Countywide

Fairfax County Public Schools has asked a federal court to let its current Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology admissions process stay in place while a legal battle over the new system continues.

U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton issued an order last Friday (Feb. 25) invalidating the school system’s overhaul, calling the elimination of a standardized test and other changes intended to increase student diversity at the magnet school discriminatory against Asian Americans.


Countywide

A federal judge’s ruling that recent changes to the admissions process for Fairfax County Public Schools’ prestigious magnet school were discriminatory has inspired both praise and condemnation.

As first reported by The Washington Post, U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton issued an opinion on Friday (Feb. 25) finding that the elimination of a standardized test and other alterations to how students are admitted into Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) were made “to the detriment of Asian-Americans.”


Countywide

A second attempt to recall a Fairfax County School Board member has ground to a halt.

Springfield District Representative Laura Jane Cohen announced in a statement that the Fairfax County Circuit Court issued an order today (Wednesday) dismissing a petition seeking her removal from office.


News

(Updated at 9 a.m. on 4/19/2023) A 62-year-old Maryland resident faces almost two decades in prison for a string of armed robberies that spanned the D.C. area last year, including three incidents in Fairfax County.

Jon Karl Mcree Fleet was sentenced to 17 years today (Tuesday) after pleading guilty to using a firearm in five robberies committed between Jan. 24 and March 13, 2021, Department of Justice prosecutors announced.


News

Fairfax County Public Schools will continue requiring face masks after notching a victory in its lawsuit against Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order prohibiting school mask mandates.

Arlington County Circuit Court Judge Louise DiMatteo granted a temporary injunction today (Friday) to Fairfax County and the six other school boards suing Youngkin, allowing them to enforce their mask requirements until a permanent ruling is made.


News

(Updated on 1/14/2022 at 4:30 p.m.) The Fairfax County School Board has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a former student’s sexual assault lawsuit, a move that could reshape how the federal law against sexual violence in schools is interpreted.

A petition filed by the school board on Dec. 30 argues that public school systems can’t be held liable for sexual harassment and assault unless officials knew an assault took place and could have prevented it.


News

A retired priest who headed the Catholic Diocese of Arlington’s Office of Child Protection and Safety for seven years has been indicted for allegedly sexually abusing a boy in Fairfax County two decades ago.

Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General announced this morning (Tuesday) that a grand jury handed down two felony charges against Terry Specht, 69, of Donegal, Pennsylvania on Dec. 20.


News

A woman alleges that Fairfax County police not only benefited from a sex trafficking ring that victimized her for years but also harmed efforts trying to stop it.

She is suing several former Fairfax County officers, including former Chief Ed Roessler, as well as the county itself. The lawsuit claims the woman — identified as a mother with the pseudonym Jane Doe — was forced to have sex with multiple men per day as part of a trafficking operation exposed in 2018 by an FBI investigation.


News

A coalition that tried to recall school board member Elaine Tholen has filed another recall petition, this time for school board member Laura Jane Cohen.

Open FCPS Coalition says it’s seeking to remove the Springfield District representative over Fairfax County Public Schools’ pandemic response. Dee O’Neal Jackson, the group’s founder, said in a statement that the school board has failed students during the pandemic, especially those with learning disabilities.


News

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, many local entities and organizations will be closed.

Fairfax County government offices and Fairfax County Public Schools will be closed for Thanksgiving (Thursday, Nov. 25) and Black Friday (Nov. 26). County libraries are also closed both days.


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