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It may be easy for some to dismiss Adlyn "Paddy" Cook as an overzealous community protector, one of the thousands of people who have too much time on their hands and make federal cases out of minor issues. After all, it isn't everyone who will dump a load of trash in the lobby of a high school — twice, mind you — to make a point about teenagers littering in her neighborhood.

After leaving the "messages" at John F. Kennedy High School in March, the mother of five found herself in court-ordered mediation with Kennedy's principal. She's scheduled to meet with him again in September.

In making one of her deposits, Cook, who has lived in her Silver Spring community for about 20 years, handed a school employee a note that stated, "This mess is brought to you by Paddy Cook," and included her phone number.

That might seem strange to some, but here's what many who see Cook's actions as a bit off the deep end might not know. Cook's own children participated in Vietnam War protests, and she spent years working with Washington, D.C., teens who were addicted to narcotics. She's no stranger to the volatility of youth.

At 80 years old, Cook isn't able to make her way up and down Randolph Road like she used to, picking up the discarded fast-food wrappers and soft drink containers that line the main drag leading to her home. She doesn't want the teens who are tossing their junk on the sidewalk to be punished. Cook wants to live in a clean neighborhood.

Cook's unconventional approach should teach the administrators and students at the high school a thing or two about being responsible neighbors.

She understands that many teens might just not know better, but she believes that improving the image of her neighborhood could help stem more serious crime. That's an idea embraced by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who instructed the New York Police Department to target petty crimes, like loitering and public drunkenness. It worked — during his tenure, violent crime dropped by 56 percent.

Cook wonders what happened to the idea of dealing with children who are misbehaving, even if it's something small, like littering, rather than just ignoring problems. Perhaps expecting a clean neighborhood is just the type of nutty idea that might work — if everyone gets behind it, that is.