Washington-Liberty

Police: Middle School Teaching Assistant Busted for Smoking Pot With Student

By ARLnow.com

Zachary Van Dyke (photo courtesy ACPD)A middle school teaching assistant is watching his educational career go up in smoke after being arrested on drug charges.

Police say Zachary Van Dyke, 32, smoked pot with a 13-year-old student at his home. He also allegedly sold some pot to the teen.

Van Dyke was a teaching assistant at Gunston Middle School and a freshman basketball coach at Washington-Lee High School. He has been suspended by Arlington Public Schools and charged by police with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and distribution of marijuana.

Police say they’re seeking additional information from “anyone with past inappropriate encounters with this suspect.”

From an ACPD press release:

The Arlington County Police Department’s Drug Enforcement Unit is investigating a suspect involved in the distribution of marijuana to a juvenile victim. The suspect was a Teaching Assistant assigned to Gunston Middle School and a freshman basketball coach at Washington-Lee High School. He has been suspended by Arlington County Public Schools, pending the outcome of the investigation. Representatives with Arlington County Public Schools continue to cooperate with the police investigation.

The suspect, 32 year-old Zachary Van Dyke, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and distribution of marijuana stemming from an incident on May 27, 2016. The investigation revealed that Van Dyke transported the 13 year-old juvenile victim to his residence where they smoked marijuana. Van Dyke also sold marijuana to the juvenile. Van Dyke was arrested and held on bond in the Arlington County Detention Facility.

The investigation into this incident is ongoing. Anyone with past inappropriate encounters with this suspect or who has additional information is asked to call Detective S. Proud at 703.228.7156 or email [email protected]. To report information anonymously, contact the Arlington County Crime Solvers at 866.411.TIPS (8477).

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

American flag at the Georgetown waterfront, with Rosslyn in the background

Lanes Reopen on Memorial Bridge — Two lanes on the Memorial Bridge that have been closed for the past year for emergency repairs have reopened, just in time for Memorial Day. [NBC Washington]

W-L Soccer Advances to Semis — The Washington-Lee High School boys soccer team notched a 2-1 quarterfinal victory last night, to advance to the 6A North region semifinals next week. [Washington Post]

Dodgeball Tourney Next Weekend — For the second year in row, a pair of Yorktown High School students are organizing a free dodgeball tournament. The event, for ages 8 and up, will be held at Marymount University on Saturday, June 4. Proceeds from donations made by participants will be donated “to help support schools in need of better playground and physical education equipment.” [Arlington Dodgeball]

Arlington GOP Stops Short of Supporting Garvey — At a meeting on Wednesday, the chair of the Arlington County Republican Committee put the kibosh on a member’s proposal for Republican voters to support Democrat Libby Garvey in her County Board re-election effort. “We’re about Republican candidates,” said Jim Presswood. [InsideNova]

Arlington Teen Raises $45,000 for Juvenile Diabetes Research

By Adrian Cruz
1/4

Since being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes almost five years ago, Alex Simmons has worked to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) — and like in basketball, he has succeeded in a major way.

Alex, a freshman at Washington-Lee High School, has raised over $45,000 for the foundation. Every year, Alex along with his family, friends and basketball teammates join “Alex’s Terminators” for the JDRF walk in D.C.  This year’s JDRF walk will be held on Sunday, June 5.

Over the past five years, about 100 people have helped Alex raise funds, participating in donation parties, 3-v-3 basketball tournaments, a silent auction and other events.

“The basketball community in Arlington has been happy to support Alex and his family,” said Bill Maddox, a family friend and Alex’s former coach. “He is a special kid and talented athlete who does not let the challenges of diabetes keep him from working hard on and off the court.”

Aside from his prolific fundraising, Alex spends much of his time on the basketball court, playing on Arlington Travel Basketball and AAU teams along with his school teams — previously at Gunston Middle School, now at Washington-Lee. In 2014, he received the travel basketball program’s Russell Quinn MVP award for his athleticism, sportsmanship and skill.

