News in Brief
City News
Report finds security of local school records to be questionable
According to an internal audit, the Baltimore Public School System does not provide adequate security for access to records of both current and former students.
This creates the possibility of lengthy delays for graduates when it comes to receiving a copy of their transcript and notice of grades being changed.
The report described school records as being disorganized. Many were just recently moved from the basements of various high schools to a central location, the Professional Development Center, located on Northern Parkway.
In the past year, there have been nine internal audits of school system departments. These resulted in 120 recommendations for change.
School administrators say they have been working to redress many of the problems mentioned in the report.
By the end of this school year the records will be in digital form.
Coordinators hope that this will help to speed up the process of filling a request for a transcript.
Though the process currently takes five days, under the new electronic system, it is hoped these transcripts can be delivered within 24 hours.
The audit was conducted by E. Darrel Hope, director of the school system's office of internal audits.
The office, which reports to the city school board, has announced plans to check this school year to see if the system has made adequate changes.
- Laura Muth
Police arrest suspect in Towson student rape case
Police arrested a man suspected of raping a Towson University student on Oct. 6.
County officers arrested Alexander Murphy, 24, on Oct. 12. Murphy is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and kidnapping.
Murphy allegedly approached the 21-year-old woman as she was returning from the grocery store at around 1 a.m., said that he was carrying a gun and forced the victim to another location where he assaulted her.
Police said that Murphy became a suspect thanks to tips from local residents.
- Marie Cushing
Professor sues Columbia University
Professor Madonna Constantine filed a lawsuit against Teachers College, the Columbia University affiliate where she was a tenured professor of clinical psychology and counseling, on Oct. 10.
In February, Columbia announced that Constantine had been found guilty in a case of plagiarism.
The independent law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed said that Constantine had used "strikingly similar language" to several other individuals in her work. These included at least one former professor and two students.
The law firm of Paul Giacomo will be using Article 78 of New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules to argue that the decision to fire Constantine was "unreasonable."
The Faculty Advisory Committee at Columbia had dismissed an earlier appeal from Constantine, claiming that her evidence was unverifiable.
- Laura Muth
Swastikas found on Towson dorm room doors
Towson University police received a report on Oct. 9 regarding a number of swastikas that had been drawn on the dry-erase boards hung on the doors of several rooms in one of the residence halls.
Investigations into the vandalism have not yet discovered whether the drawings were done at random or were specific episodes of targeted anti-Semitism.
The drawings appeared just prior to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This also follows the arrest last week of three young men suspected of involvement in the spray-painting of a swastika and the word "Nazis" at a synagogue in Pikesville and at a private high school.
- Laura Muth
According to an internal audit, the Baltimore Public School System does not provide adequate security for access to records of both current and former students.
This creates the possibility of lengthy delays for graduates when it comes to receiving a copy of their transcript and notice of grades being changed.
The report described school records as being disorganized. Many were just recently moved from the basements of various high schools to a central location, the Professional Development Center, located on Northern Parkway.
In the past year, there have been nine internal audits of school system departments. These resulted in 120 recommendations for change.
School administrators say they have been working to redress many of the problems mentioned in the report.
By the end of this school year the records will be in digital form.
Coordinators hope that this will help to speed up the process of filling a request for a transcript.
Though the process currently takes five days, under the new electronic system, it is hoped these transcripts can be delivered within 24 hours.
The audit was conducted by E. Darrel Hope, director of the school system's office of internal audits.
The office, which reports to the city school board, has announced plans to check this school year to see if the system has made adequate changes.
- Laura Muth
Police arrest suspect in Towson student rape case
Police arrested a man suspected of raping a Towson University student on Oct. 6.
County officers arrested Alexander Murphy, 24, on Oct. 12. Murphy is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and kidnapping.
Murphy allegedly approached the 21-year-old woman as she was returning from the grocery store at around 1 a.m., said that he was carrying a gun and forced the victim to another location where he assaulted her.
Police said that Murphy became a suspect thanks to tips from local residents.
- Marie Cushing
Professor sues Columbia University
Professor Madonna Constantine filed a lawsuit against Teachers College, the Columbia University affiliate where she was a tenured professor of clinical psychology and counseling, on Oct. 10.
In February, Columbia announced that Constantine had been found guilty in a case of plagiarism.
The independent law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed said that Constantine had used "strikingly similar language" to several other individuals in her work. These included at least one former professor and two students.
The law firm of Paul Giacomo will be using Article 78 of New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules to argue that the decision to fire Constantine was "unreasonable."
The Faculty Advisory Committee at Columbia had dismissed an earlier appeal from Constantine, claiming that her evidence was unverifiable.
- Laura Muth
Swastikas found on Towson dorm room doors
Towson University police received a report on Oct. 9 regarding a number of swastikas that had been drawn on the dry-erase boards hung on the doors of several rooms in one of the residence halls.
Investigations into the vandalism have not yet discovered whether the drawings were done at random or were specific episodes of targeted anti-Semitism.
The drawings appeared just prior to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This also follows the arrest last week of three young men suspected of involvement in the spray-painting of a swastika and the word "Nazis" at a synagogue in Pikesville and at a private high school.
- Laura Muth
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