November 2, 2007 The Monocacy Monocle Page A Biweekly Newspaper November 2, 2007 Volume IV, Number 14. Deadly Strain of Staph Hits Close to Home By Kristen Milton Early morning at the Monocacy Wild ith potentially deadly schools. “The only thing that’s consistent Animal Preserve? Not quite. See The staph infections on the The Montgomery County is that these are mostly student ath- Garden on Page 5. Wnews and in area schools, Department of Health and Human letes,” said Kate Harrison, a spokes- parents and administrators are taking Services says you can help prevent woman for Montgomery County Public steps to protect students from the all- the spread of MRSA through these Schools. The first reported MRSA case too-common bacteria. good hygiene practices: “This is no longer about my son appeared at Sherwood High School John and how’s he doing, is he going in late August, she said. Callentonio is 1. Wash hands thoroughly with to be well,” said Marci Callentonio of the only case of MRSA at Poolesville soap and water or use an alcohol- Poolesville, whose fourteen-year-old High School thus far, Principal Deena based sanitizer. Levine said, and no other staph infec- spent a week in the hospital fighting the 2. Keep cuts and scrapes clean drug-resistant bacterial strain that killed tions had been confirmed. Clarksburg and covered with a bandage until a fellow high school football player in High had four cases of staph infections healed. among its student athletes as of October Virginia. “It’s about advocating…Our 3. Avoid contact with other most effective tool is to be educated.” 24; however, none appear to be MRSA, people’s wounds and bandages. Callentonio believes her twenty-five Principal James Koutsos noted. A homecoming princess, but a Falcon years as a medical transcriptionist gave According to the Centers for Dis- 4. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, razors, and through and through. See more PHS ease Control and Prevention website, her the background she needed to re- personal sports equipment. Homecoming pictures in Family quest tests that identified the Poolesville most MRSA infections are skin infec- Album on Page 2. High School freshman’s methicillin re- tions that resemble pimples or boils and 5. Wipe surfaces of exercise equipment with disinfectants sistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). are found near the site of scrapes or oth- before and after use. “I saved my son’s life,” Callentonio said, er skin traumas; however, bloodstream “and the mother in Bedford [County, or bone infections are also possible. 6. Shower after physical activity. Va.] didn’t know…didn’t have a chance Callentonio said John, who was 7. In the event of an active wound, to save her son.” working out in the weight room and consult with your trainer and/or According to an October 17 let- playing football over the summer, had physician. ter from Superintendent Jerry Weast, scraped knees and elbows from a recent thirteen Montgomery County students scrimmage when he woke August 29 have been diagnosed with the anti- feeling unwell but showing no evidence tion. John Callentonio spent a week in biotic-resistant staph infection. Oth- of skin infection. Initially sent away Children’s Hospital and a month later ers have been diagnosed with staph with the diagnosis of a virus, Callento- is still taking medications three times infections that respond more easily to nio said John’s high fever, listlessness, treatment. The MRSA cases were found and other symptoms led her to insist -Continued on page 22. Alivia Tetlow climbs the Chesapeake in five high schools and two elementary on a blood test which found the infec- Challenge. See School News on Page 11. Renaissance Man By Dominique Agnew Edison. Edison, unfor- nter the offices of Phoenixx tunately, in the creation Systems in Poolesville, of the Dictaphone and Maryland, and it won’t the phonograph, never E realized the potential take long for your eye to rest on the numerous artifacts: a collection of these inventions would antique audio-visual gear from the have for recording mu- turn of the twentieth century. Brian sic; whereas, through Gross, founder and owner of Phoe- his experiences in the nixx Systems, has quite a collection world of music, Brian of pieces: microphones dating back has made a name for Kristyn Kirschbaum, Devin to 1908, electrical measuring devices himself in the world of Hamberger, and Erin Knuth of the from the 1910s to the 1930s, and a col- audio-visual technol- Poolesville High School Cross lection of Edison wax cylinders which ogy. What a visitor to Brian Gross in a recent performance. Country team. Read all about them in he can play on a refurbished—by Phoenixx Systems’s offices doesn’t Youth Sports on Page 14. himself—wax Dictaphone made by see is Brian’s collection of roughly -Continued on page 16. November 2, 2007 The Monocacy Monocle Page 2 Sponsored by: Selby’s Market Your IGA Hometown Food Store David Thierrault of Alden Farms greets Lisa Guertin and Leigh Haggmann on the Countryside Artisan Tour. The Twelfth Annual Barnesville Basement Indoor Yard Sale at the Barnesville School (in Barnesville) was, for the twelfth time, a huge success. Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington blesses the new nursery at St. Peter’s Parish during the October 21 dedication of the church’s new building. Anna Helwig, Sasha Trope, Abbe Guertin: Freshman Princesses of the Poolesville High School homecoming court. Kaitlyn Scott, Dakota Bierly, Kelly Rosenberg were homecoming princesses. Queen Lisa Trope and King Wences Shaw-Cortez November 2, 2007 The Monocacy Monocle Page a car at Rockwood Parkway and 51st Local History Street, Northwest Washington, which is very close to the border with Mont- gomery County. A man approached The Rock Creek Park the car and fired several shots into the Murders car killing Roper and seriously injur- ing the woman. Tests concluded that By Jack Toomey the assailant used a .32 caliber pistol No one who reads this story needs in both attacks. a refresher course on the sniper kill- On the night November 17, 1938, ings that terrorized the Washington Peter Murray, age 66, was driving area in 2002—b ut who knows that in with a woman on East West Highway 1938, a similar series of killings caused near Grubb Road. When he stopped people in the lower part of Mont- for a stop sign, a man came out of the gomery County to be terrorized for bushes and got into the car and forced months? Murray to drive to a secluded part In 1938, lower Montgomery of Jones Mill Road where he robbed Rock Creek Park, circa 1938 County was still rather rural in some Murray and then fired eleven shots areas. Jones Mill Road, Grubb Road, killing Murray and leaving the wom- or alive.” Seventy-five officers from car working in Bethesda. and portions of Beach Drive were dirt an lying wounded in the road. Amaz- both departments were assigned to Despite the increased police roads. It was not unusual for motorists ingly, it took an hour for another car the case. Police officers were assigned patrols, another incident happened. to become stuck in the mud on roads to drive by, and the occupants drove to patrol the secluded areas of Rock Two seventeen-year-old girls were that today carry thousands of cars her to Georgetown University Hospi- Creek Park and nearby neighborhoods driving back from a movie in Wash- every day. tal. and warn people who were parked ington when a man jumped onto their On the evening of November 9, The next day, Montgomery to move on. Hysteria seemed to take running board just over the Maryland 1938, thirty-three-year-old John Cle- County Police Chief William Garrett over. That evening, a man living on line. The driver pressed down on the ments was parked in a car with a fe- and the Washington chief announced Florida Street in Chevy Chase got out accelerator throwing the man off the male companion at Brookeville Road that officers would “forget about the a handgun and instructed his wife car. In all of the cases, the victims and Curtis Street in Chevy Chase. line” and cross boundary lines at on how to use it. He put the gun on described the suspect as a shabbily- Suddenly a man appeared and fired will in an effort to find the man who a shelf, and shortly afterwards, his dressed, light-skinned black man. eight shots into the car critically injur- had shot four people, killing two, twelve-year-old son accidentally shot On December 4, 1938, a car con- ing Clements. The woman was also in a very small area. They said in a his sister. The report of shots being taining two women broke down on injured. On November 10, Edward statement released to the press that fired on Tuscarawas Road on the west Roper and a woman were parked in the “sniper would be caught dead side of Bethesda brought every patrol -Continued on Page 23. November 2, 2007 The Monocacy Monocle Page would be quite happy if there was no Commentary further development at all, and I have spoken to people who believe that, armed with sand mound technology, The Nuts and they should be free to develop as many twenty-five acre lots (or maybe even Bolts of the five acre tot lots) as they can sell. The truth, as usual, resides somewhere in Ag Reserve the middle of all the extremes. I fall By John Clayton more into the preservationist camp Elsewhere in the Monocle today, myself, and I am eager to see the things Maureen O’Connell covers the 2007 I valued in moving out here preserved, Royce Hanson Award ceremonies.