“When I found out I had diabetes, what I most worried about was if I could play basketball. I really enjoy basketball and it has helped me go through this process with diabetes because the activity required to play the game helps me maintain a stable blood sugar level,” said Alex.

Because of his diabetes, Alex has to check his blood sugar levels regularly and he also needs to inject himself with insulin six to eight times a day. Along with the constant shots and finger pricks, he also finds it difficult to maintain stable blood sugar levels due to growth and his love of food.

Throughout it all, however, Alex has maintained a positive attitude.

“I am not on this journey alone, and my close friends, family and relatives make this process much easier for me,” he said. “I know that people donate money to JDRF not only for me, but for all the children throughout the country who don’t have it as easy as I do.”

Photos courtesy Kathy Mimberg

W-L Senior Named National Boys Soccer Player of the Year

By ARLnow.com

Lucas Mendes, a 5’5″, 125 lbs. senior at Arlington’s Washington-Lee High School, has been named the 2016 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year.

Mendes helped to lead the No. 1 ranked W-L boys team to a 9-0-2 record this spring. The team is scheduled to play its first game in the Liberty Conference Boys Soccer Tournament tomorrow.

Mendes was presented with his award from Gatorade by former pro soccer player and current ESPN analyst Taylor Twellman at Washington-Lee on Tuesday. (A video of the presentation is above.)

From Mendes’ profile on the Gatorade Player of the Year website:

At the time of his selection, Mendes had scored 10 goals and passed for five assists in his first year playing high school soccer after previously playing with D.C. United in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Ranked as the No. 24 recruit in the Class of 2016 by College Soccer News, he attended a training camp with the U.S. Soccer Under-20 Men’s National Team in January.

A member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he has volunteered locally as a youth soccer coach. He has also donated his time to the Color of Leadership Conference, where he served as a mentor and participated in workshops to help middle school students of color discover and utilize resources to achieve their personal goals.

Mendes has accepted a full-ride scholarship from the University of Virginia, according to a press release from Arlington Public Schools (below, after the jump).

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Capital Bikeshare Stations Coming to Westover, W-L High School

By ARLnow.com
1/3

New Capital Bikeshare station are coming to Washington-Lee High School and to the Westover Library.

Use permits for both are on this weekend’s Arlington County Board agenda. The stations will include docks for 16 bikes.

“The proposed Capital Bikeshare station provides convenient access to users, complies with the clear sidewalk width requirements and will not cause an undue adverse impact to adjacent streets or neighborhoods,” said a county staff report.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Man in Bernie Sanders shirt (photo courtesy Kevin Wolf)

Local Schools Rank High in Challenge Index — One Arlington high school and one high school program cracked the top 10 of the Washington Post’s local 2016 Challenge Index. Washington-Lee High School ranked No. 4 and the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program ranked No. 7. The two other Arlington high schools — Yorktown and Wakefield — ranked No. 11 and 82 respectively. [Washington Post, Washington Post]

Larger Fire Station 8 Possible at Current Site — Arlington County is changing its tune when it comes to Fire Station 8. The county now says that it is possible to build a larger fire station on the current Fire Station 8 site. Before, the county had said the fire station would likely have to be relocated in order to build a larger, four-bay station. [InsideNova]

More on Crystal City BRT — The new Crystal City Potomac Yard Transitway, the region’s first bus rapid transit system, officially opened Sunday with the opening of the Crystal City portion of the busway. The transitway features bus-only lanes and stations with “substantial arched roofs and attractive wall panels.” [Greater Greater Washington]

More on Michael Wardian’s Marathon — Arlington resident and prolific marathoner Michael Wardian ran the Boston Marathon in 2:31:39 yesterday. It turns out he did so while wearing a GoPro camera. Having completed Boston, Wardian is planning to run the London Marathon on Sunday. [Hartford Courant]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

APS Teacher to Go on Antarctic Expedition

By ARLnow.com

Kate Miller (courtesy photo)Washington-Lee High School physics teacher Kate Miller will be participating in a scientific expedition to the South Pole this coming winter.

