by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury
August 18, 2025

With friction growing between the public and school leaders over policy decisions, Fairfax County Public Schools is in the process of hiring security for its superintendent due to the need for additional protection over safety concerns.

The move has left legislative leaders curious if similar proposals could occur at other school divisions around the region and beyond, as school leaders continue to be challenged by the public and face investigations for their decisions.

“I think that our superintendents do not want to have to spend their very scarce resources on something like this,” said Del. Laura Jane Cohen, D-Fairfax, a former Fairfax County school board member. “And I honestly believe, if you see this in Fairfax County, it is highly likely that these threats are happening all over the country.” 

The Mercury confirmed that school divisions in Falls Church City, and the counties of Loudoun, Prince William, Rapphannock and Frederick have not appropriated funds specifically for their superintendent’s security. 

Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school division in the commonwealth, is likely the first to take such action. In a statement, FCPS told reporters that the “highly publicized tragic events around the country over the last several months illustrate the need to intensify and enhance security protocols at all organizations.”

Fairfax’s policy decisions have made targets of Superintendent Michelle Reid, the school board, and even staff, dating back as far as the pandemic. Chief among its critics have been parents, lawmakers and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.

Some of the board’s decisions include overhauling school admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to promote greater diversity and resisting statewide transgender policies that would have forced schools to out transgender students or restrict pronoun use.

Fairfax, along with four other school divisions — Alexandria City, Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William — was also the subject of a federal investigation that determined their gender policies violated Title IX. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights proposed that the divisions rescind their policies and adopt biology-based definitions of the words “male” and “female” in all practices and policies relating to Title IX.

The division is also facing a criminal investigation after school staff were alleged to have helped minors get abortions without parental consent. Reid has denied the allegations.

The division did not immediately respond to questioning.

Cohen said threats against school board members have stretched back to her time on the board between 2020 and 2023. During those years, she said someone would be assigned to follow her to her car or from other buildings.

Cohen said she feels confident in the office’s decision, given their assistance with her own security while she was on the board. She faced threats and successfully had a petition against her removal dismissed.

“If there are credible threats on her life, not only do you want to make sure that she’s protected, but you want to make sure that every time she goes into a school or is meeting with anybody that she is not a liability,” Cohen said.

In July, FCPS posted the job opening for an “executive protection agent” to work on a 260-day contract. The job would pay between $84,000-$144,000 per year. 

The job posting reads that the agent is responsible for “ensuring the personal safety, security, and operational continuity of the division superintendent across school campuses, public events, official travel, and private residences. This role requires discretion, professionalism, proactive risk management, and continuous coordination with internal stakeholders and external partners, including law enforcement.”  

During the same month, the school board met to discuss “public safety matters” and to “dispense with the attendance of the superintendent” during a portion of the closed session on July 17.

Following the job posting’s publication, WJLA reported that the security detail could consist of up to four positions. 

The Virginia School Board Association (VSBA) and School Board Member Alliance (SBMA) did not directly answer if they have concerns that Fairfax’s decision will set a precedent for hiring superintendents.

Instead, Gina Patterson, VSBA executive director, said in a statement that the decision made by the Fairfax County School Board is an example of their local control. 

“If the board and superintendent determined that this course of action was appropriate, it reflects their judgment on what they believe to be in the best interest of both their superintendent and their school division,” Patterson said.

In contrast, Shelly Norden, SBMA executive director, said the alliance believes the school board should instead prioritize more security officers at Fairfax’s elementary schools before the superintendent, costing the division at least $424,000 annually. She pointed out that the security detail could be an added expense considering there is already security at public events like board meetings and at the central administrative office.

“Adding a dedicated private security detail to these benefits would represent a further significant expense to taxpayers,” Norden said in a statement. “The school board holds the authority to approve or deny such requests. With declining enrollment and constrained budgets, this decision appears to prioritize administrative convenience over student safety.”

