Police Make Progress on Hannah Choi Murder Case — Fairfax County detectives believe they know the location of the man suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a Maryland park, according to Police Chief Kevin Davis. He says the department anticipates apprehending Joel Mosso Merino, who has been on the run since March, “in the very near future.” [WTOP]
Circuit Court Officially Adds First Female Judge of Color — “Tania M.L. Saylor, the first woman of color to serve as a Fairfax County Circuity [sic] Court Judge will be presented her official commission on Friday, May 6, at 4 p.m. in Courtroom 5J of the Fairfax County Courthouse. The public is invited to attend the investiture ceremony.” [Fairfax County Government]
Key FCPS Official Named Fairfax City Superintendent — “The City of Fairfax School Board didn’t look far when picking its next superintendent. The board on Monday offered Jeff Platenberg the role. Platenberg currently works for Fairfax County Public Schools as the assistant superintendent for facilities and transportation services.” [WTOP]
Locally Owned Coffee Shop Opens in Newington — “Two neighbors who live close to the Landsdowne shopping center are now the owners of a new coffee shop. The locally owned Coffee In opened a few weeks ago and will celebrate its grand opening this Saturday at 6432 Landsdowne Centre Drive.” [Patch]
Herndon Foster Mother Starts Nonprofit — The nonprofit Foster the Family “will show up to a foster home, within the first 24 hours, with dinner, clothes, PJ’s, hygiene products and all the supplies a child needs, saving the parents an emergency trip to the store, and helping the child feel comfortable in what can be a scary transition.” [ABC7]
McLean Church Builds Labyrinth — “Trinity United Methodist Church dedicated a labyrinth as its new Prayer Garden on Easter morning between worship services…The labyrinth is surrounded by plantings and benches with lighting to facilitate an atmosphere worthy of spiritual reflection and meditation. It is the most significant labyrinth in scope and size in the McLean area.” [Sun Gazette]
South County Students Send Letters to Seniors — “In Lorton, Virginia, 92-year-old Bernice Alexander reads from just one of the dozens of letters received at her senior living community. They were written by teenagers at South County High School, and some come with artwork, paintings and cheery posters, too.” [NBC4]
County Adopts Bill of Rights for Kids’ Sports — “The Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood & Community Services (NCS), along with the Fairfax County Athletic Council, is pleased to adopt the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports. Developed by the Aspen Institute Sports and Society Program, this is a new resource designed to ensure that all children have a right to a quality sports experience.” [NCS]
It’s Wednesday — Mostly cloudy throughout the day. High of 75 and low of 61. Sunrise at 6:08 am and sunset at 8:05 pm. [Weather.gov]
After roughly a decade of relative freedom, Fairfax County Public Schools is sending cellphones back into students’ backpacks.
The Fairfax County School Board is considering restricting the use of personal phones during class for all students as part of several proposed revisions to its Students Rights & Responsibilities handbook, which sets standards for student behavior and discipline.
As proposed during a work session on April 26, the extent of the ban would vary depending on the grade level. Elementary and middle school students would only be allowed to use cellphones before and after the school day, while high schoolers can take them out during lunch and periods between classes.
The revised regulation says teachers could still let students use phones for instructional activities “where they are the most appropriate tool,” but in most cases, the school-issued laptops that most students receive should be adequate.
FCPS has already started to limit phone use in Herndon schools, and Dranesville District School Board Representative Elaine Tholen said at the work session that the changes have had positive results, WTOP reported last week.
The proposed changes mark a shift away from FCPS’ current policy, which embraces technology as a way of “creating a 21st century learning environment” and permits students to use their personal devices to access the internet and work with classmates.
FCPS introduced its Bring Your Own Device policy about a decade ago, as the system started to phase in the school-issued laptops. The initiative, which notes that the use of phones for “personal or recreational purposes” should be minimized, won FCPS a Governor’s Technology Award in 2013.
Since then, some schools across the country have moved to ban phones in classrooms in response to concerns about distractions and excessive screentime, but with 95% of teenagers having access to a smartphone, others have argued that a more effective approach is to set clear guidelines and teach students how to use technology responsibly. Safety and health concerns are also sometimes cited as reasons to allow phones.