Miller will be joining other K-12 teachers on a team at the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. The team will be researching high-energy neutrinos.

Miller will “experience first-hand what it is like to conduct scientific research in some of the most remote locations on earth,” and will then be able to use that experience to help engage her students back in Arlington.

“While on field expeditions, teachers and researchers will share their experiences with scientists, educators, communities, and students of all ages through the use of Internet tools such as online teacher and researcher journals, message boards, photo albums, podcasts, PolarConnect real-time presentations from the field, and online learning resources,” noted a press release. “After the field experience, teachers and researchers will continue to share their experiences with the public and create instructional activities to transfer scientific data, methodologies, and technology to classrooms.”

The expedition is being managed by the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) and funded by the National Science Foundation;

Author Anthony Doerr Coming to Town for ‘Arlington Reads 2016’

By ARLnow.com

All the Light We Cannot See (photo via Arlington Public Library)Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr will be the featured speaker for Arlington Reads 2016.

Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See” earned him widespread literary fame after it was published in 2014. The New York Times bestseller won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction last year.

The novel tells the story of “a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.”

Doerr is scheduled to speak at Washington-Lee High School’s auditorium on Thursday, April 7 from 7-8:30 p.m. Doors will open to the public at 6 p.m.

Two other authors will speak as part Arlington Reads 2016, the theme of which is “the human displacement of World War II.”

Julie Otsuka, author of “When the Empire Was Divine,” will speak on Thursday, May 5 and author Richard Reeves of “Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II” will speak on Thursday, May 19. Both events will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. at Arlington Central Library (1015 N. Quincy Street).

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Columbia Pike in the mirror (Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf)

ACFD Battles Fire on Patrick Henry Drive — On Thursday morning Arlington County firefighters assisted in battling a two-alarm blaze at an apartment building on the 3000 block of Patrick Henry Drive, just across the border in Fairfax County. [Twitter, Twitter]

Arlington Doubling Down on Startups — Arlington Economic Development plans to use the $1.5 million in one-time additional funds it’s allocated in County Manager Mark Schwartz’s budget to target early-stage tech companies and help them lease offices between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet. [Washington Business Journal]

W-L Alum to Direct Sci-Fi Film — Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams has selected Washington-Lee High School alum Julius Onah to direct “God Particle,” a new sci-fi thriller being produced by Abrams’ production company. Onah was named one of the top 10 “Up and Up Feature Directors” in 2013. He’s also signed up to direct an upcoming Universal Pictures film, “Brilliance.” [Blackfilm.com, Indiewire, Twitter]

Local Chef Nominated for Big Award — Peter Chang, whose eponymous restaurant opened last year in the Lee-Harrison shopping center, has been nominated for a prestigious James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.” [Patch]

Shirlington Profiled by Post — As part of its “Where We Live” series, the Washington Post has profiled Arlington’s Shirlington neighborhood. Shirlington earns high marks for having a variety of walkable entertainment, dining and shopping options, and for having only six crimes of note over the course of 12 months. [Washington Post]

More on Nauck History Project — Arlington County’s Nauck Green Valley Heritage Project has already received dozens of photos in its new online photo archive. A vibrant, historically black neighborhood since before the Civil War, Nauck has been changing — some say gentrifying. “Today, we’re probably less than 32 percent African American,” noted the community’s civic association president. [WJLA]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

A fox in the snow in Arlington (Flickr pool photo by WolfpackWX)

Dominion Admits Culpability for Potomac Oil Spill — Last week’s mysterious oil spill that ran from the Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary, down the Potomac past Reagan National Airport, came from a Dominion Power substation in Crystal City. The company is taking responsibility for the mineral oil spill, which killed 21 birds, mostly Canada geese, and prompted a large Coast Guard and Arlington County cleanup response. [Washington Post]

Loverde Issues Statement on Scalia’s Death — Diocese of Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde issued a statement on the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over the weekend. Loverde said “we are all deeply saddened” by Scalia’s unexpected death, lauding him as “a man so deeply rooted in his faith, so brilliant in the law and in jurisprudence, so clear and precise in his judicial statements, so wholly committed to his family, so engaging with colleagues and friends, often with great humor.” [Catholic Diocese of Arlington]

