Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center

New additions

Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed five new members to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors on June 28. With this slate of selections, 13 members of the BOV are now Youngkin appointees and hold a majority of the board.

The BOV comprises 17 voting members and is responsible for approval of policies, the university’s budget, and long-term planning. Appointees are eligible to serve up to two four-year terms and must be confirmed by the Virginia General Assembly.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, three of the five appointees—Dan Brody, Marvin Gilliam Jr., and David Webb—made major contributions to Youngkin’s 2021 campaign for governor.

Brody, an Albemarle County resident and president of Health Data Services, graduated from UVA with an economics degree in 1973. He also donated $25,000 to the Youngkin campaign in 2021, according to VPAP. Additionally, he contributed $30,000 dollars to Spirit of Virginia—a Political Action Committee heavily associated with Youngkin—and $25,000 to the governor’s Inaugural Committee.

A graduate of UVA CLAS ’82, Webb now lives in Virginia Beach and is the vice chairman of commercial real estate giant CBRE’s Capital Markets Group. VPAP data indicates that Webb contributed $84,000 to the Youngkin campaign, $25,000 to Spirit of Virginia, and $400 to Youngkin’s Inaugural Committee.

A former coal mining executive, Gilliam is a returning face to the BOV, having previously served on the Board from 2010 to 2014. Public campaign donation records indicate that Gilliam gave $120,000 to Youngkin’s 2021 campaign, the largest contribution of those appointed this year. Gilliam has an extensive record of campaign donations to Republicans across Virginia, including $150,000 to the Spirit of Virginia PAC and $50,000 to Youngkin’s Inaugural Committee.

The two other appointees, Dr. David Okonkwo and Porter Wilkinson, do not appear to have donated to Youngkin based on information from VPAP. Okonkwo currently serves as a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh, while Wilkinson is the counselor and chief of staff for the Smithsonian Board of Regents.

Drawing connections

Local artists from the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center and the Starr Hill Pathways program got the opportunity
to show off their artwork in student commissions for the Equity Center at the University of Virginia. The commissions were highlighted at the annual Starr Hill Pathways Student Expo on June 28 at John Paul Jones Arena.

The art installations are part of a collaboration between the Equity Center, the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, the Charlottesville Mural Project, and BRJDC intended to center the voices of local youth in each piece.

For their project, creatives from BRJDC made three fabric murals measuring the same size as the detention center doors. The fabric murals are on display at the Equity Center’s office on the Downtown Mall at 201 W. Main St.

The Starr Hill Pathways mural, created by students in the Creative Arts pathway of the program, highlights local youth’s interpretation of diversity. The mural, which features the word “diversity” in bright colors amid blossoming roots, is also located in the Equity Center.

Crash into me

Former Dave Matthews Band violinist Boyd Tinsley was charged with Driving Under the Influence on June 24 in Albemarle County. Neither driver was injured as a result of the two-vehicle crash, but Albemarle County Police arrested Tinsley at the scene on suspicion of DUI. Tinsley is out on bond but is currently dealing with other legal issues surrounding a potential breach of settlement connected to the sexual assault allegations that prompted him to leave DMB in 2018. Tinsley’s arrest is not expected to have any impact on, let alone ruin, DMB’s current tour.

Change of pace

As of July 1, Virginia motorists are subject to new laws passed by the General Assembly, impacting uninsured motorists, farm use vehicles, disabled parking placards, and owners of manufactured homes. Drivers without insurance can no longer pay an uninsured vehicle fee and are now required to attain coverage at or exceeding Virginia’s liability limits. Other changes include the replacement of informal farm use placards with official Department of Motor Vehicles-issued plates, the elimination of the fee for disabled parking placards, and a new process for proof of ownership transfer for manufactured homes. For more information on these changes, visit dmv.virginia.gov.

Higher power

Former Cavalier Bridget Williams soared to new heights at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials on June 30, winning the women’s pole vaulting final. Williams, née Guy, graduated from the University of Virginia in 2019 and was thrice named an All-American during her time in Charlottesville. Williams will represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics later this month.

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

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.”