle son is in college a nd
his youngest is in high school,
Kenneth moore Jr. said. He also
has stepchildren from another
relationship, and “everybody sees
him as a father figure,” Kenneth
moore Jr. said. “He took care of a
lot of kids, that’s the kind of guy
he is.”
“He was a great stepfather,
father and grandfather,” said his
stepson, Nathan Perkins. Perkins
said moore’s conversations about
being a correctional officer and
counselor for teenagers helped
nudge him into becoming a
member of law enforcement lo-
cally.
His sons said moore liked to
relax with family at home, barbe-
cue on the grill, and watch the
redskins or any Washington
sports team. moore had the red-skins logo on his car headrests.
“When he wasn't working,”
Kenneth moore Jr. said, “he just
wanted to sit back and drink a
beer, watch TV. He would help
out with the kids, go to their
sports games. He made sure ev-
erybody was happy in their own
way. Just an all-around good
person who showed his love in
different ways, to make sure ev-
erybody smiled.”
Employees in the youth reha-
bilitation department are consid-
ered essential and must report to
work, managing two facilities for
juveniles who have been de-
tained for crimes as well as han-
dling youths who are just enter-
ing the system and being tempo-
rarily held.
But the city has rejected the
union’s request for hazard pay,
Phillips said. He said employees
such as moore already faced haz-
ards dealing with young offend-
ers who can become violent. “The
last thing w e need to worry about
is encountering something le-
thal,” Phillips said. “We deserve
to be compensated for putting
our lives on the line.”
The mayor's media relations
office did not respond to a re-
quest for comment about hazard
pay. In a march 27 news confer-
ence, mayor muriel E. Bowser
said, “Nobody gets hazard pay,” i n
response to a question about first
responders.
[email protected]clarence Williams and Keith l.
alexander contributed to this report.the District
Father, mentor helped guide youths
health care workers,” including
testing staff and patients who
have been exposed, in line with
Department of Health guidance.
That guidance recommends
against testing asymptomatic
health-care workers who had con-
tact with a known covid- 19 pa-
tient.
“Like healthcare organizations
around the country, we are work-
ing diligently to expand our test-
ing capabilities with the resourc-
es made available to us,” t he hos-
pital said.
E dward J. Smith, executive di-
rector of the National Nurses
United-affliated D.C. Nurses As-
sociation, said that members who
worked with Sinkiat have been
quarantined but not tested was a
“blatantly irresponsible and a
dangerous practice.” Across the
District, he said, some nurses are
being quarantined after expo-
sure, but others are just told to
wear masks.
five employees and one patient
have also tested positive for the
coronavirus at S t. Elizabeths Hos-
pital, a public psychiatric facility.
“It really shows the need that
nurses, all health-care workers,
have to be tested if they have been
exposed, whether they have
symptoms or not,” Smith said.
“The District government is not
allowing for that. We need to
make that change so we can save
more lives.”
Gerardo feels some relief
knowing that their 4-month-old
grandson, whom she and Sinkiatreunion. She is grateful that her
husband was able to see his sister
and nieces and nephews there
before his death. He went back to
work at Howard in the surgical
intensive care unit.
Sinkiat worked his regular 12-
hour shift on march 12, Gerardo
said. But he had begun experienc-
ing flu-like symptoms, so after
work he went to an urgent care
facility and was tested for the flu
and for the coronavirus, she said.
He did not return to work.
“Then he felt better; he has
seasonal allergies, so at first we
thought it was just the allergies,”
she said. “But he started to feel
worse again.” He couldn’t eat or
drink. on the evening of march
27, she took him to the hospital.
Within an hour, she said, the doc-
tors had to intubate him; then his
heart failed, and they could not
resuscitate him.
The test confirming his diagno-
sis did not come back until after
his death.
“I got better,” Gerardo said.
“But he didn’t.”
Howard University Hospital
said it could not confirm Sinkiat
died of covid-19. The hospital did
not respond to questions about
what, if any, steps were taken to
test or quarantine staff and pa-
tients who had contact with
Sinkiat.
But in a statement, the hospital
said it has “increased efforts to
ensure the safety of all of oursinkiat from B1Beloved Howard nurse
dies of coronavirus at 64
had been helping care for, has
shown no sign of illness.
Neither has his immunocom-
promised son, one of two children
he leaves behind.
But she can’t believe her hus-
band — healthy, “only 64 ” — is
gone. “I keep thinking any day, he
is going to walk through the door.”
one of his sons retrieved Sinki-
at’s body for a quick and solitary
cremation.
At Howard, Gerardo said, she
thinks staff had adequate protec-
tive gear. But she said it was her
husband often making sure that
door handles, telephones and oth-
er shared equipment were consis-
tently sanitized. As one of the
oldest nurses there, she said, he
was often in charge. She has
heard from doctors, housekeep-
ers and security staff since his
death about how he helped them.
