Anonymous wrote:I didn’t want to move out of Alexandria City, but we decided to because of the schools/school board. This confirms that we made the right decision.

We're homeschooling our daughter through middle school at least. If we end up going public for high school, we're moving. I refuse to send my daughter to ACHS.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

“My issue here is that you are trying to draw a direct correlation between the removal of SROs and everything else that’s been going on,” Aguirre said.

No Canek, no one is drawing a direct correlation. He is a terrible councilperson.

But that was Aguirre’s point - if Hutchings et al. acknowledge that there is a lack of direct correlation between recent events and the removal of the SROs why is there an urgent need to reinstitute the SRO program.

ACPS position (and 99% of parents) is that SROs are a PART of any security strategy and their absence is PARTLY the reason for problems. Why can't we have SROs and increased mental health counseling. Only people against SROs are trying to brandish their woke credentials. They don't care about student or ACPS staff fear. What other building in this country has over 4,000 people in it with no security.

+1 Well said.

I can't wait until old horse face trots out of Alexandria. She is a POS liar.

Getting rid of the SROs was a very stupid decision and all these districts are doing is highlighting why it's a bad idea to vote too far to the left.

And yep, I'm a life long Dem and a liberal.

It's like they read a memo on how to energize people against them. It doesn't even make any sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

“My issue here is that you are trying to draw a direct correlation between the removal of SROs and everything else that’s been going on,” Aguirre said.

No Canek, no one is drawing a direct correlation. He is a terrible councilperson.

But that was Aguirre’s point - if Hutchings et al. acknowledge that there is a lack of direct correlation between recent events and the removal of the SROs why is there an urgent need to reinstitute the SRO program.

ACPS position (and 99% of parents) is that SROs are a PART of any security strategy and their absence is PARTLY the reason for problems. Why can't we have SROs and increased mental health counseling. Only people against SROs are trying to brandish their woke credentials. They don't care about student or ACPS staff fear. What other building in this country has over 4,000 people in it with no security.

I agree that more mental health counseling can be part of a strategy to augment SROs, however, way too many people believe that "mental health counseling" can fix it all.

Yoga, meditation, limited talk therapy might all help someone to reduce stress and that is all that mental health counselors in a school setting are going to realistically be able to do. They are not going to be available to students outside of school hours and days. They are not going to be able to provide CBT therapy or DBT therapy or any other kind of long , term intensive therapy.

For those students who are truly struggling with actual mental health issues, they will need a medical doctor and a consistent counselor who can provide targeted therapy. Add in fact for many kids, before they can access any kind of therapy even just basic talk therapy and be successful, they will need medication. These students will still need to be referred out for services and it is then incumbent upon the parent to get those services for the child.

Then there is the very real challenge of finding qualified candidates to even fill the positions who can do a decent job and not do more harm than good (and yes that can happen). Hiring such people takes time.

The removal of the SROs was short sighted, knee jerk and didn't make sense to begin with. If you go back and look at what the SROs were doing in the school, it did seem like they had spent a lot of time trying to be seen as someone who was a part of the school community much like other staff in the building. That didn't happen over night.

People have to stop reducing SROs to only having the role of possibly going to stop a mass shooting. I can tell you right now, the chance they will do that is slim and none of us should count on it. If someone shows up with an arsenal of automatic weapons, one cop with a handgun is out matched. The best he/she can do is sound an alarm to the school and call for immediate help.

I didn’t want to move out of Alexandria City, but we decided to because of the schools/school board. This confirms that we made the right decision.

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I'm glad Levine is gone but yeah.

Removing SRO's at ACPS and APS was a foolish politically motivated feel-good move. Why on earth would either district want to answer that they had REMOVED security if (heaven forbid) they had a significant incident (active shooter etc) on campus? They should ADD mental health support, not SUBTRACT security.

I think APS is too stubborn to follow ACPS's lead to re-instate SROs, but if anything ever happens that could have been prevented, I'm not sure how APS school board members will explain their decisions. Oh wait, they're not held to account for their decisions, are they?

