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when we come back the news 4 i-team has been investigating cases of teacher misconduct. now a new law irequiring tump b tougher background checks. plus, tackling cancer. virginia football player defying the odds with the help of a prosthetic made right here in our area.

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as scott mcfarlane reports, investigations by the news 4 i-team were credited with reesaling the safety loophol that needed to be closed with this new legislature. >> did the florida school kw about your history in d.c.? >> reporter: alan coleman is now in prison, but for years he worked as a history teacher at a pair o d.c charter schools, despite having a history himsyf. capital cublic charter 5 hool fired coleman in 2 dfter learning of allegations he had sexually abu former student at a different school a decade earlier. yet at gainesville, florida, public school hired four months after he was let go in d.c. he told the news 4 i-team that capital city gave him a positive job reference about coleman. >> we were told this is a employee who was an excellent teache >> reporter: it wasn't until a year later that d.c. police say they were told about coleman's abuse allegations, not by the school, but the vtim himsel >> reporter: police arrested coleman and he pleaded guilty in 2017. capital city last yr told the i-team they were confident they properly handled the matter, but

d.c.'s office of attorney general investigad how the school handled coleman's case, but told us it f declined e criminal charges against any employee for not reporting the alleged abuse. >> we'll be paying verylose attention to this. a new law just passed by d.c. council stiffens the requirements how charters handle se misconductcases. the law written by david grasso requires schools tell any prospective employers about misconduct by former teachers when they call for references. and the new law requires better background checks when hiring new teachers themselves. checking with all prior employers over the past two decades. >> weant them to call references and check and ask specific questions. was this person asked to leave from your employment and why? >> the law also orders more training for school employees to better spot wning signs of child abuse. >> we want to make sure that adults also i know that something happens, they're going to be caught. and that we're going to know about it ande're going to

report them to the authorities. >> reporter: as for alan coleman, he's serving a three-year sentence for the sexs iuse of h former student in 2004. anted to see if you would like to give us any response to your case. >> reporter: councilman grasso says the i-team reporting raised awareness och weaknesses in d.c. law. >> sometimes students ande parents ho go to get their voice heard. >> the news 4 i-team has been investigating teacher misconduct cases for almost three years now. our slipping through the cracks series has also led to three new .laws in virgin to watch the entire series, visit our nbc washington app and look under investigations. a good reminder here for you to read the fine you join a gym for that new year's resolution. a lawsuit hasilust been against a local gym chain in the district. l c.'s attorney general c racine filed a suit against the washington sports club. it accuses the gym of deceptive cancellation and billing practices. racine says the gym a its owner, town sports

international, told customers that they could cancel theirt membershipsy time for free. however, according to the lawsui they actually require six weeks written advance notice for cancellation and they do charge cancellation fees. >> wbae vy misleading consumers. so consumers would ask, hey, wh's the cancellation policy. and the folks at the washington sports club would say, there is november, no requirement, just cancel at any time, ato st. when, in fact, as i indicated, there was a 45-day written requirement to cancel and fees and penalties could be attached thos >> washington sports club and its owners are also accused of violating the terms a of 2016 settlement for similar violations. a local high school football ploer is used tackling players on the field. but a year and a hf ago,is life took an unexpected turn, forcing him to tackle something much moreserious. news 4's dorene genzler shows us

how this young man used a surprising cancer diagnose as an unexpected source of motivation. >> this is the new one i wear for sports r orter: sebastian loves sports, but there's one thing that sets him apart from all of his team stes. >> that'ething that a lot of membership friends don't have to think about, getting a new leg every time they grow. >> reporter: he can smile now, but it took a lot gf hard work here. in 2016, sebastian was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. he underwents several rouch of emotherapy before doctors told him they would have to amputate his left foot. >> i was prettyscared,ut i was just wondering if i could get back to playing sports or get back to being able to walk, even. >> the amputation was probably a big shock and jolt for anybody to >> reporter: at 16, sebastian has faced more adversityhan most adults. he watched his mother die from breast cancer just a few years ago. now he was fighting, too, not ju for his leg, but for his

life. >> we've had -- dealt with cancer in the family twice i the past decade, and he's, you know, seen things and grown u faster than most people you know, ever have to. >> that alsohowed me like, that you can be strong through all of it and you don't have to let the cancer take over your life. >> reporter: that's where joh hating comes in. he owns the prosthetic care facility of virginia in leesburg. he helped sebastian get his life back, thanks to science andg cutt edge technology. >> i treated him right from the start. but i think the thing that makes him so special is that he does not give up. >> reporter: john and his son, darren, desigd and built a prosthetic for sebastian. one he could use on and off the football field. >> this is a 50/50 partnership. i build the device, i make sure it works, h buts the one that takes that to the next level. >> reporter: sebastian madeor stridesis team. >> i think i surprised a lot of by how well i was able to

do. >> as that parent, i always havl a lbit of hesitation, like, how was that hit or, you t'ow, but also a great amount of pride. >> reporter: sebastian was tearing it up on the turf, but him. wasn't enough for hep wanted to compete on the school's swim team, too. that ledo a new challenge for the prosthetic team and once again, they delivered. >> so we had to design something that could get h to walk to the water's edge and then still function in the water's edge. >> i don't think there's anythinglse like this out there. >> the first swim that he did was a butterfly, a it was crazy how high he raised his chest out of the water with the power of this fin. >> throught hisjourney, sebastian has been a role model for his teammates and classmates. he's a teenager who's already learned a very adult lesson. tt's not how many times you fall down, it's how fou get up. >> how do you think your mother

would be feeling? if she could see y now? >> i think she would be pretty happy with how far i've come. >> as we all are. now cancer free, sebastian will continue to get scans everyus year, to make sure he's healthy and he tells us he's looking forward to playing la crosse in the spring. the family has also forgedfr a ndship with the owners of that local lab that designed his prosthetic and they octually ma in front of us in less than an hour. how about that? when we come back after the break, a local second graderer gets 15 minutes of fame and a whole lot more, all thanks to a drawing on google. [sneezing]

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new robitussin honey. because it's never just a cough. you probably visited google this week and if you did, you may have seen a piece of artwork from a virginia second grader there. sarah gomez lane won the national google dooe contest. her drawing of dinosaurs turned into an animation on the search giant'e page. did you see that? google says sarah's school in faows church will receive $50,000 to spend on technology.

and sarah's going to get $30,000 towards a college scholarship. >> why did you decide to draw dinosaurs? >> because that is what inspires me. >> she made a drawing to enter e e 2018 doodle for goo contest and out of 182,000 kids, she won. >> sarah's drawing was on that google he page for 24 hours and if you haven't guessed, she's got dreams of becoming a paleontologist when she grows up. that or an animator for "jurassic park." that's all for news 4 this weekm leon harris. and we're going to leave you some pictures of a little snowf ing earlier this week. winter, it's officially here, folks. thanks for joining us. ha a great week.

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>> announcer: news 4oday starts now. >> heavy snow just hours away b fromnketing our area. some places expected to be hit with more thanoo 1/2 of snow. storm team this is tracking how much you'll see on what is a weather alert saturday morning. overnight, crews hitting the roads, making sure the impending snowstorm does not impact those of us who need to get around. while many of us are hitti the stores, stocking up for what could be a weekend indoors. plus, another day and no compromise. we are now in the midst of the longest government shutdown the country has ever seen. that embarrassing milestone still does not appear to bring the white house or congress any closer to a deal. a l