What do you think of the proposed changes to FCPS’ phone policy? Should schools accept cellphones as an integral part of many kids’ lives and even a potential teaching tool, or are they just a distraction?
Photo via Adrien/Unsplash
The McLean Community Center is ready and willing to accept all your spare “Dog Man” and “Magic Tree House” books.
The facility at 1234 Ingleside Avenue is serving as a drop-off site for the latest donation drive by Give a Kid a Book, an initiative started by McLean teenager Alex Pomper to collect children’s books for kids in the D.C. area who might find them hard to come by.
“I grew up around books and realized how much I took that for granted,” said Pomper, a junior at Langley High School. “Many young kids in Fairfax don’t have access to books at home, and I think having books at home is especially important for helping kids get a good start reading, which will help them later in life.”
Launched in January, Give a Kid a Book has collected more than 4,500 books so far with monthly drives. The current effort at MCC started on Tuesday (April 19) and will last through May 20.
Driven by a passion for community service and education, Pomper has been conducting monthly book giveaways with the Arlington Food Assistance Center, a nonprofit food bank.
Donations have also gone to Second Story in Tysons, the United Way of the National Capital Area, D.C.’s Community Family Life Services, and the Latin American Youth Center in Prince George’s County.
Research indicates that access to books has a significant effect on kids’ educational success, and disparities in literacy are largely a reflection of socioeconomic inequality, following racial and financial divides.
According to Scholastic’s most recent “Kids and Families Reading Report,” children in the U.S. aged 6 to 17 have 103 books at home on average, but that ranges from 125 books for families with incomes of $100,000 or more to 73 books for families with incomes under $35,000. Hispanic and Black children also generally have fewer books in their homes than white, Asian, and other children.
Pomper says the need for books in many communities “really hit home” when he started meeting Give a Kid a Book recipients in person, including through the Arlington Food Assistance Center giveaways.
“In-person distributions…showed me how much interest there was in the books I was donating, and I think it’s one of the reasons I’m going to be continuing to run this drive,” Pomper said by email.
Give a Kid a Book accepts donations of new and gently used books for a range of ages, from toddler-geared picture books to young adult books. Donations can be made at MCC or through the organization’s Amazon wishlist and website.
Pomper has seen a particular demand for board books and ones for early elementary school-aged readers, and books in Spanish and other languages outside of English are especially appreciated, according to his mother, Annie Kim.
Pomper, who often gets an assist from his younger brother in collecting and sorting donations, is currently focusing on the AFAC giveaways and obtaining books to give to elementary schools, but he is open to working with any organization that can help get books into kids’ hands.
“I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of organizations that need the books that I am collecting,” he said.
Houston is the place to be this week for the robotics community, and several Fairfax County students scored exclusive invitations.
Fairfax County Public Schools has three teams in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) World Championships, which kicked off today (Wednesday) at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
The annual event caps off months of work and competitions for high school students around the world who have designed, programmed and built industrial-sized robots that face off in sports-like games.
Representing Fairfax County among the 454 teams that qualified for the championships — most of them from the U.S. — are James Madison High School’s Warbots, the CAVEBOTICS from Woodson High School, and Oakton Cougar Robotics.
🤖 Good luck to our @JamesMadisonHS, @OaktonHS and @WTWoodsonHS Robotics teams competing in the World Championships in Houston this week! https://t.co/eYy6xgJdco
— Fairfax Schools 🌟 (@fcpsnews) April 20, 2022
Madison and Oakton have both participated in FIRST Robotics Competitions since 2001, but for the Vienna school, this year marks its first trip to the championships after the Warbots won the school’s first-ever district title on April 9, according to FCPS.
FCPS is part of the Chesapeake District, which includes teams from Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and West Virginia.
Oakton Cougar Robotics previously made the championships in 2016.
Woodson’s CAVEBOTICS are relatively new to the scene. The Fairfax-based school added the team to its cybersecurity and robotics club last year, and it has already grown to over 50 students, according to a Gofundme fundraiser that the team started to support its activities.
With robots costing $6,000 to $12,000 a year to build, fundraising is among the many skills that students learn from the FIRST competitions, along with welding, coding, engineering, and project management, Madison High School said in its post on the Warbots.