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

The post Fairfax will hire security for its superintendent. Could Va. see this elsewhere? appeared first on virginiamercury.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article provides a factual account of Fairfax County Public Schools hiring security for its superintendent but frames the issue through the lens of Democratic lawmakers and school officials, highlighting threats tied to progressive policies on diversity, transgender rights, and Title IX. It acknowledges criticism from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and parents but gives more space to voices defending the superintendent’s need for protection. The inclusion of supportive quotes from Democratic leaders and emphasis on threats to school officials leans slightly sympathetic toward progressive positions, though opposing views on cost and priorities are also presented, balancing the tone somewhat.

SUMMARY: A bit cooler Monday with highs in the low to mid 80s. Hurricane Erin, a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds, is moving toward the eastern Southeast Bahamas and expected to weaken midweek near Hatteras and Bermuda. Despite weakening, the broad system will cause heavy surf, strong coastal winds with gusts over 40 mph, rip currents, and coastal flooding, especially midweek into Thursday. Thunderstorms south of Richmond are slowing but may last several more hours with significant rain. Tomorrow, cooler air and clouds will keep highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, with a 30% chance of rain. Central Virginia sees minimal impact from Erin.

A bit cooler Monday with highs in low to mid 80s.

Source

by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury
August 15, 2025

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears dropped by an American Legion office in Midlothian on Thursday, a stop on her “Operation Defend and Deliver” campaign event series.

She and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, emphasized their aim to elevate the lieutenant governor to the executive mansion next year and flip the House of Delegates to their party’s control.

Youngkin touts Va.’s $4.7 billion cash cushion, downplays Medicaid, federal workforce changes

Earle-Sears’ speech was partially a victory lap touting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and a projected $4.7 billion cash cushion for next year that the governor announced Thursday. It was also an echo of Youngkin’s winning 2021 campaign themes, like parental oversight concerning their children’s education and support for law enforcement.

“Parents still matter!” she said enthusiastically as the crowd of about 100 cheered. 

Earle-Sears lambasted her democratic opponent, former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, and alleged that Spanberger “voted to defund the police and end qualified immunity.”

Spanberger — who  scolded other congressional Democrats in 2020 for using the controversial “defund the police” phrasing and said it was partially why her party lost seats in the 2022 elections — has a background working for the Central Intelligence Agency and routinely expressed support for law enforcement. She also proposed a bill in 2021 to “study proactive strategies and best practices to ensure the inclusion of community satisfaction and trust in policing performance measurement,” which was never brought up for a vote. 

When Earle-Sears noted how Spanberger received a donation from someone the Republican National Committee says is a member of the Communist Party of China, several in the audience gasped. 

“Abigail — give it back!” Earle-Sears said. 

The donor, Pin Ni, donated $50,000 to Spanberger’s campaign. Ni has also given nearly $70,000 to Republicans between the RNC and National Republican Campaign Committee in recent years, Virginia Scope reported. 

Money was another talking point during the Earle-Sears event, framed as both a celebration of Virginia’s current budget surplus and a call for more campaign cash for Earle-Sears and Republicans running in the House of Delegates. 

“I need your help,” she said. “We don’t work on assumptions.”

The candidates’ latest campaign finance reports, released in July, showed Earle-Sears raised $5.9 million from donors in the second quarter of this year and has amassed $11.6 million total since last fall. Spanberger raised $10.7 million over the second quarter and has added $27 million to her campaign coffers in total since November 2023. 

After months of silence about her running mate Republican John Reid — who was embroiled in a scandal over sexually explicit photos on a social media site and was asked to drop out of the lieutenant governor race by Youngkin — Earle-Sears acknowledged him as her would-be successor. 

As president of the state Senate, lieutenant governors are responsible to cast tie-breaking votes — an important responsibility, she stressed. 

Earle-Sears used the moment to take a jab at Reid’s opponent, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, who she critiqued for supporting the term “birthing people” in reproductive health legislation. While not as common as cisgender women, nonbinary or transgender people with uteruses have become pregnant and use of the term is meant to be inclusive. 

Connecting legislative battles over transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams to parental authority within public schools, Earle-Sears also accused members of the Democratic party of “erasing women.”

Earle-Sears wrote that she was “morally opposed” to an in-progress effort to enshrine reproductive rights like abortion, contraception and fertility treatment access in the state’s constitution when signing the legislation earlier this year.