Sincerely,
a member of the law enforcement community (not in Arlington or Alexandria) who is left-leaning and has no personal stake in these positions

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like it was a kind of $H!t show.

https://alexandrialivingmagazine.com/news/city-council-members-call-for-increased-security-at-local-schools/

"The ultimate decision, a motion by Chapman and seconded by Jackson, was to return SROs to schools on a temporary basis under the prior memorandum of understanding while transitioning to a new program that does not include having armed police in schools but increases social and emotional support and mentoring for students and families."

Shortly after 11 p.m., a frustrated and angry Mayor Justin Wilson suspended the conversation on the issue of school safety and expressed extreme disappointment in the conduct of some of his fellow council members.



Wilson noted that the City of Alexandria is trying to hire a new city manager and he couldn't imagine any city manager job candidate watching Tuesday night's meeting video and wanting to work in Alexandria.

"I think that has been a horrific process from the beginning regardless of your view on this issue, this is not the way we collaborate with another elected body," Wilson said. “This sucks. This is disastrous. What person would watch this meeting tonight and say this is where I want to send my kids?"

You reap what you sow. Democrats have been promoting a culture of fear, hate, and racism, especially this past year. So you don’t get to be upset when your toxic culture is toxic.

I agree with this. Especially the "you reap what you sow". I don't so much blame Democrats' for promoting a culture as much as I blame the citizens of the City for continuing to create a one party City. Without another party in the mix, there is no debate, no discussion. Everything becomes an echo chamber of agreement. It's really too bad. I don't have a problem with adding Republicans to the mix. Constantly chanting a refrain of Trump! Hater! Racist! is just stupid. Stop with that nonsense and actually listen to candidates and what they propose. None of them are running on platforms of racism and hatred in a City Council or school board election. And independent candidates are welcome to run as well.

+1. I'm planning to vote R and I at the local level and D at the state level this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

“My issue here is that you are trying to draw a direct correlation between the removal of SROs and everything else that’s been going on,” Aguirre said.

No Canek, no one is drawing a direct correlation. He is a terrible councilperson.

But that was Aguirre’s point - if Hutchings et al. acknowledge that there is a lack of direct correlation between recent events and the removal of the SROs why is there an urgent need to reinstitute the SRO program.

ACPS position (and 99% of parents) is that SROs are a PART of any security strategy and their absence is PARTLY the reason for problems. Why can't we have SROs and increased mental health counseling. Only people against SROs are trying to brandish their woke credentials. They don't care about student or ACPS staff fear. What other building in this country has over 4,000 people in it with no security.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

“My issue here is that you are trying to draw a direct correlation between the removal of SROs and everything else that’s been going on,” Aguirre said.

No Canek, no one is drawing a direct correlation. He is a terrible councilperson.

But that was Aguirre’s point - if Hutchings et al. acknowledge that there is a lack of direct correlation between recent events and the removal of the SROs why is there an urgent need to reinstitute the SRO program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

“My issue here is that you are trying to draw a direct correlation between the removal of SROs and everything else that’s been going on,” Aguirre said.

No Canek, no one is drawing a direct correlation. He is a terrible councilperson.

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

EBP is running for the House of Delegates.

Anonymous wrote:Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.

I have only listened to the first 2 and a half hours of the discussion so far but I think Aguirre, after stumbling to start his comments and questions, was able to draw out a number of pertinent points such as (1) raising questions whether the security steps taken by Hutchings / Contraeas have been adequate, (2) noting the gun on school grounds was discovered without SROs present, and (3) getting Hutchings to admit that he does not know if the security issues would have differed with SROs present. On this last point, Hutchings’ argument was that he needed the SROs since you have to do everything you can for safety which is completely contrary to Hutchings’ approach on Covid mitigation where he dismisses reasonable mitigation steps as too hard.

Canek Aguirre & Elizabeth Bennett-Parker have no business serving in a elected position anywhere. I'm sure they will win handily. Neither or them with kids at ACPS and tried to punk the Principal.

They make Justin Wilson and Dr. Huthchings sympathetic characters.

Please don't vote for them, even if you don't vote for opponent in EBP case, don't give her your vote.