A nonprofit founded in 1989, FIRST aims to support science, technology, engineering, and math education through school-based robotics programs for students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
The championship will culminate with awards on Saturday (April 23). All of the contests and challenges, along with the closing ceremony, are being livestreamed on Twitch.
(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) As Fairfax County Public Schools nears an announcement of its next superintendent, students, faculty, and community groups have started to voice concerns about the transparency of the months-long process.
Organizers of the Pride Liberation Project, an FCPS student-led LGBTQIA+ advocacy organization with over 100 members, urged the school system to solicit more feedback from students, saying that the community outreach for the superintendent search was inadequate.
“Given the immense influence a superintendent has, it is imperative that FCPS take the necessary steps to hear the concerns of students,” Pride Liberation Project leaders said in a statement shared with FFXnow. “Unfortunately, the recent search process for a new superintendent did not do this.”
Prompted by Superintendent Scott Brabrand’s plans to step down from the position on June 30, FCPS hired the consulting firm GR Recruiting in October to conduct a nationwide search for his successor.
The firm launched its outreach efforts by meeting with FCPS employee groups in December. In January, it conducted a survey, hosted six virtual town halls, and met with stakeholder groups representing students, parents and other community members.
However, an emailed invitation was needed to participate in the survey, and only 9,523 of the 225,761 people who got invited responded, GR Recruiting told the Fairfax County School Board at a work session on Jan. 31.
School board members expressed disappointment at the low response rate for the survey but decided that there wasn’t enough time to consider resending it.
The firm reported that the town halls drew 337 attendees, and a total of 275 individuals were invited to 45 small stakeholder group meetings, including one for 11 students.
John R. Lewis High School student Andrea-Grace Mukuna, a Pride Liberation Project member who participated in the student stakeholder meeting, says the meeting itself went well, but she felt it “was a bit off” that it wasn’t open to more students.
According to Mukuna, the meeting was limited to members of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, which consists of student government representatives from each school, and the Student Equity Ambassadors Leaders program.
She says the invitations to the meeting were also sent out close to when it was scheduled, and it was held shortly after the end of the school day, making it harder for students who were busy or whose schools ended later to participate.
The Pride Liberation Project argues that a group of just 11 students can’t sufficiently convey the needs and perspectives of a student body as large and diverse as FCPS’.
“We need you to hear our voices, and we need you to not only cater to a small group of elite students that you asked to attend these meetings,” Mukuna said. “We want this to be extended to all of the 180,000 students across FCPS so they have the opportunity to put in their voice and what they believe matters in the superintendent search.”
FCPS did not immediately respond to FFXnow’s request for comment on the group’s concerns.
The Fairfax County School Board released a statement yesterday (Monday) asking that the confidentiality of the superintendent applicants be respected after the Fairfax County NAACP publicly identified two reported finalists, one of whom had withdrawn her name a week earlier.
“The hiring of the next superintendent will be confirmed through a public vote by the School Board. We will communicate with you as soon as we are able to add this to an upcoming agenda,” the school board said, stating that a public announcement will be coming “in the next few weeks.”
The Fairfax County NAACP said in a statement that it hopes the school board hires a superintendent with the “qualifications, experience, and knowledge to lead a school system of the size, diversity, and complexity of FCPS.”
The group also expressed support for an open letter released by the Fairfax Alliance of Black School Educators, which advocates for Black students and faculty in Fairfax County.
“The members of FABSE would like to understand the hiring criteria and process of selecting the next superintendent of FCPS,” the FABSE said. “Like the NAACP, our membership was asked to provide input on the characteristics of the superintendent that we’d like in FCPS but were not invited to be a part of the interview panel. Representation, ‘being in the room,’ is a critical strategy in ensuring the voices and perspectives of all stakeholders are affirmed, respected, and included in the decision making of the Board.”
