After operating out of the homes of individual students around the Triangle for many months, the Mariposa School finally found a permanent home in a former day-care center on Cary's East Chatham Street.

The cinder-block building had been repainted in sunny colors and appointed with all the educational tools needed to help profoundly autistic children begin to communicate more effectively.

Enrollment was on the rise, with several kids attending full time, a larger group arriving for afternoon or after-school sessions, and a still larger group signed up for tutoring and special camps.

It should have been a glorious fall.

Instead, Peters said, "I spend my nights crying."

The school has also struggled financially. Providing one-on-one or even low-ratio education for special-needs kids is expensive. Even at $33,000 per year, the tuition doesn't cover the full cost, $50,000 per full-time student.

Peters, who is president of the school, has never drawn a salary for her work. Others have also forgone pay.

Still, a few weeks ago the Mariposa board determined that the school would have to close unless it could be guaranteed an additional $50,000 by early October.

"That's what we need to pay the teachers and keep the lights on," Peters said.

Panicked that their kids might be suddenly moved, several parents pulled their children out of Mariposa on Monday.

Peters fears that the school will soon have to close its doors, ending a dream shared by Peters and her husband, Mark Lumsden, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack while riding his bike in January.

To assist Mariposa, contact Peters at persistentC@nc.rr.com or call the school at 461-0600.

***

Finally, a happier follow-up.

As Gomer Pyle would say, "Sur-prise, sur-prise." After daily dismissing a resolution calling for the establishment of a .xxx domain for pornographic Web sites (rather than .com, for instance), the speaker of the state House of Representatives, Jim Black, turned the tables and introduced the resolution himself.

"I have two grandchildren, and I, too, am concerned about how easily our young people can access pornography on the Internet," Black wrote.

With the speaker's stamp of approval, the resolution urging Congress to establish a .xxx domain passed unanimously during Monday night's session.

No one was more surprised than Rep. Sam Ellis, the resolution's original sponsor. Ellis had decided to keep reintroducing the resolution (or enlisting like-minded lawmakers to do so) every day until he could get it heard immediately on the House floor, instead of being sent to a committee to die.

Now it's on to Congress. Shazam!