Tag: Albemarle County Public Schools

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Coronavirus News

In brief: Happy (socially distanced) graduation, Memorial Day, and more

Joslyn Grimes (center) poses for a picture with her family after graduating at Albemarle High School on Saturday, May 23, 2020. Students filtered into the parking lot in five-minute intervals to experience the modified ceremony due to social distancing guidelines. PC: Zack Wajsgras

Rad grads

Charlottesville’s 2020 high school graduates imagined they’d be walking across a grand stage right about now, with “Pomp and Circumstance” blaring as an auditorium applauded. That’s gone, of course, but the virus hasn’t stopped our schools from showing love for their seniors. Districts around town have held variations on the traditional graduation ceremony, providing graduates with a chance to do more than just fling their caps toward the family’s living room ceiling.

Although school was originally scheduled to run through June 5, county schools decided to end “remote learning” on May 22, and held graduation events this week. At Albemarle High, students could make an appointment to walk across a tented, outdoor stage and receive a diploma while families and photographers looked on.

In the city, where lessons are (at least theoretically) continuing for the next two weeks, Charlottesville High put on a “victory lap” event—students donned their caps and gowns and drove around the school with their families, while teachers and staff stood by the roadside hollering congratulations and holding signs. The lap concluded at the front of the school, where graduates walked across the “stage” and received their diplomas. On the originally scheduled graduation day, the school will stream a congratulatory video, featuring footage from the victory laps.

In the past, most of the area’s public high schools have held their ceremonies at the John Paul Jones Arena. This year’s celebrations are far less grand, but they show the creativity, resilience, and sense of humor required in this moment—and they’re certainly as memorable as a valedictory address.

______________________

Quote of the Week

“I’ll tell you what—I think it’s been a spectacular success.”

—Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer on Memorial Day weekend. According to the city’s police, there were no major social distancing
violations on the area’s jam-packed beaches.

______________________ 

In brief

Pay up

The neo-Nazis who helped organize Unite the Right have, unsurprisingly, behaved poorly throughout the ensuing court case against them. On Monday, three defendants in Sines v. Kessler were ordered to pay $41,300 as a penalty for violating orders to turn over evidence related to the case, reports Integrity First for America, the organization backing the suit. Earlier this year, defendant Elliot Kline was charged with contempt of court and faced jail time as a result. The case is ongoing.

In the hole

After furloughing more than 600 employees with little notice, UVA Health System executives provided staff with more information on the institution’s deficit of $85 million per month. In a virtual meeting between School of Medicine faculty and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Craig Kent earlier this month, Kent explained that the health system had a budget margin for this past year “of essentially zero” and had low reserves compared to other institutions, reported The Daily Progress. Naming several other money troubles, Kent admitted the institution hasn’t “run very efficiently over the years,” and promised it would make major financial changes.

Goodbye generals?

Years of debate (and violence) over the city’s infamous Confederate statues could soon come to an end. Four days after Governor Ralph Northam signed bills allowing localities to remove or alter Confederate monuments last month, Charlottesville City Manager Tarron Richardson told City Council via email that he would like to hold 2-2-1 meetings to discuss the removal of the Lee and Jackson statues, reported The Daily Progress. Richardson asked for the meetings, which would not have to be open to the public, to be held after council approves the city’s fiscal 2021 budget, which is expected to happen next month.

Hydroxy hoax

In a Sunday interview with “Full Measure,” President Trump admitted he was no longer taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug he claimed could prevent or treat coronavirus, despite mounting scientific evidence to the contrary. Just last week, he dismissed the findings of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and UVA, which concluded that the drug had a higher overall mortality rate for coronavirus patients in Veterans Administration hospitals, calling it “a Trump enemy statement.” Trump has yet to apologize for those remarks, still claiming in the interview that “hydroxy” has had “tremendous, rave reviews.”

Respectful distance

With social-distancing regulations in place, traditional ceremonies were off limits this Memorial Day, but some locals still found ways to commemorate the holiday. An enormous American flag floated over the 250 Bypass, thanks to the fire department, and residents showed up at the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial to pay their respects throughout the day, including a trumpet player who joined in a nationally coordinated playing of “Taps.”

Frozen out

Laid off workers looking for a new position amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic won’t have an easy time of it, as several of the city’s major employers—including the City of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and Albemarle County Public Schools— have announced hiring freezes. Among the positions on hold in city government are the heads of the departments of Parks & Recreation and Public Works (both currently being run by interim directors), along with traffic supervisor, centralized safety coordinator, and others.