Open letter to Earle-Sears reflects Va. voters’ shifting sentiments on reproductive health care

She also used her tie-breaking power to vote against a right-to-contraception bill that ultimately advanced due to a re-vote before facing Youngkin’s veto. Some Republicans signed onto a bipartisan letter this summer to tell Earle-Sears they would not vote for her because of their support for reproductive rights. 

Aside from rallying the crowd to support her party and taking jabs at Democrats, Earle-Sears also laid out goals she would like to achieve if elected governor. 

She said she planned to support legislation that would prevent the first $20,000 of law enforcement officers’ salaries from being taxed. 

“We need them and we don’t have enough of them,” she said. 

Reiterating an early campaign message from this past winter, Earle-Sears stressed her commitment to protecting Virginia’s right-to-work law. Right-to-work laws make it unlawful to deny employment based on union membership or refusal to join a union. Earle-Sears had supported a now-failed attempt to constitutionally enshrine the law earlier this year. 

Meanwhile, health care advocates rallied within earshot of Thursday’s campaign event, calling out Wittman’s and Earle-Sears’ support for the President Donald Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law last month.

A crowd of about 20 protesters gathered in a cul-de-sac outside of the American Legion Thursday. Earle-Sears called their presence “a wonderful thing” and said “We must ensure that continues in America.”

“It’s always fascinating to me that we can speak our minds,” Earle-Sears told her crowd of supporters inside about the protesters outside. 

Despite inter-party disagreements, himself included, Wittman voted this summer for the reconciliation bill that contains forthcoming changes to Medicaid and hospital funding mechanisms. He framed the law that Trump signed on July 4 as a way to ensure Medicaid sticks around for the long haul. 

The changes entail additional verification processes for recipients to prove they’re meeting work or educational requirements that occupy at least 80 hours a month. Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services director Cheryl Roberts told state lawmakers this summer that the changes will be challenging for localities and the Department of Social Services to process. 

Advocates, including some gathered outside of the Earle-Sears campaign event, have cautioned that thousands of Virginians could fall through the cracks in the new re-verification process and lose their health care. 

Chris Yates, a Bellevue resident who attended the protest, said Virginia’s low-income or already-struggling populations are going to be impacted by the changes first. 

“It’s designed that way,” he said. 

But Youngkin stressed Thursday morning that Virginians’ health care wouldn’t be impacted just because of the changes, a stance echoed by Earle-Sears and Wittman later in the day. 

“Changes to Medicaid are not ‘taking coverage away from anyone,’” Youngkin said during a presentation to state lawmakers in preparation for next year’s budget process. “No Virginians are losing their Medicaid coverage.”

Virginia lawmakers, health officials brace for Medicaid changes

While the changes won’t take effect until after next year’s congressional midterms, Yates has his eye on Wittman and Earle-Sears. 

Sean Sublette, a former Richmond Times-Dispatch meteorologist and recently-announced Democratic challenger to Wittman, also attended the rally. 

Sublette said he feels like Wittman’s vote was “simply to satisfy Trump and Speaker (Mike) Johnson” and said that he’s concerned about the potential for hospitals trimming services or closing and patients having to travel further for care. 

While Wittman and Sublette each have more than a year to hit the ground for their own campaigns, the current congressman is stumping for Republicans in this year’s House and gubernatorial elections. 

Early voting is set to begin on Sep. 19, Wittman reminded the crowd, and he encouraged Republicans to vote early and tell at least 50 people they know to do the same.

With Democrats running candidates in all 100 of the House of Delegates seats this year, Wittman said “they’re all-in, we need to be all-in.” 

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

The post In Chesterfield, Earle-Sears slams Spanberger, revives Youngkin’s winning campaign slogans appeared first on virginiamercury.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This content primarily presents the perspective of Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and her campaign, highlighting conservative priorities such as support for law enforcement, parental oversight in education, opposition to certain reproductive rights expansions, and right-to-work laws. It also includes criticism of Democratic opponents and emphasizes Republican campaign efforts. While the article includes some context and opposing viewpoints, the focus on Republican messaging and framing of issues aligns it with a center-right political bias.