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Last Friday, appalling news broke that a 19-year-old illegal immigrant student in the United States was criminally charged with nine counts of assault and battery for allegedly groping girls in the halls of a Fairfax County, Virginia, high school.
According to the mother of one of the alleged victims, the accused “sneakily walked up behind [the girls] and put his hand between their legs. It was not just a butt smack or a butt grab. It was a groping of a private area. It had been occurring for months.”
What is even more shocking is that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) told parents of the alleged victims that the alleged assailant would be allowed to return to school upon his release.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED UNDER BIDEN CHARGED WITH GROPING FEMALE STUDENTS AT VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL
This is just the latest disgrace for Virginia’s largest public school system — a district that has led the way in implementing far-left policies focused more on virtue signaling than on educating children.
The results are predictable and daunting: students are put in danger, teachers’ hands are tied, parents are kept out of the loop, and the quality of education steadily declines in a county where academic achievement was once heralded.
These are five examples of FCPS’s insanely misplaced priorities:
1. Illegal Immigrants Over Student Safety
FCPS officials proudly boast of their “Trust Policy,” which cites “a climate of fear and stress that would affect all students” if ICE were to detain parents while children are in school. To that end, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid has pledged to “do all that we can — to the fullest extent allowable by law —” to make FCPS a safe space for students and families who are in the country illegally. Law-abiding families are ignored.
The result of this policy is clear: when the assailant accused of groping is released, FCPS will welcome him back into its taxpayer-funded school system while continuing to expose every other student to uncertainty, if not danger.
Fairfax County Public Schools bus is seen outside of Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School in Herndon, Virginia, Thursday, May 11, 2023. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
FCPS said in a statement, “While Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is unable to comment on specifics due to federal and state privacy laws, we prioritize student and staff safety and fully investigate any time someone reports an incident or says they do not feel safe at school. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners, who continue to work swiftly and thoroughly when there are safety concerns in our schools. The safety of all FCPS students and staff remains a top priority.”
2. Race-Based Discipline Policies
FCPS handles student discipline through an “equitable lens” designed to eliminate “discipline disproportionality” among students of different races. In plain terms, this means that if one racial group is disciplined at a rate higher than its share of the student population, FCPS will ease discipline for that group to bring the percentages into alignment, regardless of whether that discipline was warranted.
This outcome-based approach to discipline is not only arguably illegal but also renders schools demonstrably less safe. FCPS appears unconcerned with either outcome.
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3. Boys in Girls’ Locker Rooms and Bathrooms
FCPS mandates that students be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their self-selected “gender identity.” It is the student who objects to sharing a bathroom or locker room with a member of the opposite sex who is instructed to comply or use an alternative private facility.
The logo for the Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Fairfax County Public Schools)
The consequences of this policy are already playing out. Just last year, a boy with facial hair and described as wearing “pants so tight they clearly outlined his genitalia,” began using a girls’ locker room at West Springfield High School, where he watched girls change in “various stages of undress.”
FCPS investigated the matter and concluded that all was well because the boy self-identified as a girl. In fact, FCPS is so committed to this policy — and so dismissive of its dangers — that it has refused to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s demand to rescind it, risking millions of taxpayer dollars in federal funding in the process.
4. Keeping Secrets From Parents
FCPS has established a system designed to withhold information from parents when a child seeks to “socially transition” to a different sex while at school — whether by using a different name, different pronouns, or the bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex. Under this system, FCPS educators are instructed to exclude information related to a student’s new “gender identity” from official records and to limit parents’ visibility into their children’s records, making them viewable only by district officials.
SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE HOT SEAT AMID FRESH ALLEGATIONS OF HIDING STUDENTS’ GENDER TRANSITION
This scheme may circumvent the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which grants parents the right to access their children’s official school records. FCPS is likely familiar with this federal law.
This practice is a clear attempt to cut parents out of decisions regarding their children’s health, emotional upbringing, and education. It also conflicts with recent Supreme Court decisions in Mahmoud v. Taylor and Mirabelli v. Bonta.
5. Possibly Selling Data to Communist China
It should be evident from the policies detailed above that FCPS appears to prioritize students in the country illegally over American students and gives short shrift to the constitutional rights of parents. But FCPS’ “America Last” mindset takes things to an entirely different level.
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As reported by National Review, the watchdog group Parents Defending Education claims that FCPS provided intellectual property to the Chinese Communist Party. According to reports, a nonprofit associated with Thomas Jefferson High School — FCPS’s top-ranked STEM school — has received millions of dollars from CCP-affiliated entities, including one known as the “TJ Fund,” in exchange for information that amounts to a blueprint for China to replicate Thomas Jefferson High School and its educational success.
A spokesperson for FCPS told National Review, “The TJ Fund is a separate and independent 501(c)(3) entity that is not overseen by FCPS.”
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The list could continue, but the bottom line is clear: FCPS’s track record makes it an untenable choice for families who expect their children to be protected.
Parents should avoid this school system if they can, and if they cannot, they must be extraordinarily diligent in protecting their children from a district that has repeatedly demonstrated it will not.
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