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Coronavirus News

How coronavirus has changed the college admissions process

Rebecca Hill is the executive director of the Better Future Foundation, which is currently providing college counseling to a group of low-income students at Charlottesville High School. PC: John Robinson

While schools are closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, districts across the country have adopted alternative grading policies for the remainder of the academic year. Charlottesville City Schools’ middle and high schoolers who had a passing grade when schools closed on March 13 will automatically receive an A for each course, while those who weren’t on track to pass have been given online learning modules. Albemarle County has taken a different route, allowing high schoolers to choose between receiving a pass/fail/ incomplete or a letter grade.

For rising seniors applying to college this fall, these changes could make an already stressful process more challenging. How will colleges judge their academic performance during this unprecedented time? Will grades from this school year even matter?

According to college counselor Rebecca Hill, the answer is yes and no. It’s “still going to be necessary” for rising seniors applying to college to pass this school year. However, “because a lot of the school systems…have agreed to give students passes or A’s just for being able to complete work through March 13, final grades [won’t] have as much weight.”

While colleges will still take a critical look at students’ grades from before the pandemic, as well as the ones they receive in the fall (assuming schools are back in session then), they may place a heavier weight on other parts of their applications—including personal essays, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation—that demonstrate not just their work ethic, but their character as well.

Essay prompts, for instance, may ask students to describe what challenges they faced during the pandemic, and how they worked to address them, explains Hill. And students who found ways to help their community, such as grocery shopping for immunocompromised neighbors, might stand out among other applicants.

Colleges may also look for more ways students challenged themselves academically, both during the pandemic and throughout their high school careers,“whether that’s taking an online community college class [or] doing research for their own personal project,” says Hill.

But Hill acknowledges these changes may create more barriers for low-income students, who may not have the time or resources to be involved in their community or take on additional academic work.

Instead, they may have to work a part-time job, in addition to other responsibilities, in order to support their families.

“The jobs that work for them…don’t typically lend towards a lot of professional growth,” she adds. “But that doesn’t mean that…their essays won’t compel colleges to really think critically about what the particular circumstances were that they had to live through.”

Longtime counselor Parke Muth worries that college budget cuts could also put low-income applicants at a greater disadvantage. With universities currently “losing millions or, in some cases, billions from their endowment,” they may reduce their admissions staff, as well as offer less financial aid.

“If you say you’re going to look at [applications] holistically, but you have a smaller staff and resources, how do you do that?” says Muth, who worked in the UVA admissions office for over 30 years.

And at the many colleges that have gone test-optional for the next academic year (due to the ACTs and SATs being pushed back to June and August, respectively), it’s also unclear how schools will compare applicants with test scores to those without them, Muth points out. He encourages rising seniors to still take one, or both, of the tests—if they don’t get a good score, they can choose not to include it with their applications.

According to Adam Southall, a college counselor at Monticello High School, colleges have said that they aren’t going to hold students’ circumstances against them. While he is hopeful that admissions offices “will continue to do the same holistic practices they always have,” he remains concerned for marginalized kids.

“I have a feeling that it won’t be for another year that we see the educational fallout,” he adds. “Who got left behind?”

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(Don’t) take it down: Removal of Cale black history poster sparks backlash

Several Cale parents and teachers, along with other community members, came to last Thursday’s school board meeting to express their concerns over the removal of a black history poster. PC: staff photo

On February 10, local conservative radio host Rob Schilling posted a photo of a Black History Month poster from Cale Elementary School on his blog, with the headline “Fomenting dissension at Cale Elementary.” Three days later, Albemarle County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Haas left a comment agreeing that the poster was causing dissension among students, and said it was coming down that afternoon.

That decision—and the response to Schilling before the school community was officially notified—angered many Cale parents, teachers, and staff, along with other local residents, several of whom came to the February 27 school board meeting to express their concerns.

Cale teachers Lori Ann Stoddart and Katie Morgans read a collective statement signed by 33 teachers and staff at the school, some choosing to sign “X” instead of their names out of fear of being fired. 

“Matt Haas’ actions have done harm to the teachers, students, and families of the Mountain View/Cale Elementary community,” Stoddart said. “People of color within our staff, student body, and families feel demeaned and disrespected by the removal of a poster that contained nothing but historical fact and was used as instructional material for teachers in our school.”