Photo via FCPS/YouTube
Suspect in Attacks on Unhoused People Previously Jailed in Fairfax County — “Gerald Brevard III, 30, had been in and out of jail in D.C., Virginia and Maryland on varying charges including assaulting a police officer and shoplifting, court records show. Most recently he served several months in Fairfax County jail after he was arrested on an abduction charge that was reduced to misdemeanor assault in a plea agreement.” [The Washington Post]
Man Arrested for Herndon Sexual Assault — “Andy Josue Calix Mejia, 23, of Sterling was arrested for sexually assaulting a juvenile last year in the Town of Herndon, according police…The incident happened March 25, 2021, in the 500 block of Florida Avenue.” [Patch]
Part of Springfield Town Center for Sale — Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust disclosed in an earnings release Monday (March 14) that it is selling a hotel development parcel at Springfield Town Center for $2.5 million. Roughly 3 million square feet of new development are planned at the 78-acre mall campus, which will host the D.C. area’s first LEGO Discovery Center next year. [Washington Business Journal]
Local Kid Designs App to Improve Virtual Learning — “Kingsley Thach, a third-grader at Willow Springs Elementary off Braddock Road in western Fairfax, said the app, inspired by the pandemic and launched in January, helps to bridge the communication gap between students, teachers and parents.” [Inside NoVA]
Scottish Police Tour FCPD Facilities — “Police officials from Scotland visited the Fairfax County Police Department last week to tour the department’s facilities and learn the latest policing techniques and strategies from the largest jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.” [Patch]
Annandale Karaoke Bar Plans Opening — “Glam Karaoke could have a soft opening as early as this Friday, reports manager Chris Cho. It’s located in the former Kmart auto shop on 6369 John Marr Drive in what’s now called the East Gate Shopping Center.” [Annandale Today]
Vienna Prepares to Replace Invasive Trees — “The view will soon change along the Nutley Street median. Work is expected to begin next week to replace invasive Callery pear trees with native species. To learn more about the project, click here.” [Town of Vienna/Facebook]
McLean High School Runners Win State Titles — “In his final attempt to win the boys 1,000-meter race at the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 indoor track and field state championships, the McLean High School senior closed the deal. Running with a sore right hip, [Xavier] Jemison won in a personal-best time of 2:26.45 seconds, with that his race strategy working as planned.” [Sun Gazette/Inside NoVA]
It’s Wednesday — Rain overnight. High of 66 and low of 45. Sunrise at 7:20 a.m. and sunset at 7:18 p.m. [Weather.gov]
Flint Hill Elementary School students let their green flag fly during a visit yesterday (Monday) from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan.
Invited by the environmental advocacy groups Mothers Out Front and Moms Clean Air Force, Regan stopped by the Vienna school to discuss the federal government’s plans to expand the use of electric school buses over diesel ones, a transition that he said Fairfax County Public Schools is helping lead.
“Fairfax County Public Schools is demonstrating exceptional leadership in being an early participant in what we hope will be a widespread, nationwide movement,” Regan said at a press conference, which followed a bus ride and a student roundtable. “Zero-emission school buses can and one day will be the American standard.”
FCPS received its first electricity-powered school bus in January 2021 and now has eight total in its fleet of 1,625 buses. The district was awarded a $2.7 million state grant in August to add another 10 electric buses.
At the time of the announcement, the new buses were expected to arrive this March, but FCPS says they are now scheduled to come off the assembly line around June 25 in time for delivery in July.
“The supplier has some additional upfitting to do before delivery to align with our specifications,” FCPS said by email. “They will not be placed into full operation (with students aboard) until Fall of 2022.”
Electric school buses will transform how millions of students get to and from school — helping clean the air we breathe, protecting public health, and tackling the climate crisis.
Thank you to these @fcpsnews students for joining me today on an EV school bus ride! pic.twitter.com/AyPIRX8E6w
— Michael Regan, U.S. EPA (@EPAMichaelRegan) March 14, 2022
Superintendent Scott Brabrand reaffirmed yesterday that the school system aims to achieve carbon neutrality with its bus fleet by 2035.
The EPA announced $17 million in rebates on March 7 to help schools across the country transition to electric buses. That includes $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds intended for underserved communities that might not be able to afford electric vehicles and charging equipment on their own.
Congress committed an additional $5 billion over the next five years to replacing diesel buses with vehicles that emit lower or no greenhouse gas emissions with its passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure law in November. The EPA anticipates announcing a first round of funding next month, according to Regan.
