GOP candidates for school board laugh at kid singing national anthem at school board meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Clearly, many of you didn’t bother to read the entire article in the OP. The two people in question aren’t affiliated with or endorsed by the Fairfax GOP. Do better.

7News reached out to the Chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee Steve Knotts regarding this incident:

"The 'Shadow Board' on YouTube is not run by, nor affiliated with, the Fairfax GOP. We do not condone the laughter seen on that video. It was offensive, as those involved have acknowledged. The Fairfax GOP does not yet have any endorsed candidates for next year's nonpartisan elections. Candidates are of course welcome to seek our endorsement, however, our members will not vote on those endorsements until a later date — most likely not until next year. As chairman, I am committed to a fair process for all potential 2023 endorsees. Meanwhile, our committee is focused on this year's all-important midterm elections — it is vital that we elect Karina Lipsman, Hung Cao and Jim Myles in Virginia's 8th, 10th and 11th Congressional Districts."

My bad, Steve.

Yes. It is your bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we get some "normal" candidates who don't aspire to higher office? I feel like my baseline is so low: believes schools should be open and doesn't mock the disabled.

The schools have been open a long time now. There were varying views at the time on how to handle the pandemic and anyone who expressed that there was certainty was wrong.

I don't think issues around opening or not are relevant now. I want to know how the SB will help handle the teacher and principal shortage, ensure that teaching candidates hired through alternative means have the kinds of support that will make them excellent teachers (maybe partnering with GMU rather than just having all internal support?), ensure strong equitable education across the schools, resist calls to ban books/teach history but also honor the diverse parent perspectives that make up this school district through workable solutions.

The decision to keep school buildings closed for a full year, and the subsequent harm to children, will sadly be relevant for a very, very long time.

Yes, but they made that decision in an very uncertain environment, with guidance from parents and others who all had varying opinions. I was a parent who wanted virtual in Spring 2020 and thought I wanted it in Fall 2020, but started to change my mind over the course of the fall as more data came in and by winter thought we should be going back. Which is what we did. Other parents wanted virtual to continue and so they did. Not everyone in FCPS thought the same and the SB had to consider all that.

The impacts of the pandemic (whether deaths and illnesses of parents and family members, lost income, virtual schooling) are going to be with us a long time. My brother is a Catholic HS teacher in a school that never closed--in a part of the country where public schools closed for a shorter time than FCPS-- and the mental health concerns and behavioral problems in their students are through the roof. I want SB people who understand the complexity of all that students experienced, not those who are just so sure others "got it wrong" and they know how to solve it. (Especially when they also reveal themselves to be ignorant, biased, and full of hubris!)

The made a decision that, in retrospect, was very wrong and harmful. They should be held accountable.

I disagree. The pandemic is what is harmful. They are not accountable for that.

Thanks for your zero evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The base school for one of them has one of the largest, if not the largest autism centers in FCPS.

What is your point?

My point is she could end up directly representing these students she so callously mocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we get some "normal" candidates who don't aspire to higher office? I feel like my baseline is so low: believes schools should be open and doesn't mock the disabled.

The schools have been open a long time now. There were varying views at the time on how to handle the pandemic and anyone who expressed that there was certainty was wrong.

I don't think issues around opening or not are relevant now. I want to know how the SB will help handle the teacher and principal shortage, ensure that teaching candidates hired through alternative means have the kinds of support that will make them excellent teachers (maybe partnering with GMU rather than just having all internal support?), ensure strong equitable education across the schools, resist calls to ban books/teach history but also honor the diverse parent perspectives that make up this school district through workable solutions.

The decision to keep school buildings closed for a full year, and the subsequent harm to children, will sadly be relevant for a very, very long time.

Yes, but they made that decision in an very uncertain environment, with guidance from parents and others who all had varying opinions. I was a parent who wanted virtual in Spring 2020 and thought I wanted it in Fall 2020, but started to change my mind over the course of the fall as more data came in and by winter thought we should be going back. Which is what we did. Other parents wanted virtual to continue and so they did. Not everyone in FCPS thought the same and the SB had to consider all that.

The impacts of the pandemic (whether deaths and illnesses of parents and family members, lost income, virtual schooling) are going to be with us a long time. My brother is a Catholic HS teacher in a school that never closed--in a part of the country where public schools closed for a shorter time than FCPS-- and the mental health concerns and behavioral problems in their students are through the roof. I want SB people who understand the complexity of all that students experienced, not those who are just so sure others "got it wrong" and they know how to solve it. (Especially when they also reveal themselves to be ignorant, biased, and full of hubris!)

The made a decision that, in retrospect, was very wrong and harmful. They should be held accountable.