The poster, written in colorful letters on yellow laminated paper, read: “Dear Students, They didn’t steal slaves. They stole scientists, doctors, architects, teachers, entrepreneurs, astronomers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc. and made them slaves. Sincerely, your ancestors.” It was based on a poster Jovan Bradshaw, a teacher at Magnolia Middle School in Mississippi, created for her classroom for Black History Month last year.

Both in his comments on Schilling’s blog and at the meeting, Haas agreed that the poster’s message was “true and compelling.” But he said because the school’s Black History Month committee did not plan an academic program for the poster, it “spawned destructive confrontations between students who obviously lacked the mature perspective to understand the intent of the message.”

Although the same poster was put up in the school’s cafeteria last year, and didn’t cause any issues, Haas said at the meeting that this year’s poster was bigger, and placed outside the school’s main office, where it was much more visible.

He said about a dozen staff members reported to Cale Principal Cyndi Wells that the poster was “divisive,” and caused disagreements among students. Wells called him, he said, to discuss the issue and, after conferring with the school board’s legal counsel and Phil Giaramita, ACPS’ strategic communications officer, they decided to take the poster down.

ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas took heat for the removal of a Black History Month poster. PC: Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County

 

In addition to not providing an “age-appropriate context” for the poster, Cale’s Black History Month committee, which includes about a dozen teachers, did not receive approval to put up the poster from Wells, who became principal last July, Haas explained. Stoddart and Morgans believe that Haas unfairly blamed Cale’s teachers.

“By abruptly removing the poster and falsely claiming that Mountain View/Cale teachers were not using the poster instructionally, Matt Haas robbed our school community of the opportunity for learning about and understanding each other,” Stoddard said during the meeting. “When Matt Haas could have led our school and our county in a bold conversation of our shared past, he chose instead to pander to those who did not want our community to evolve.”

Cale parent Tannis Fuller was particularly displeased with Haas’ communication about the poster’s removal. She said that on February 13, several hours after Haas left his comment on Schilling’s blog, she received a vague email from Wells about the poster, but nothing from Haas. 

“Am I to understand that Haas found it more important to assure a community not affected by the poster that the poster was coming down, than to assure the faculty, staff, and students of Cale that he had their backs?” Fuller asked. “To whom is Matt Haas accountable? The readers of the blog or the faculty, staff, and students of Cale?”

Haas, however, did not view his comments on Schilling’s blog as problematic.

“If I’m made aware that someone has posted something about the school system on their site, whatever I communicate I’m going to put it on that site. I also did it on the Hate-Free Schools [Coalition of Albemarle County] Facebook page,” he said. “That’s just what I do.” 

Hate-Free Schools member Amanda Moxham emphasized that the poster needed to be put back up, and encouraged the school to have a discussion with students about the controversy surrounding it.

“These are the conversations that need to be held at a young age so that when our students get to high school, they’re not combating each other over these ideologies,” Moxham said. 

Following public comment, Haas admitted he “often makes mistakes, especially in terms of my communication style,” and offered a formal apology. But he added that “we all need to take ownership,” and said “there was more that the school staff could have done prior to using the poster to set the stage for a positive dialogue and outcome.”

Cale’s Black History Month committee is currently working with the school’s administration, as well as with Dr. Bernard Hairston, assistant superintendent for school community empowerment, to determine what to do next. Hairston has also met with some African American parents at Cale, who suggested that “with the proper support and context and information, the poster could be [put] back on display,” Haas said.

“I support that…and I think that would be a great next step,” he said. “Someone might say, ‘Well, it’s too late because it was a part of African American History Month.’ But I would also say that it’s not one month out of the year…that’s part of reframing the narrative.” 

Correction 3/6: the Hate-Free Schools member who spoke at ACPS’s School Board meeting on 2/27 is named Amanda Moxham, not Maxhom.

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No service: Looking to curb distraction, some schools ban phones in class

Students at the Renaissance School are required to leave their cell phones in boxes in the front office for the bulk of the school day. PC: Courtesy of Renaissance School

By Alexis Gravely

All of the nearly 50 students at the Renaissance School have their own mailbox in the front office. But as the teens walk into the Charlottesville private school every day, they’re not dropping papers into them—they’re dropping their cell phones.

The students can check their phones between classes and have them at lunch. But when it’s time for them to focus on academics, the devices are away and not a distraction. It’s become a part of the school’s culture, says Sara Johnson, head of school at Renaissance.