D.C. Denies St. Paddy’s Bar Crawls — The annual Shamrock Crawl bar crawl will be coming to Clarendon next month. Arlington police helped keep a lid on crime and rowdiness associated with the bar crawl last year. In the District, however, concerns about bad behavior prompted officials to deny permit applications for the D.C. version of the Shamrock Crawl and another St. Patrick’s Day-themed crawl. [Borderstan]

Garvey on Kojo Show — On Friday, Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey was a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Politics Hour, which is broadcast on WAMU (88.5 FM). Garvey spoke to Nnamdi and NBC 4’s Tom Sherwood about the proposed widening of a portion of eastbound I-66, as well as related topics like Metro and transit. [YouTube]

W-L Shot Put Record Smashed — Washington-Lee High School junior Benedict Draghi has convincingly set a new school record for shot put. At a recent track meet, Draghi recorded a throw of 61 feet and 4.75 inches. The performance was good for first place at the meet and it blew away the school’s 50-year-old previous indoor shot put record by nearly 10 feet. [InsideNova]

Old Guard Offers Horses for Adoption — The Army’s Old Guard, based at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, is offering two caisson horses for adoption. The horses, Quincy and Kennedy, have served in military funerals and ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery for almost a decade. [WJLA]

Volunteers Remove Wreaths from Cemetery — Despite bone-chilling cold temperatures, on Saturday volunteers picked up tens of thousands of holiday wreaths that were placed on headstones at Arlington National Cemetery in December. The cleanup was postponed from January due to the blizzard. [WUSA 9]

Flickr pool photo by WolfpackWX

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

I-395 near the Pentagon at dawn

W-L Defeats Yorktown, Twice — The Washington-Lee girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams both defeated their Yorktown counterparts yesterday, in cross-county rivalry games. The girls won 54-45, while the boys won 65-59.

Branson-Backed Startup Coming to Rosslyn — OneWeb, a startup that’s aiming to launch a constellation of low-orbit satellites that will provide affordable Internet access across the globe, is coming to Rosslyn. The company, backed by Virgin Group tycoon Richard Branson, will occupy a 6,000-square-foot space in Monday Properties’ 1400 Key Blvd building. The building, which is also home to ARLnow.com, is slated to replaced with an apartment tower and grocery store at some point, though it’s unclear when the redevelopment will move forward. [Washington Business Journal]

Reminder: Get Rid of Dry Christmas Trees — The Arlington County Fire Department is reminding residents that dry Christmas trees are a big fire hazard. The county is currently in the midst of its annual Christmas tree collection. [Twitter]

A-SPAN Kudos for Paisano’s — Paisano’s Pizza saved the day for the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network, after A-SPAN’s planned hot dinner for its homeless clients fell through at the last minute. Paisano’s delivered pasta, salad and garlic bread on a cold night and on short notice. [Facebook]

Levine Proposes LGBT Rights Bills — Yesterday we reported on three LGBT rights bills proposed by state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D). Delegate-elect Mark Levine (D), who represents part of South Arlington and Alexandria, has proposed several such bills of his own. Among them are bills prohibiting employment, housing and other discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Levine was formerly legislative counsel to former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). [Washington Blade]

TransportationCamp DC Coming to GMU — George Mason University’s Arlington campus will host the 5th annual TransportationCamp DC gathering on Saturday. The “un-conference” will discuss various transportation, technology and mobility issues. More than 400 “thought leaders, young professionals, and students from around the country” are expected to attend. [TransportationCamp]

Thank You to Crystal City Rotary Club — Thank you to the Crystal City-Pentagon Rotary Club for a hearty breakfast this morning. ARLnow.com founder Scott Brodbeck spoke to the group about his experience running a small business that happens to be Arlington’s most-read local news outlet. ARLnow.com will celebrate its sixth anniversary on Jan. 29.

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