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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could all be honest and admit that the reps didn’t know it was a student and didn’t know he was autistic-so were uncertain what they were seeing. They thought it was an adult and were unaware of SN -but that would mess with your message from of. hate wouldn’t it? -DH of autistic girl

Of course. Because only really mature people do “shadow” board meetings to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could all be honest and admit that the reps didn’t know it was a student and didn’t know he was autistic-so were uncertain what they were seeing. They thought it was an adult and were unaware of SN -but that would mess with your message from of. hate wouldn’t it? -DH of autistic girl

Of course. Because only really mature people do “shadow” board meetings to begin with.

Sujatha Hampton and Vanessa Hall have been live-blogging board meetings on Twitter for several years. Not much different from what these folks were doing, which was reacting to board meetings in real time.

[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).

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

I guess we're just going to have to keep reposting this since you all have your narrative and refuse to actually acknowledge that the Fairfax GOP has no affiliation with these candidates. None.

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."

[Anonymous]

They are Republicans running for school board. It doesn’t matter if they’re officially endorsed yet (it’s way too soon for that).

[Anonymous]

They both apologized.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/24/fairfax-county-school-shadow-board-video/

[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.

The counterfactual is school who opened earlier than FCPS and saw less learning loss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

In the county of the blind, a one-eyed School Board member is queen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

In the county of the blind, a one-eyed School Board member is queen.

Wasn’t she the one that Braband called out for lying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

In the county of the blind, a one-eyed School Board member is queen.

Wasn’t she the one that Braband called out for lying?

Did he? Omeish and Pekarsky referred to Frisch as lying in their internal text messages relating to TJ admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

I don't think you realize that a substantial portion of school families agreed with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

I don't think you realize that a substantial portion of school families agreed with that.

then those families should have stayed virtual. And teachers need to be in the classroom teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

I don't think you realize that a substantial portion of school families agreed with that.

then those families should have stayed virtual. And teachers need to be in the classroom teaching.

That was back when companies were forcing everyone to join meetings with their Kindergartner and daycare kids at home. They took what they could get

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate this. We’re stuck with the clown show of the progressive establishment who is so far off base in so many respects - or the clown show of Republicans who just want to “own the libs.”

There's no happy medium anymore.

If you're a D or R and attempt to compromise or disagree with the extreme of your own party than you're exiled and publicly and relentlessly torn apart.

I’m trying not to get too depressed about it because it’s early days still and there’s no telling who from the current board is going to run again and who’s not, and maybe there’s room for sensible Republicans or Democrats somewhere. But man. This is depressing.

Megan McLaughlin is a reasonable SB member. Ilryong Moon was a great at-large candidate that I wish would come back. Fairfax is a primarily democratic community so the best source of community action is speaking with the Fairfax Democratic party and voicing the kinds of traits we value in candidates. Solutions to problems with the SB are not found through the GOP by any means.

it is a low bar when Megan is considered reasonable. She lives in my neighborhood and she did nothing to get kids back in school. And then when they did open schools she was 100% okay with teachers staying virtual and kids basically having virtual school inside the building. That is not back to school.

I don't think you realize that a substantial portion of school families agreed with that.

A substantial number of Americans thought invading Iraq was a good idea too. Does that get W. off the hook? Elected officials need to take responsibility for their mistakes. Or at least not act affronted when the voters hold them responsible.