Editor's note.

Everyone who works in schools knows there's a certain rhythm to the school day.

There's the academic part, and, after school, a whole other rhythm of sports and extracurricular activities clicks in.

For the most part, schools in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were able to stay on their academic schedules during this past fall's six-week sniper ordeal though they frequently operated in lockdown mode. But while the academic pace of schools continued in a more or less normal way, the after-school rhythm was thrown way off.

School officials were forced to call off many games. Practices, if they were held at all, were held indoors. As weeks …