Virginia Schools

This spring will be remembered, by history junkies at least, for the opening of a major new institution, one named after a polarizing leader, devoted to a divisive period, subsidized by taxpayers and stationed in the South. I'm not talking about the presidential library of George W. Bush but the "presidential library" of Jefferson Davis, the one and only chief executive of the Confederate States of America, which will be dedicated Monday in Biloxi, Miss. The Davis library, of course, is not one of the 13 official libraries overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Without warning, a drum roll explodes in the darkness after midnight, echoing through the still barracks, jolting the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute out of their sleep. It is ominous and relentless, as urgent as it is foreboding. At every door of the four-story complex, there is a heavy knock, an order to fall out and, above the drumming, a shouted, repeated announcement: "Your Honor Court has met . . . Your Honor Court has met." In every room, the lights snap on.

According to a survey by the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, 65 of 78 colleges with Division I athletic programs will have some type of drug testing for athletes in the coming school year. The Times-Dispatch survey included eight Division I conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big Eight, Southeastern, Southwest, Pac-10, Big East and Metro) and seven Virginia schools (Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion, Virginia Military, George Mason, William & Mary and James Madison).

All West Virginia's public schools were closed Wednesday for the rest of the week as more than 8,000 striking teachers swarmed the state Capitol to denounce Gov. Gaston Caperton's proposal to end their illegal weeklong walkout. "Things are just getting out of hand in terms of tempers," state school Supt. Hank Marockie said in shutting down schools in all 55 West Virginia counties today and Friday.

When Business Week magazine reported on Dick Schultz's appointment to the post of NCAA executive director six years ago, the article's headline read: "Mr. Clean Comes to the NCAA." Now tinged with irony, that description and others like it will burn in the minds of those who take on the task of picking Schultz's successor.

History is written by the victors. But in this city and others across the South, losers did most of the writing--leaving behind marble and bronze memorials celebrating the vanquished Confederate soldiers, generals and politicians of America's Civil War. Now, 135 years after that conflict ended, the winners are beginning to write some history of their own, while trying to remove vestiges of a racist and oppressive past.

For six months, Shirley Carter started work the same way--with a phone call to a fourth-grader in a poor San Diego neighborhood to make sure he got to school. She would let the phone ring until he woke up and answered. Then he would get himself dressed and trudge off to school, his mother never awaking from the previous night's drinking. "One morning something came up and I couldn't call," said Carter, a truant officer whose job and obsession is to keep troubled kids in school.

A late-winter storm that has made life miserable for parts of the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic region continued north on Thursday, threatening a region that has seen its share of storms in recent months. The current storm, which largely spared the nation's capital but hit hard parts of Virginia and Maryland, was in New Jersey, where it dropped rain and snow. It was expected to move its sloshy way up through to New England, where snow and heavy winds were expected to bring more power outages.

We realize Auburn is an alpha male from a Bulldog-eat-Bulldog conference but, come on, last year's run to the national title was about as improbable as Vanderbilt winning it. Auburn launched from No. 22 in the preseason Associated Press poll, just ahead of Georgia, Oregon State and West Virginia. Those schools combined to finish 20-17 while Auburn ripped off a 14-0 year for the ages and, ultimately, the investigators. The highest Auburn was ranked anywhere important was, um, here, where the Tigers checked in at No. 18 in the preseason.