“We want them to have freedom, but in the classroom, the learning process is the priority,” Johnson says.

As cell phone ownership among teens and pre-teens increases, school officials have had to wrestle with how students use their phones during the day. According to Common Sense Media, over half of 11-year-olds own cell phones and over 80 percent of 14-year-olds do. Yet, research shows that cell phones can do more to hinder students than help them. 

That was the conclusion that a group of sixth graders at Henley Middle School drew last winter. The students were tasked with reviewing Albemarle County Public Schools’ technology policy and making recommendations to Principal Beth Costa about how it could be changed or improved. 

Originally, ACPS middle schoolers were only allowed to use their cell phones at lunch. Soon, more students were having them at more times of the day, and teachers noticed them becoming distractions during class.

“A lot of the kids were saying we need to limit our own use,” Costa says. “It was an overwhelming response to what they had learned through this project.”

By August, their recommendation became a reality when ACPS rolled out a new policy that banned all middle school students from carrying cell phones during the school day. Teachers and school staff are also adhering to the rules. 

“We want schools to always be healthy, welcoming, and supportive for all students,” an email to families said. “That’s why, after considerable reflection, we have decided that effective Wednesday, August 21 (the first day of school), our students no longer will be permitted to carry personal cell phones with them during any part of the school day.”

Now, a little over two months into the school year, Costa says the new policy has largely been successful. 

“We aren’t having any issues from our students or the community,” Costa says. “We’ve had fewer than five instances where a kid has had their phone out.”

Costa says parents’ support of the policy has helped create a smoother transition. Prior to the rule change, Costa contacted families to let them know they were considering it. She says she received over 275 responses, which overwhelmingly supported what the county is calling “Away for the Day.”

Lisa Medders, the parent of a seventh grader who attends Sutherland Middle School, says that although her son doesn’t have a cell phone, she appreciates the policy because of its consistency across all middle school grades and all Albemarle County middle schools.

“I was thrilled that the new policy was changing to ‘Away for the Day’ for all grades because I have heard several parents and teachers comment on the distraction that cell phones have caused in the classroom,” Medders says.

Phones are still allowed at both city and county public high schools. Charlottesville High School Principal Eric Irizarry says he doesn’t see phones as a school-wide issue and would prefer not to have a blanket, zero-tolerance policy. 

“With students, it’s trying to teach them where problems arise with cell phone use,” Irizarry says. “We try to come at it from a constructive and a teachable moment perspective because the reality is, they’re not going away.”

At Buford Middle School, Principal Jesse Turner says students are allowed to have phones in the classroom but are only supposed to use them for instructional purposes. They are also able to use them during lunch and other “loosely-structured times.”

“I understand from the viewpoint of a parent, the need to want to contact your child immediately,” Turner says. However, he says he’s noticed that the phones can be a disruption, even if they stay in students’ pockets. He also says that when conflicts arise, cell phones are often involved.

“I personally would like to see us be able to go to a system where phones are not allowed at all,” Turner says. “Because it’s not policy, I try to communicate to children that I’m going to trust them.”

School leaders at Buford have established consequences for misuse. Turner adds that if schools are going to allow phones, they will continue to need assistance from parents and guardians to ensure students are adhering to the guidelines.

Alexis Gravely is a student teacher at an Albemarle County elementary school.

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What’s in a name?: Behind the recommendation to rename Cale Elementary

Paul H. Cale Elementary School is now one step closer to having a new name. (Photo: Staff Photo)

By Ali Sullivan

The final meeting lasted just a few minutes. 

After months of investigation, an advisory committee determined that Paul H. Cale Elementary School—named after a former Albemarle County Public Schools superintendent—should change its name.

The recommendation comes nearly four months after the Cale Advisory Committee’s first meeting and almost a year since Lorenzo Dickerson, web and social media specialist for Albemarle County schools, uncovered a 1956 article in Commentary Magazine that set the process in motion.

Commenting on the possibility of integration in county schools, the article quotes Cale as saying, “What did the Negroes expect to happen next? What did they want?” The piece then paraphrases Cale’s other remarks, which were critical of integration.

In its research, the committee found no evidence that Commentary Magazine ever retracted or corrected these statements.

Dickerson, who’s also a local historian and filmmaker, included Cale’s comments as part of a presentation titled History of the Present, which he delivered to Western Albemarle High School in October 2018. Dickerson estimates that he’s the first to delve deeply into the county’s history of desegregation.