“A lot of people there at How-
ard really loved him,” Gerardo
said. “He was a very good nurse.”
[email protected]
[email protected]family photo
noel sinkiat, 64, a nurse at
Howard University Hospital,
died March 27 from covid-19.BY EMILY OPILOBALTIMORE — Three privately
funded surveillance planes were
cleared to begin patrolling Balti-
more from the sky Wednesday,
despite opposition from multiple
civil liberties groups who warned
that such surveillance could vio-
late protections in the U.S. Consti-
tution.
The city’s Board of Estimates
approved the contract on a 3-2
vote, giving the g o-ahead for a
six-month pilot of the program. It
allows the planes to collect imag-
es of the city to help investigate
murders, nonfatal shootings,
armed robberies and carjackings.
The planes, their pilots, ana-
lysts and hangar space will be
funded by wealthy Te xas philan-
thropists Laura and John Arnold
through their organization, Ar-
nold Ventures. The technology is
capable of capturing images of 32
square miles of the city for a
minimum of 40 hours a week.
Under the deal, the Arnolds
also will pay for grants to enable
independent researchers to study
whether the program has an im-
pact on Baltimore’s violent crime
rate. The city has suffered more
than 300 homicides annually for
the last five years.
Civil liberties advocates were
sharply critical of the plan during
the board meeting, which was
conducted via conference call due
to the covid- 19 outbreak.
David rocah, an attorney for
the American Civil Liberties
Union of maryland, said it was
“absurd” f or the board t o consider
the plan, which includes the most
far-reaching surveillance tech-
nology in the country, during the
viral outbreak. Baltimore, l ike the
rest of maryland, has been under
a stay-at-home order since mon-
day in response to the virus.
rocah said the technology,
which was developed for the U.S.
war in Iraq, is capable of showing
individual people or cars moving
around the city. The resolution of
the video may not be clear enough
to identify a person, but when
coupled with surveillance camer-
as on the ground, it can be used to
track someone’s whereabouts, he
said.
That’s a b ig leap to make during
a public health crisis without
“meaningful public debate,” ro-
cah argued.
“We’re going to start a study of
this technology’s effectiveness
when the entire city and state is
on mandatory lockdown?” rocah
questioned. “Virtually n one of the
data collected now would be us-
able.”
Police Commissioner michael
Harrison was the program’s s tron-
gest advocate Wednesday, argu-
ing the pilot is needed to deter-
mine whether the technology
could help reduce the city’s crime
rate. Harrison acknowledged he
was initially skeptical of the plan,
particularly an unsubstantiated
claim that it could cut Baltimore’s
homicide rate by a third.
But over several months of dis-
cussion, the company was able to
alleviate several of his concerns,
Harrison said. Data from the
planes will be stored for only 45
days, unless it is needed for an
investigation. The planes can’t be
used for real-time surveillance,
only to look back, and no one
could be arrested solely based on
images produced by the planes,Harrison said.
“I fully appreciate that the op-
ponents of this program... have
fundamental and philosophical
beliefs against this kind of tech-
nology,” H arrison said. “ These dif-
fering viewpoints are not solely
isolated to this claim and extend
to many other tools BPD uses
every day.”
Harrison pointed to several
public meetings, including two
hosted on facebook, as evidence
of public support for the surveil-
lance planes. The last online
meeting received more than 7,000
views, which is far greater than
the number of people who would
have attended an in-person ses-
sion, he said.
Democratic City Council Presi-
dent Brandon Scott, who was one
of two board members to vote
against the plan along with Dem-
ocratic City Comptroller Joan
Pratt, questioned whether the
technology was useful in solving
homicides or robberies during an
earlier trial. It took place in 2016
without the input of Baltimore
City Council members or the may-
or at the time.
Harrison noted he was not yet
police commissioner in 2016 and
said poor record-keeping and
communication at the time made
the answer to that question un-
clear. The city approached this
contract with more thought and
care, he said.
mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young
(D), one of the three votes in favor
of the surveillance plan, spoke
only once during the debate say-
ing, “I stand behind my commis-
sioner.”
monique Dixon, director of
state advocacy for the NAACP,
argued the technology was un-
tested, would do little to build
public confidence in the police
department and raises constitu-tional questions, particularly in
relationship to the 14th Amend-
ment, which protects a citizen’s
right to due process.
rocah argued the surveillance
planes would “supercharge” the
effectiveness of city’s existing
camera network which is not “dis-
tributed in Baltimore in a racially
neutral way.”
“They are overwhelmingly lo-
cated in Baltimore’s black and
brown neighborhoods,” he said.
“The racial impact of this technol-
ogy is significant.”
Harrison said rocah’s argu-
ment lacked context.
“The cameras were placed stra-
tegically based on incidents of
violent crime over time,” he said.
