THE WEEK THAT WAS

News that appeared Oct. 25-31 in The Washington Post that is of interest to readers in Prince William County.

Tuesday 27

Dirt bike crash in Frederick kills Manassas man

A Manassas man died last Sunday after he crashed his motorbike in an embankment at the Frederick city watershed in Maryland. Joselino Munoz-Godoy, 31, who was not wearing a helmet, was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he was pronounced dead.

Wednesday 28

Students dispute expulsion over racist symbols

Six Stonewall Jackson High School students face expulsion after they allegedly arranged pieces of sod in a parking lot at Sinclair Elementary School into racist symbols. Four of the six were planning to appeal the county school district's recommended punishment at a disciplinary hearing Wednesday, said Rae Roach, mother of two of the students. Roach said the teens had completed a court-ordered program that included community service, wrote reports on civil rights in Virginia and visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She called the potential expulsion "unjust."

Area DEA agents die in crash in Afghanistan

Three Drug Enforcement Administration agents and seven U.S. troops were killed Monday in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Forrest N. Leamon, 37, of Woodbridge, Chad L. Michael, 30, of Quantico and Michael E. Weston, 37, of the District were working as DEA agents with the U.S. military to fight drug trafficking in the region. Leamon was due home in January in time for the birth of his first child.

Living alone becoming norm in D.C. area, if not Pr. William

Is the Washington region the nation's mecca for singles? According to demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution and population statistics recently released by the Census Bureau, it is. The statistics, based on samples taken from 2006 and 2008, show a marked increase in one-person households in this area. Prince William County, however, had the smallest proportion of live-alones, with 18 percent. The Census Bureau survey did reflect that Prince William had an increase in households headed by a single parent with 11 percent, up from 7 percent in 1990.

Friday 30

Students allowed to return to school in January

A panel of three Prince William County School Board members decided unanimously Wednesday that four of the six Stonewall Jackson High School students who were accused of arranging sod into racial symbols could return to school at the end of January. One of the four was expelled only for the first semester of the school year, which ends Jan. 29. The panel decided that the other three should be expelled for the entire year but will allow them to return for the second semester, with their expulsion held in abeyance. During the hearing, the panel confirmed the year-long expulsions for the two students who did not appeal.

Flu continues to keep students at home

The school nurse at Osbourn Park High School told Principal Timothy Healey on Monday that she was swamped by students with flu symptoms. By midweek, about 19 percent of the school's students were absent. Although schools in other parts of the country are shutting their doors, schools in Northern Virginia were continuing to operate. "There's a lot of scrambling," Healey said Thursday, when 18 percent were absent. "Getting kids makeup work, parents picking it up. I've even had teachers dropping off assignments at kids' homes."

For information about these and other articles, visit http://washingtonpost.com/princewilliam.