+1 They faced a very difficult and consequential choice and they chose wrong. I'm not going to forget that come election day.

Yeah, you can't know that without understanding the counterfactual. Keeping schools open when the more dangerous early variants of COVID were running rampant might have had an even more devastating effect on the students who were forced to go to school. the adults who were forced to run the schools, and the multi-generational households that all of these people go home to every day.

It is any school or school system's most sacred duty to protect its students' safety to the fullest extent possible. And yes, this is an even more important duty than educating those students. Nearly as important is protecting their employees, especially for a public school system.

Unless you have the ability to produce a simulation that reliably confirms that close to zero additional student, staff, or family deaths would have taken place if schools had been open as fully as they've been for over a year at the beginning of the pandemic, you have no basis to make your assertion.

Be glad your kids are alive.

BS. Other states keeping schools open had better outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope that reporter also covers the incredibly racist video put out by Republican Langton where she pretends to be an Indian woman, complete with a horrible fake accent and mention of “the little red dot.” https://mobile.twitter.com/AsraNomani/status/1557462797365268481

These people are horrible.

Oh wow. That’s the first I’ve seen that video. Are these people incapable of thinking before they act or are they just unwilling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Clearly, many of you didn’t bother to read the entire article in the OP. The two people in question aren’t affiliated with or endorsed by the Fairfax GOP. Do better.

7News reached out to the Chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee Steve Knotts regarding this incident:

"The 'Shadow Board' on YouTube is not run by, nor affiliated with, the Fairfax GOP. We do not condone the laughter seen on that video. It was offensive, as those involved have acknowledged. The Fairfax GOP does not yet have any endorsed candidates for next year's nonpartisan elections. Candidates are of course welcome to seek our endorsement, however, our members will not vote on those endorsements until a later date — most likely not until next year. As chairman, I am committed to a fair process for all potential 2023 endorsees. Meanwhile, our committee is focused on this year's all-important midterm elections — it is vital that we elect Karina Lipsman, Hung Cao and Jim Myles in Virginia's 8th, 10th and 11th Congressional Districts."

My bad, Steve.

Not PP (IMHO, all of these people are loons), but I believe it's actually the farther-right Republicans, not the Dems, trying to oust these people.

Agree— the Christian taliban of the Fairfax gop is trying to eliminate the non book banning wing of the party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we get some "normal" candidates who don't aspire to higher office? I feel like my baseline is so low: believes schools should be open and doesn't mock the disabled.

The schools have been open a long time now. There were varying views at the time on how to handle the pandemic and anyone who expressed that there was certainty was wrong.

I don't think issues around opening or not are relevant now. I want to know how the SB will help handle the teacher and principal shortage, ensure that teaching candidates hired through alternative means have the kinds of support that will make them excellent teachers (maybe partnering with GMU rather than just having all internal support?), ensure strong equitable education across the schools, resist calls to ban books/teach history but also honor the diverse parent perspectives that make up this school district through workable solutions.

The decision to keep school buildings closed for a full year, and the subsequent harm to children, will sadly be relevant for a very, very long time.

Yes, but they made that decision in an very uncertain environment, with guidance from parents and others who all had varying opinions. I was a parent who wanted virtual in Spring 2020 and thought I wanted it in Fall 2020, but started to change my mind over the course of the fall as more data came in and by winter thought we should be going back. Which is what we did. Other parents wanted virtual to continue and so they did. Not everyone in FCPS thought the same and the SB had to consider all that.

The impacts of the pandemic (whether deaths and illnesses of parents and family members, lost income, virtual schooling) are going to be with us a long time. My brother is a Catholic HS teacher in a school that never closed--in a part of the country where public schools closed for a shorter time than FCPS-- and the mental health concerns and behavioral problems in their students are through the roof. I want SB people who understand the complexity of all that students experienced, not those who are just so sure others "got it wrong" and they know how to solve it. (Especially when they also reveal themselves to be ignorant, biased, and full of hubris!)

The made a decision that, in retrospect, was very wrong and harmful. They should be held accountable.

I disagree. The pandemic is what is harmful. They are not accountable for that.

Thanks for your zero evidence.

You need evidence that the pandemic is harmful? Or that the FCPS SB caused it?

[Anonymous]

Oh man one of my ES’s school dads is on this shadow board and I am completely disgusted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't we get some "normal" candidates who don't aspire to higher office? I feel like my baseline is so low: believes schools should be open and doesn't mock the disabled.

The schools have been open a long time now. There were varying views at the time on how to handle the pandemic and anyone who expressed that there was certainty was wrong.

