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Morning Notes

Published February 28, 2022 at 7:30AM

Angelika Film Center and Cafe in the Mosaic District (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

FCPS Will Start COVID-19 Rollback Plan Tomorrow — Masks will be optional for both students and adults, including staff and parents, in Fairfax County Public Schools after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its health metrics so that the county is now considered to have low transmission. FCPS said on Friday (Feb. 25) that masks would be optional for students, as ordered by a state law, but still mandatory for adults. [FCPS]

Judge Calls TJ Admissions Discriminatory — The Coalition for TJ on Friday (Feb. 25) won its lawsuit against the Fairfax County School Board over changes to admissions process for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The judge found that the shift from a standardized test to “experience” factors was done in a way discriminatory to Asian applicants. The school system intends to appeal. [The Washington Post]

News

Family files lawsuit challenging FCPS Covid quarantine requirements

By Angela Woolsey

Published February 8, 2022 at 2:00PM | Updated February 25, 2022 at 11:45AM

Kids looking outside while in COVID-19 quarantine (via Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash)

While the fight over masks has dominated headlines, Fairfax County Public Schools faces another potential courtroom battle over its quarantine policy for students exposed to someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

The parents of two Sunrise Valley Elementary School students have filed a lawsuit against FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand, School Board chair Stella Pekarsky, and Fairfax County Health Department Director Gloria Addo-Ayensu, calling the 10-day quarantine requirement unconstitutional.

News

FCPS can keep mask requirement for now, judge in lawsuit rules

By Angela Woolsey

Published February 4, 2022 at 5:30PM | Updated February 4, 2022 at 6:47PM

FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand wears a face mask (via FCPS)

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

JUST IN: FCPS, other school systems sue Gov. Youngkin to stop optional mask order

By Angela Woolsey

Published January 24, 2022 at 9:30AM | Updated July 26, 2022 at 11:14AM

(Updated at 5:25 p.m.) Fairfax County Public Schools and six other school divisions, most of them in Northern Virginia, have sued to stop Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order that makes face masks optional in schools.

As first reported by The Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed in Arlington Circuit Court this morning (Monday), asking the court for an injunction to stop Youngkin’s order from being enforced.

News

BREAKING: Fairfax County School Board takes sexual assault lawsuit to U.S. Supreme Court

By Angela Woolsey

Published January 13, 2022 at 2:00PM | Updated March 15, 2024 at 2:45PM

Supreme Court (via SCOTUS)

(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

Lawsuit claims Fairfax County police benefited from sex trafficking ring, undermined investigations

By David Taube

Published December 21, 2021 at 11:00AM | Updated December 9, 2022 at 2:29PM

Fairfax County Public Safety Headquarters (via FCPD)

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

FCPS seeks to put new trial for sexual assault lawsuit on hold, potentially setting up Supreme Court appeal

By Angela Woolsey

Published September 23, 2021 at 9:30AM

Sign for Fairfax County Public Schools outside the Gatehouse Administration Center (file photo)

Fairfax County Public Schools has asked a federal appeals court to postpone an ordered retrial of a former Oakton High School student’s sexual assault lawsuit, setting up a possible escalation of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The school system plans to file a petition for a writ of certiorari requesting that the Supreme Court take up the case, according to Public Justice, the nonprofit legal organization that represents the student, who has only been identified as Jane Doe.