{"id":597381,"date":"2021-07-19T18:35:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T22:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=597381"},"modified":"2021-07-19T18:35:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T22:35:38","slug":"fairfax-county-parents-notch-victory-in-effort-to-recall-board-member-who-opposed-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fairfax-county-parents-notch-victory-in-effort-to-recall-board-member-who-opposed-reopening\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairfax County Parents Notch Victory in Effort To Recall 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\">28<\/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%2Ffairfax-county-parents-notch-victory-in-effort-to-recall-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=597381&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=\"29.571428571429\">\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 school board members put politics before students&#8217; needs<\/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\/07\/GettyImages-1271388822_736x514-736x514-1.jpg\" 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:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-371.jpeg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/GettyImages-1271388822_736x514-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/GettyImages-1271388822_736x514-703x491.jpg 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\tGetty Images\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 July 19, 2021 6:30 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"115.36134453782\">\n<p>A group of Fairfax County parents on Monday reached the signature threshold to recall a school board member who voted against reopening classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Open FCPS Coalition petitioned a Fairfax County Court judge to recall Elaine Tholen, who voted against reopening schools despite evidence that it was safe. The group collected more than 3,500 signatures from people who agreed Tholen was negligent in her duties to Fairfax County students, particularly those with special needs.<\/p>\n<p>The effort to recall Tholen is the latest response of Fairfax County parents to school officials\u2019 handling of the coronavirus pandemic. A group of parents opposed to the district\u2019s embrace of critical race theory last month <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/critical-race-theory-opponents-win-board-elections-at-nations-top-high-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won<\/a> seats on the Parent Teacher Student Association of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Fairfax County\u2019s elite, STEM-based high school.<\/p>\n<p>Tholen is one of three Fairfax County School Board members the coalition hopes to recall, members of the group told the <em>Washington Free Beacon.<\/em> The group is also campaigning against Laura Jane Cohen, who represents the Springfield district, and at-large member Abrar Omeish. Omeish came under fire in May when she <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/virginia-school-board-member-makes-anti-israel-social-media-posts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">referred<\/a> to Israel as an &#8220;apartheid&#8221; state in two social media posts.<\/p>\n<p>A judge will verify the authenticity of all signatures and decide whether to hold a special election to replace Tholen. It\u2019s not clear exactly when the judge\u2019s decision will be made or announced.<\/p>\n<p>Zia Tompkins, a parent and member of the Open FCPS Coalition, said that Fairfax County school board members put politics over students&#8217; needs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This school board, carrying out the bidding of the teachers&#8217; unions and for partisan political reasons, has chosen to willfully ignore science and the best practices of districts nationwide to stand in the way of our children&#8217;s right to a free and suitable education,&#8221; Tompkins said Monday at an event to celebrate the signature collection.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to failing to reopen schools, parents say Tholen failed to take stances on crucial issues and ignored constituents.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She hasn\u2019t really done anything,&#8221; Dee Jackson, a leader of the FCPS Coalition, told the <em>Free Beacon.<\/em> &#8220;She\u2019s pretty much not involved with her constituents, she\u2019s not present, she wouldn&#8217;t come to meetings a lot or come in person, and voted to abstain a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hemang Nagar, the father of a Fairfax County student with special needs, spoke at Monday\u2019s event. Learning online was disastrous for his daughter, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No amount of virtual learning can basically do anything for her. Virtual learning was an utter disaster for her and others like her. How can a group of elders in charge of her public education system not figure out at the very least how to get the special needs kids back in the classroom full time?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nagar said the district informed him that it had canceled summer programming for his daughter just 72 hours before it was scheduled to begin.<\/p>\n<p>Tompkins said the recall petition will &#8220;send a clear message to the Fairfax County School Board that our community must return to the business of putting education and the well-being of children first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our mission, from the inception of this effort, has been and remains to remove only those school board members who have chosen to abdicate their responsibility to fight for our kids to be back in person, in the classroom where they belong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The board has yet to present a plan to reopen schools for the 2021-2022 school year, according to members of the Open FCPS Coalition.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campus Parents say school board members put politics before students&#8217; needs  Getty Images  Alex Nester \u2022 July 19, 2021 6:30 pm A group &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597381","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\/597381","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597381\/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=597381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}