I don't think issues around opening or not are relevant now. I want to know how the SB will help handle the teacher and principal shortage, ensure that teaching candidates hired through alternative means have the kinds of support that will make them excellent teachers (maybe partnering with GMU rather than just having all internal support?), ensure strong equitable education across the schools, resist calls to ban books/teach history but also honor the diverse parent perspectives that make up this school district through workable solutions.

The decision to keep school buildings closed for a full year, and the subsequent harm to children, will sadly be relevant for a very, very long time.

Yes, but they made that decision in an very uncertain environment, with guidance from parents and others who all had varying opinions. I was a parent who wanted virtual in Spring 2020 and thought I wanted it in Fall 2020, but started to change my mind over the course of the fall as more data came in and by winter thought we should be going back. Which is what we did. Other parents wanted virtual to continue and so they did. Not everyone in FCPS thought the same and the SB had to consider all that.

The impacts of the pandemic (whether deaths and illnesses of parents and family members, lost income, virtual schooling) are going to be with us a long time. My brother is a Catholic HS teacher in a school that never closed--in a part of the country where public schools closed for a shorter time than FCPS-- and the mental health concerns and behavioral problems in their students are through the roof. I want SB people who understand the complexity of all that students experienced, not those who are just so sure others "got it wrong" and they know how to solve it. (Especially when they also reveal themselves to be ignorant, biased, and full of hubris!)

The made a decision that, in retrospect, was very wrong and harmful. They should be held accountable.

+1 They faced a very difficult and consequential choice and they chose wrong. I'm not going to forget that come election day.

Yeah, you can't know that without understanding the counterfactual. Keeping schools open when the more dangerous early variants of COVID were running rampant might have had an even more devastating effect on the students who were forced to go to school. the adults who were forced to run the schools, and the multi-generational households that all of these people go home to every day.

It is any school or school system's most sacred duty to protect its students' safety to the fullest extent possible. And yes, this is an even more important duty than educating those students. Nearly as important is protecting their employees, especially for a public school system.

Unless you have the ability to produce a simulation that reliably confirms that close to zero additional student, staff, or family deaths would have taken place if schools had been open as fully as they've been for over a year at the beginning of the pandemic, you have no basis to make your assertion.

Be glad your kids are alive.

BS. Other states keeping schools open had better outcomes.

This isn't as clearcut as you think. The evidence is quite mixed. And no one knew in advance what the outcome would be. And it matters if you were in dense or less dense areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:of course they did. this is not surprising at all. While I dislike the current board- republicans don't care about children and would be a bigger mess than the current crew.

And liberals care about children? Bwahahhahhahah!

Democratic don’t make fun of disabilities as a general principle. But republicans love trump mocking disabilities and the less fortunate.

No, they just want to kill them before they’re born and the trump thing has been debunked, but keep saying it bc the dems will believe you

[Anonymous]

I’m sufficiently disgusted by our current SB member that I will vote for anyone who opposes her, but of course I’d hope they were sensitive to the challenges of special education kids (just as I’d hoped in vain our current rep would care about the many other inequities within our district).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:of course they did. this is not surprising at all. While I dislike the current board- republicans don't care about children and would be a bigger mess than the current crew.

And liberals care about children? Bwahahhahhahah!

Democratic don’t make fun of disabilities as a general principle. But republicans love trump mocking disabilities and the less fortunate.

No, they just want to kill them before they’re born and the trump thing has been debunked, but keep saying it bc the dems will believe you

Not to derail the thread, but the Trump "thing" (assuming you are referring to the incident re: Serge Kovaleski) was not debunked even the tiniest bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:of course they did. this is not surprising at all. While I dislike the current board- republicans don't care about children and would be a bigger mess than the current crew.

And liberals care about children? Bwahahhahhahah!

Democratic don’t make fun of disabilities as a general principle. But republicans love trump mocking disabilities and the less fortunate.

No, they just want to kill them before they’re born and the trump thing has been debunked, but keep saying it bc the dems will believe you

Was it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:of course they did. this is not surprising at all. While I dislike the current board- republicans don't care about children and would be a bigger mess than the current crew.

And liberals care about children? Bwahahhahhahah!

Democratic don’t make fun of disabilities as a general principle. But republicans love trump mocking disabilities and the less fortunate.

No, they just want to kill them before they’re born and the trump thing has been debunked, but keep saying it bc the dems will believe you

No it hasn't. Show me evidence it's been debunked. I've seen him say he wasn't mocking him but the video is very clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sufficiently disgusted by our current SB member that I will vote for anyone who opposes her, but of course I’d hope they were sensitive to the challenges of special education kids (just as I’d hoped in vain our current rep would care about the many other inequities within our district).

You are a problem. You would vote for one of these nutjobs who laughs at kids with special needs? Why don't you just write in a candidate or get behind an independent candidate. Or run yourself. Or just abstain.