“We know a lot about the City of Charlottesville with the Charlottesville 12,” Dickerson said. “But the county itself hadn’t been researched a lot as far as desegregation.”

The name evaluation comes on the heels of protracted debate over whether to allow Confederate imagery in county schools—a months-long process that ended in February with Haas banning all symbols of white supremacy. Soon after the decision, the county school board unanimously adopted an antiracism policy, which in part guided the Cale committee’s research.

Throughout its investigation of Cale’s 22-year tenure as superintendent, the committee scrutinized meeting minutes and newspaper archives; it interviewed former students, teachers, and administrators, and gathered public input. Dennis Rooker, chair of the committee and a former member of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, estimates the committee reviewed 300 pages of written materials alongside the public hearings, which were largely attended by Cale’s supporters.

“Any time you have a public hearing, the people that are generally going to show up are the ones that have a personal interest,” Rooker said.

Rooker added that the committee balanced the loud input from Cale’s friends and family with written comments in favor of a name change, as well as interviews with black former Albemarle students who experienced the integration process firsthand.

Paul Cale Jr., Cale Sr.’s son, expressed concern that the committee’s method lacked objectivity—that it was only seeking to confirm that Cale Sr. intentionally slowed integration. 

“If you’re doing research, you should not just be trying to find negative things,” Cale Jr. said. “You should be trying to find positive things.”

Beyond the Commentary article, the committee found no evidence that Cale spoke publicly against integration. Under his purview, however, county schools didn’t integrate until 14 years after Brown v. Board of Education.

“Somebody had their foot on the brake,” Rooker said.

Although he laments that the process became “a referendum on somebody’s character,” Rooker added that—regardless of Cale’s reputation—many associate his tenure with the period of opposition to integration known as massive resistance.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t want to make this a judgment about his character,” Rooker said. “We wanted to make it a judgment about what is the best name for the school going forward.”

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‘Deeply and irreparably sorry:’ Student who threatened ‘ethnic cleansing’ apologizes

Superintendent Matt Haas read a public apology from the Albemarle teen who made a racist threat against CHS students. Staff photo

The 17-year-old Albemarle County student who threatened an “ethnic cleansing” at Charlottesville High in March, prompting a city-wide school closure for two days, has offered an apology in a letter written from the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center.

County schools Superintendent Matt Haas read the letter written by Joao Pedro Souza Ribeiro at a recent press conference.

“All students make mistakes and we want to be here to help them,” Haas said. “I think it will help people understand there is a person behind what happened.”

Ribeiro, who has no prior criminal record and whom prosecutors acknowledged showed no signs of carrying out violence, was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for making the anonymous threat on the message board 4chan.

The teen says he tried to delete the post almost immediately, but he acknowledged that his explanation “should not and will not” be acceptable to the community.

“That website represents all that I abhor in this world,” Ribeiro said about 4chan, parts of which have been a haven for white supremacists and hate speech. “I regret including racial slurs, including one that targeted my own demographic group and that of my friends. Looking back, I don’t really understand why I did it. Maybe I was looking for support from the hateful people who traffic in the embrace of violence so I could then reveal to them what I really believed and tell them that the joke was on them.”

The letter prompted surprisingly little response on social media, and students contacted for this piece did not respond to a request for comment. Jane Mills, whose daughter is a senior at Albemarle High School, had mixed feelings.

“I run Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry, and we get people doing court-ordered community service, and for some reason, the apology felt like somebody made him do it,” she says. “But like most parents of teenagers, who were dumb teenagers at one time, too, I tend to forgive those dumb judgments and I think we are probably likely to forgive this kid.”

Ribeiro said he’s sorry for letting down the community, and specifically his parents, who cry when they visit him in juvenile detention. “I had never seen my father cry before,” he added.

At the press conference, Haas detailed new measures to encourage students to report potential threats, including an anonymous reporting system and a cash reward.

But in this case, reporting was not the problem. When asked about what the schools are doing to prevent students from posting something like this in the first place, county schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita says it’s “impractical” to block internet access on school property, and one of the most effective ways to deter this behavior is by making students aware of the consequences.

“We’re trying to help students realize that images posted on social media don’t disappear simply because they are deleted and that the punishment can be severe,” he says, though he didn’t offer details.

Amanda Moxham, an organizer with the Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, says her group is “deeply concerned” by the lack of anti-racist eduction in local schools.