“This investment will transform how millions of students get to school each and every day. It will help clean the air we breathe, protect public health, and tackle the climate crisis,” Regan said, stating that the recent surge in gas prices stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further highlights the need to transition from fossil fuels to clean, more sustainable energy sources.
While the event focused on electric school buses, FCPS officials and students used the occasion to also put a spotlight on the district’s Get2Green program, which promotes environmental stewardship and education.
Flint Hill Elementary has embraced the program enthusiastically, obtaining its first Green Flag award from the National Wildlife Federation in May 2014 and becoming a permanent Green Flag school in 2019.
Wow – what a morning! Thank you to @EPAMichaelRegan, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for visiting @FlintHillES! @fcpsnews students are committed to environmental stewardship. 🌱@EPAregion3 @FCPSRegion1 pic.twitter.com/XjMIlXEusK
— @HunterMillFCPS (@huntermillfcps) March 14, 2022
Students on the school’s Green Team have helped implement projects from a composting program to flower seed collections and distributions. They partnered with Bryn Awel Primary School in Wales to learn about plastic pollution in oceans and gather data for NASA’s Globe program.
Fifth-grade student Eddie Felber attributed his appreciation for the natural world to Flint Hill’s courtyard, which features a chicken coop, a monarch waystation, and native plant and vegetable gardens. Tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and other produce from the gardens are used in the school’s cafeteria salad bar.
“We will not stop, because we cannot afford to stop,” sixth-grade student Lena Mudrick said. “We’re the kids now, but we have to make sure to improve the environment for future generations. Our school is incredible in helping student-led projects make change, and we hope more schools will have these opportunities.”
The Fairfax County School Board is looking at adding more holidays, including Diwali and Yom Kippur, to a proposed calendar for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
The board reviewed a proposed calendar from Fairfax County Public Schools staff during a work session yesterday (Tuesday), with a vote on the matter scheduled for their next regular meeting on Jan. 27.
The proposed 14-holiday schedule would begin July 1 and have a two-week winter break, one-week spring break, and days off for students through professional work days. It would mirror neighboring school districts’ holidays, a staff presentation showed.
FCPS staff recommended adding Diwali and Yom Kippur as full holidays with Rosh Hashanah as a day off for students. Staff would have the option to use it for professional development or also take the day off at their own discretion.
The proposed calendar includes an observance of Eid al-Fitr in 2023, even though it falls outside of school hours. The Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan will begin at sundown on Friday, April 21 to sundown on Saturday, April 22 next year.
FCPS is officially observing those four holidays for the first time this academic year, but the school board stopped short of granting students days off.
Last year’s calendar development proved unusually tense, with numerous residents voicing concerns about the process and local religious leaders expressing disappointment from a diversity standpoint.
Superintendent Scott Brabrand said yesterday that he accepted responsibility for a calendar process last year that was divisive and hurtful but added that he thought the calendar process this year was enhanced.
“It is complex. There’s no perfect calendar process. I think this process was better than the process we had before,” Brabrand said.
This time around, FCPS enlisted a calendar committee, consisting of school staff, students, parents and associations, to weigh in on the changes. FCPS Chief Operating Officer Marty Smith said several faith-based groups were invited, but not all chose to participate.
School board members wondered whether staff assigned different weights for priorities identified through a community input process that included surveying staff, students, and families. Brabrand said the proposal wasn’t a formula, but the staff’s best solution.
Despite a nearly two-hour long work session, school board members called for clearer justification from staff regarding which holidays will be recognized and adding Veterans Day as a day off for students.
“We want for this to not come across as arbitrary to our community, that people can take a look at the same data and kind of come close to the same conclusion,” Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson said.
School board members suggested that the survey feedback wasn’t incorporated as well as it could have been.
Guided by U.S. Supreme Court rulings throughout the last century, public school holidays for religious occasions must be justified with a secular reason, such as high absence rates.
Mount Vernon District Representative Karen Corbett-Sanders said the proposed calendar was driven by FCPS’ operational needs, not one that reflects community feedback.
“We need to work on this calendar more to ensure that that has that mutual respect and inclusivity of all in it,” she said.
