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When she walked into her local police station Friday, 80-year-old Adlyn "Paddy" Cook fully expected to be placed in a jail cell.

After all, the legal system had been looking for her for failing to appear for a court date (turns out, it was an oversight).

At the root of the saga that brought Cook to the police station was trash. More specifically, trash left by John F. Kennedy High School students.

In March, fed up with students leaving litter in her English Orchard Court neighborhood in Silver Spring, Cook carried a bag of the garbage into the high school and unceremoniously dumped it in the lobby. She believed she was returning the contents to their rightful owners.

Her neighborhood is used as a shortcut by students going to and from fast-food restaurants for lunch and between after-school activities.

"This had been a long-term problem for the past year," said Cook, who headed up the local homeowners association until July when her term expired. "I could never get anyone to respond to me."

When dumping the trash in the school lobby didn't produce the desired results, Cook did it again later in March — and subsequently was charged with illegal dumping of trash.

Three officers showed up at her doorstep to issue the citation. She had left her name on a note attached to the garbage bag.

On June 29, the criminal charge went to mediation. As part of the process, she agreed to visit Kennedy High School to monitor students in the cafeteria, and school officials consented to meet with her to discuss the litter issue. She is scheduled to sit down with the principal and others in September.

As part of the mediation resolution, the criminal charge was put on the court's inactive docket and wasn't to be prosecuted.

However, Cook already had been issued a court date of July 14, and the mediation outcome had not made its way through the court bureaucracy in time to cancel her hearing.

Thinking she was in the clear, Cook didn't attend the hearing. But, a warrant for failure to appear in court was issued. When she returned from an out-of-town trip with her daughter July 17, she learned of the court warrant.

"I do not know why the necessary paperwork was not submitted or processed through the court in a timely manner between June 29 and July 14," Cook said.

The octogenarian was advised by a court clerk to turn herself in to county police. She went to the Wheaton-Glenmont police station, where she expected to be booked and transported to the county jail Friday.

But when she explained to police why she was there, they made some calls, verified the mediation results and got the warrant quashed.

Cook lauded the police handling of her nonarrest, and she was glad she did not have to go to jail after all.

The woman had faced a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

After the March incidents, the principal, Thomas Anderson, had a "no trespassing" order issued against Cook, which prevented her from serving as an election judge at the school during a special election. Cook had been an election judge for the past 20 years.

Anderson said in his upcoming meeting with Cook, he hopes to discuss specifics on how the school can assist with the garbage problem.

"The issue still at hand is the littering, and we'll be able to focus on that," Anderson said. "The obvious resolution we all want is no trash in the neighborhood."

While trash complaints are nothing new, Anderson said the school continuously has addressed environmental issues with students.

The principal said he believes Cook could have handled the situation better, without dumping the trash, but he can understand how residents get frustrated.

"From what I can tell, she is definitely as committed to her neighborhood as she should be," Anderson said.

"There was a level of surprise to find the trash in the lobby, but sometimes things have to be done in an extreme way to get attention."