She says the county school system “has not acknowledged their role in sustaining a racist system that creates a culture in which making a racist threat is viewed as a joke.”

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Hate-free hats: Student challenges county schools’ new policy on first day

A student who challenged Albemarle Superintendent Matt Haas’ new interpretation of the dress code was sent home after refusing to remove a hat with Confederate imagery.

Just hours after Albemarle County Public Schools’ new interpretation of its dress code went into effect on March 12, a Western Albemarle High student was sent to the principal’s office. He had refused to remove a hat bearing the Confederate insignia.

ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas had emailed parents the previous day to announce a ban on the “wearing of clothing associated with organizations that promote white supremacy, racial division, hatred, or violence,” making clear that included Confederate imagery and the Nazi swastika.

Schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita stresses that the dress code itself has not changed. “It’s the same policy, which does not specify content and is viewpoint neutral,” he says. “But it does say that clothing that becomes disruptive to the learning environment is not permitted.”

While revising the dress code requires approval from the school board, Haas maintains he may interpret the policy within reasonable bounds. At the Albemarle County School Board’s February 14 meeting, he informally declared his intention to bar Confederate imagery on clothing, using the harm and disruption standard of the county’s current dress code.

Shortly before the meeting, the School Health Advisory Board issued a report concluding that the presence of Confederate imagery would likely impact the ability of students of color to learn and feel safe at school. Haas and school board members David Oberg and Katrina Callsen invoked the report when explaining their support for a ban.

Teachers and administrators have been instructed to respond to violations by notifying the principal, who will call students to the front office and inform them that their clothing is prohibited. Students may not return to class until they have removed or inverted their attire.

At Western Albemarle last week, the student’s father opted to check him out of school.

According to Giaramita, enforcement is not geared toward discipline. For this to work, “it needs to be an act of education or counseling,” he says. “But if a student refuses and continues to show up with the imagery on clothing, it becomes an act of defiance.”

Acts of defiance are punishable by suspension, enforced homeschool, or expulsion, though Giaramita says expulsion is unlikely. (The student is now back in school.)

The new interpretation exempts imagery that has an educational purpose, such as in textbooks and historical films. Notably, the drama department at Western performed The Sound of Music, complete with swastikas and students playing SS guards, that same week. “It’s a matter of context,” says Giaramita, adding that the drama director brought in a history teacher to talk to students about World War II, the German takeover of Austria, and the Nazi regime.

Free speech has figured prominently in the debate over Confederate imagery in schools. Several members of the school board have questioned the legality of a ban, citing an infamous case in 2002, in which Alan Newsom sued after he was forced to wear his NRA T-shirt inside out at Jack Jouett Middle School.

When asked about the new interpretation, his father, Fred Newsom, says he thought that issue had been settled with Alan’s lawsuit. “If only popular speech is protected, there’s really no right of free speech,” he says. “It comes down to if there’s a disruption. I can understand the motivation to try to avoid a disruption.”

ACPS legal counsel Ross Holden advised Haas that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld bans of disruptive clothing if the dress code itself is content neutral, says Giaramita.

The Albemarle County School Board is scheduled to discuss hateful imagery on clothing at its April 11 meeting.

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‘Order over justice’: Community further criticizes school board

Lisa Woolfork, an associate professor at UVA, said the Albemarle County School Board’s decision to have protesters arrested at its last meeting was a “complete embarrassment, and a moral failure.” eze amos

“You can jail revolutionaries, but you can’t jail the revolution,” were the words scrawled on a giant white sign held by a man in sunglasses.

It was the first meeting of the Albemarle County School Board since the August 30 one where six anti-racist activists were arrested and hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly being disruptive, and where one was sent to the hospital after a police officer knocked him to the ground.

This time, things were more peaceful—board chair Kate Acuff only threatened to have one community member removed for clapping.

Activists with groups such as Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County have put intense pressure on the board for over a year to make county schools more inclusive and safe for all students—by, among other things, banning Confederate imagery currently permitted in the school division’s dress code. In response, a panel of nine volunteer students has been tasked with writing an anti-racism policy that will be implemented at all county schools, says school spokesperson Phil Giaramita, and a re-examination of the dress-code policy could happen subsequently.

Albemarle County School Board Chair Kate Acuff threatened to have one community member removed for clapping at the September 18 meeting. eze amos

That response has not satisfied activists, who want Confederate imagery banned now, and who have been outraged at the school board’s aggressive attempts to limit dissent.

