{"id":1129093,"date":"2021-12-17T17:13:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T22:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1129093"},"modified":"2021-12-17T17:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T22:14:00","slug":"virginia-parents-move-to-recall-school-board-member-who-opposed-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-parents-move-to-recall-school-board-member-who-opposed-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Parents Move To Recall School Board Member Who Opposed Reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvirginia-parents-move-to-recall-school-board-member-who-opposed-reopening%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1129093&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"30.719512195122\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/\">Campus<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Parents say remote learning harms student performance, mental health<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.30.43-PM_736x514.png\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.30.43-PM_736x514.png 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.30.43-PM_736x514-300x210.png 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-17-at-3.30.43-PM_736x514-703x491.png 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tLaura Jane Cohen \/ Fairfax County Public Schools\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/alex-nester\/\" title=\"Posts by Alex Nester\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Alex Nester<\/a> \u2022 December 17, 2021 5:00 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"112.89285714286\">\n<p>Parents in Virginia&#8217;s largest school district collected enough signatures to recall a school board member who ignored parental concerns and kept schools closed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Open Fairfax County Public Schools, a bipartisan coalition of parents, on Wednesday filed with a county circuit court a petition to recall school board member Laura Jane Cohen. The group accuses Cohen of ignoring studies that showed reopening was safe and keeping students isolated from peers for more than a year was harmful for their mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Republican candidates swept Virginia&#8217;s statewide elections in November, victories many attributed to parents&#8217; frustration with school closures. But that momentum may not be enough to recall Cohen, who was not up for reelection this cycle. A local attorney backed by left-wing megadonor George Soros quashed Open Fairfax County Public Schools&#8217; attempt to recall a school board member.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Thursday, Open Fairfax Public Schools founder Dee O&#8217;Neal Jackson said the 8,000 signatures gathered show the group&#8217;s mission resonates with the community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For over 18 months, the Fairfax County School Board has focused on every political issue of the day,&#8221; O&#8217;Neal Jackson said. &#8220;In turn, [it] has not focused on what&#8217;s best for our students and families in Fairfax County.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A judge will verify the authenticity of the signatures and decide whether to hold a trial and special election to replace Cohen. The coalition also wants to recall at-large school board member Abrar Omeish, who in May came under fire after she in two social media posts&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/virginia-school-board-member-makes-anti-israel-social-media-posts\/\">referred<\/a> to Israel as an &#8220;apartheid&#8221; state.<\/p>\n<p>Open Fairfax Public Schools in July petitioned to recall school board member Elaine Tholen. Like Cohen, Tholen also voted against reopening schools. But the group&#8217;s efforts were tanked by a progressive prosecutor backed by Soros.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Washington<\/em> <em>Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/soros-backed-attorney-kills-effort-to-recall-school-board-member-who-fought-reopening\/\">reported<\/a> in August that Commonwealth&#8217;s Attorney James Hingeley (D.) dismissed the coalition&#8217;s case after he was appointed to represent the group. Hingeley received $5,000 from Soros&#8217;s Justice and Safety PAC during the 2019 election cycle, in which he campaigned alongside Tholen.<\/p>\n<p>Fairfax County commonwealth&#8217;s attorney Steve Descano (D.), who received $600,000 from Soros during his campaign, tapped Hingeley after he recused himself from the case because he is facing his own recall.<\/p>\n<p>Before Fairfax parents recalled Cohen, she sent a fundraising email in which she referred to Open Fairfax County Public Schools as a Republican &#8220;dark money&#8221; operation. Cohen said &#8220;rabid&#8221; parents have &#8220;taken over&#8221; school board meetings with demands to burn books, spread &#8220;misinformation&#8221; about the coronavirus pandemic, and promote &#8220;hateful speech&#8221; about LGBT people.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neal Jackson told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> that Cohen&#8217;s email was &#8220;tone-deaf.&#8221; She noted that Open Fairfax County Public Schools is a bipartisan effort united by the belief that keeping schools closed is harmful to kids.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the pandemic, Virginia was one of the worst-ranked states for student <a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/nationsreportcard\/subject\/publications\/studies\/pdf\/2021036.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">performance<\/a>. Most Fairfax students spent more than one year learning remotely and didn&#8217;t return to the classroom until April 2021. Closing schools for months and leaving children to learn at home had a detrimental impact on students&#8217; reading and math performance, initial test scores show.<\/p>\n<p>The school board&#8217;s &#8220;indifference was disgusting,&#8221; O&#8217;Neal Jackson told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;They just seemed like they didn&#8217;t care. It&#8217;s really hard to swallow that they were not really invested in our kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Parents across the country this year clashed with school boards over coronavirus mitigation strategies and radical curriculum changes. Grassroots organizations in <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/hgtv-stars-sister-elected-to-fix-up-school-district-plagued-by-critical-race-theory\/\">Texas<\/a> and elsewhere <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/school-board-elections-offer-referendum-on-woke-agenda\/\">bolstered<\/a> slates of candidates who oppose school closures and radical race and gender ideology&#8217;s infiltration into the classroom.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campus Parents say remote learning harms student performance, mental health  Laura Jane Cohen \/ Fairfax County Public Schools  Alex Nester \u2022 December 17, 2021 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1129093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}