School-based COVID-19 vaccination clinics for elementary school-aged children could be set up as soon as mid-November, Fairfax County Public Schools officials say.
As reported to the Fairfax County School Board at a work session yesterday (Tuesday), these targeted vaccination clinics will be available in evenings or weekends and have a parent or guardian present.
FCPS is also working with the Fairfax County Health Department to provide vaccination clinics during the school day that would require advance parental consent for students to participate. Those clinics are expected to be available after winter break, officials said.
With COVID-19 vaccine eligibility potentially expanding to children aged 5-11 in early November, FCPS is currently developing plans for providing testing and vaccinations to students.
Most families who responded to an FCPS survey of their vaccination plans intend to get the vaccine for their young children, according to results that school officials shared with the school board.
Of the 85,302 surveys sent to parents and guardians of children who will be in the 5-11 age range on Nov. 1, 35,801 (36%) were returned with responses. The survey was designed to determine what supports, if any, families need to access vaccinations for their children.
Survey results indicated that 76% of parents or guardians plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine for their child, with 80% of that group planning to do so as soon as it’s available. 12% of those surveyed are undecided, and 10% do not plan to get their child vaccinated.
According to Superintendent Scott Brabrand, “common reasons” cited for not getting vaccinated include “personal beliefs” regarding vaccinations, followed by the vaccines’ emergency-use authorization status. So far, federal health officials have only officially approved the Pfizer vaccine for individuals 16 and older.
The survey also revealed an even split on the challenges of obtaining a vaccination appointment, with 45% indicating that wait times have been a challenge and 44% indicating there were no challenges.
49% of those surveyed would not let their child get vaccinated during the school day without a parent or guardian present, while 35% would consider that possibility.
FCPS Department of Special Services Assistant Superintendent Michelle Boyd emphasized that, on top of the information provided by the surveys, officials will look at data on community transmission, vaccination rates, and other factors to guide their plans.
“We’re also using that health data to inform what might be the best locations and also taking into consideration what local vaccination opportunities are available in close proximity so that we can make sure that we’re building those bridges for folks who don’t have readily available resources that are within accessible distance,” Boyd said.
While FCPS has not mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for students, except those involved in athletics and some other extracurricular activities, school officials have strongly encouraged them for those who are eligible and are developing a plan for providing testing and vaccinations. Read More
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.
Public Justice told FFXnow that it learned about those intentions Monday morning (Sept. 20), though it’s still holding out hope that the Fairfax County School Board will opt not to file the petition.
The law firm warns that, if FCPS files a petition and the appeal is accepted, it could set the stage for a reevaluation of Title IX protections against gender discrimination, which have traditionally been used to address school-based sexual violence, by the same court that allowed Texas to essentially ban abortions earlier this month.
“Fairfax would be asking them to severely undermine students’ civil rights,” Public Justice staff attorney Alexandra Brodsky, the plaintiff’s counsel, said. “I think there’s a real question for Fairfax families whether they want the legacy of Fairfax schools to be undermining equality and safety for students.”
Filed in May 2018, the lawsuit argues that FCPS violated Doe’s Title IX rights by failing to ensure her safety and provide support after she reported that an older, male student sexually assaulted her when they were on a bus during the five-day school band trip.
The school board’s Sept. 9 regular meeting agenda includes a closed session to consult with legal counsel about the case, known as “Jane Doe v. Fairfax County School Board et al.”
FCPS confirmed that it has requested the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to stay its June 16 ruling ordering a new trial in Doe’s lawsuit over school officials’ response to her report of being sexually assaulted by a fellow student during a band trip in 2017.
With one judge dissenting, the three-person panel reversed a U.S. District Court jury’s verdict in favor of FCPS, arguing that the lower court had failed to accurately define for the jury the legal standard to determine if the school system had “actual knowledge” of the reported assault.
“As the divergent opinions of the Fourth Circuit show, the issues in this case could have nationwide and potentially far-reaching implications,” FCPS spokesperson Julie Moult said in a statement. “For that reason, we have asked the court to stay or suspend the effective date of its ruling, pending further review.”
FCPS said it had no further comment at this time, including on whether it plans to petition the Supreme Court. Read More