“While that may coincidentally be
in some black and brown neigh-
borhoods, it’s the crime over timethat determines where the camer-
as are placed.”
matthew Garbark, acting direc-
tor of public works, and Dana
moore, acting city solicitor, also
approved t he plan. Both positions
are appointed by Young, and typi-
cally follow the mayor’s lead with
their votes.
The aerial surveillance pro-
gram — derided by critics as the
“spy plane” — has become highly
politicized in the lead-up to Balti-
more’s c ompetitive m ayoral Dem-
ocratic primary.
Scott, running for the seat, is
the only major candidate to op-
pose it.
former mayor Sheila Dixon,
former U.S. Treasury official mary
miller, former Baltimore Police
spokesman T. J. Smith and former
state deputy attorney generalThiru Vignarajah all have ex-
pressed support for the pilot pro-
gram.
Vignarajah counts the Arnolds
as major campaign backers. He
criticized members of the spend-
ing panel for initially withholding
a copy of the program agreement,
though Scott eventually released
it to the public Tuesday night.
“I continue to believe a warrant
requirement is essential to safe-
guard the community’s privacy
and the constitutional rights of
everyone in Baltimore,” he said in
a statement. “I urge BPD and
prosecutors to use this valuable
tool in a constitutionally respon-
sible way.”
— Baltimore SunBaltimore sun reporter talia richman
contributed to this report.MArYLAND
Surveillance planes cleared to patrol
Privately funded aircraft
to watch over Baltimore
despite oppositionmatt mcclain/the Washington post
three privately funded surveillance planes were cleared to begin patrolling Baltimore from the sky this
week, despite opposition from multiple civil liberties groups. the pilot program will last six months.BY LINDSEY SITZWhen I first met 19-year-old
Ben Breaux a couple of years ago
to interview him for a video I
was making, he was sitting in his
favorite rocking chair in his
mother’s garden in fairfax, Va.
He rocked steadily, with noise-
muffling headphones over his
ears and an iPad in his lap. He
reminded me of the nonspeaking
children and teens on the autism
spectrum I worked with years
earlier as a social skills teacher
at the Ivymount School in rock-
ville, md.
I introduced myself to Ben
and his helper (called a commu-
nication regulation partner), and
she hustled over with his letter
board, a device that allows non-
speaking people to point to let-
ters and spell out their thoughts.
Ben pointed to a “W” and then
an “e” and eventually he spelled
out: “Welcome to my mother’s
beautiful garden.” I t blew me
away.
Ben has a quick and thought-ful mind that is apparent once
you get to know him. He hasn’t
spoken since he was a toddler,and told me prefers the term
“nonspeaking autistic” t o de-
scribe himself. At the start of Au-
tism Acceptance month, I
thought he might have some in-
sightful thoughts during this
global pandemic. I was right.
Here’s our conversation, his part
done through letter board, which
has been edited and condensed.
Q: Living in a body that can
act unpredictably, what advice
do you have about coping with
the covid- 19 situation, which
feels completely out of our con-
trol?
a: I often have to deal with
the reality of having a significant
loss of control over many various
aspects of my life. Whether it be
regarding personal body regula-
tion issues, the continuous strug-
gle for an academically based ed-
ucation or simply to be able to
have greater independence in so-
ciety’s eyes, we autistics are very
used to meeting challenges andadversity head-on with determi-
nation and grit.
my mother says it is essential
to acknowledge and admit to
your fears and anxieties, but to
be sure to not “reside” i n them. I
also know from personal experi-
ence that actually applying it
may take some time and prac-
tice.
Q: What has the chaos sur-
rounding covid- 19 taught you?
a: I’ve realized I am much
more connected to people all
over the U.S. and the world than
I previously thought.
I, myself, am so treasuring
this extended time with my fami-
ly, but also with many friends
from a distance. I have been so
enjoying being part of an online
book club via Zoom for young
people who use letter boards to
communicate.
Q: Have you felt like you have
a voice during this global crisis?
a: I have really valued mytime spent discussing all types of
topics with peers from around
the world (United States, france,
England, Ireland and romania)
on an online social forum for
minimal and nonspeaking autis-
tics.
We have discussed concern for
loved ones during covid-19, and
shared poems written by mem-
bers that use written words to
help convey their fears and anxi-
eties, but also their hopes. You
know how being a member of a
group like this helps? We listen
to what each other has to say, ac-
knowledging fears and anxieties.
Q: Do you have any other ad-
vice for those struggling?
a: I hope everyone in areas af-
fected by covid- 19 tries to re-
member to be patient with them-
selves during this time of severe
struggle and a redefining of a
temporary new “normal.” To-
gether we can do this!
[email protected]perspective
What covid-19 can teach us, from a nonspeaking teen
Daniel mich for the Washington post
Ben Breaux uses a letter board to spell out his thoughts with a
communication regulation partner. He says he enjoys being part of
an online book club via Zoom for people who use letter boards.