Tension was high at the September 18 meeting, and Superintendent Matthew Haas, perhaps hoping to set a new tone, began with a statement declaring that county and city schools will join together to end racism and discrimination in their hallways, and close opportunity gaps.

“Discrimination against diverse people of color is still deeply ingrained in American culture,” he said. “Whether we call it racism or systemic bias, it results in inequitable opportunities for African American and Latino students.”

But the nearly 20 community members who had signed up for public comment wanted to talk specifics.

After a warning that any sounds of support or non-support could result in ejection from the meeting, a retired Henley Middle School teacher of 25 years stood up to speak.

Margie Shepherd said she had successfully argued before the board a decade ago that students using hate speech should be disciplined, and now the same conversation has resurfaced.

Because those who agreed with her weren’t allowed to cheer, or even snap, they silently waved their hands in support as Shepherd said Confederate symbols “make schools less welcome and less safe for our students of color.”

Matthew Christensen spoke next, and criticized the board for not being open to two-way communication, which it promises in its code of conduct.

“Each and every one of you needs to think very long and very hard about who you are and what you want to represent to this community,” Christensen said.

School board members are aware of the danger they’re putting students in by allowing such “traumatizing imagery” in schools, he claimed.

“And yet you do nothing,” he said. “You pretend to care about our children. You pretend to care about our community, and yet, you have shown over and over again that you don’t.”

Lisa Woolfork, an associate professor at UVA, called the board hostile, and said its decision to have activists arrested was a “fetishization of order over justice,” a “complete embarrassment, and a moral failure.”

While the board made no apologies for the previous meeting’s arrests, school board member Graham Paige, a retired teacher of 30 years, stayed back to talk with some of the remaining activists. “A dress code and anti-racism policy that benefits all of our students is really the mutual goal of Hate-Free Schools and the board,” he said.

The board will next meet September 27. And the activists have promised they’ll be there, too.

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Safe and sound: New locks, ID scanners at county schools

Albemarle Schools’ Lindsay Snoddy demonstrates an identification scanner, a new addition to keep county school kids safe. Photo by Eze Amos

Walking into an Albemarle County school, a parent may notice new security measures. Although some are subtle, others, like a new identification scanning system, are hard to miss. In an era in which deranged gunmen have been known to target school children, local administrators say they are working to make sure students and teachers are as safe as possible.

In early September, Governor Terry McAuliffe awarded $6 million in school security equipment grants to schools across the commonwealth, and Albemarle County received $83,914. The funds will go to upgrading security cameras at the three high schools—Albemarle, Western Albemarle and Monticello—and to making improvements to classroom doors at Brownsville, Hollymead, Stony Point and Woodbrook elementary schools, according to county schools spokesman Phil Giaramita.

“In the elementary schools, we are expanding a program that began last year—improving locks on classroom doors and installing protective film on classroom door windows,” Giaramita says in an e-mail. “Both of these measures increase the difficulty of an intruder being able to enter a classroom.”

Lindsay Snoddy, assistant director of building services for environmental, health and safety for the school district, says the button locks are an extra protection for teachers or administrators.

“It makes it easier for teachers to lock down, if they are in that situation,” she explains. “It just takes out that one extra step of needing to know where your key is and having it on your person.”

The emphasis on efficiency and a quick response is central to this new technology shift, and Snoddy says the new security measures were carefully selected. The district keeps an eye on what area schools are doing, and it runs a pilot program before instituting a new initiative district-wide.

One new security measure, the identification-scanning system, is becoming operational at all schools, but is not part of the state funding, Giaramita says.

The system asks visitors to provide a government-issued identification. Then their name is run through the sexual offenders database to make sure the visitor isn’t prohibited from entering the school.

Crystal Myers has children who attend an elementary school in the district. She says she is onboard with all the changes being implemented, and she believes the ID scanning is beneficial.

“I think it’s important that the school systems remain up to date with safety,” Myers says. “You want to know who is sitting next to your child at lunch.”

Others, such as former school board member Gary Grant, have raised questions about the program and how undocumented parents—who may be in the country illegally—will be able to gain access to schools.

Snoddy says there are different ways a parent can enter, such as with a Social Security card or military or work ID. She also says if the visitor is known to the office staff and can answer a series of questions about the child, then access will be granted.

In all, the school district says it has gotten positive feedback about the new safety measures. Snoddy says the district has received this type of state funding for the past four years and has continued to improve its safety system.