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Updated – July 8, 2024

On June 30, 2024, ABC 7 News reported, “The Fairfax County School Board unanimously voted Thursday to introduce changes to family life and sex education in public schools. The Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee … put forward a number of recommendations, including teaching intimate topics and gender identity to 7th graders.”

The report said 7th-grade students would watch a video called “Puberty 101.” The presentation includes discussions of sexuality and “people who don’t fit within a traditional binary gender system of male or female.”

The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) decision sparked negative reactions with a majority of parents stating these sexual topics are not for elementary-aged students and that parents should lead those discussions at home. One parent told ABC 7 News, “Introducing gender ideology in elementary school is inappropriate.”

According to the district’s website, students have access to LGBTQ resources and support on school grounds. Under the “Support for Gender-Expansive and Transgender Students” section, the district states:

“Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reason, shall be provided with reasonable, non-stigmatizing accommodations. Students shall not disclose private information about another student’s reason for seeking privacy … In accordance with School Board policy and Virginia Law, Regulation 2603 provides gender-expansive and transgender students with an equitable, safe, and supportive school environment.”

The regulations also stipulate that students should be called by their chosen name and pronouns, they will have access to bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their “gender identity,” and staff will receive “gender-expansive” training to better support students. The district doesn’t include whether parents will be notified of changes in their child’s gender identity.

The district’s “Family Life Education” is for grades 9-12 and includes the following information:

“Students are provided definitions for heterosexual, homosexual, and [sic] bisexual, and transgender and that all persons deserve to be treated with respect regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity … During grades eleven and twelve, students continue their study of sexually transmitted infections, contraception, and exploitation to include human trafficking and sexual assault.”

In an unrelated story on May 31, 2024, ABC 7 News reported, “The Fairfax County School Board is asking a judge to order a sexual abuse survivor to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in court fees after the sexual abuse survivor sued the school board.”

The source continued, “The former Fairfax County student alleged she was sexually assaulted and sexually harassed and that the Fairfax County School Board, teachers, and administrators failed to respond to complaints as required by Title IX appropriately.”

The victim claimed the abuse, at the hands of her peers, took place when she was in 7th grade at Rachel Carson Middle School. When reporting the crimes, she claimed the district didn’t respond appropriately. However, after being granted a jury trial, the school board was not found liable for damages. 

The victim — who initially sued the district for $22 million — is seeking a new trial while FCPS is requesting she pay up to $250,000 for the school board’s court fees. Information is still forthcoming in this case.

The School Board Watchlist will continue monitoring issues in Fairfax County Public Schools. Please send tips, updates, and information to [email protected]. 

Updated – January 11, 2024

A Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) board member took the oath of office with his hand on a stack of salacious novels. 

On December 14, 2023, The Daily Wire reported, “Karl Frisch, who will become chairman of the Fairfax County School Board, swapped the Bible for books including ‘Lawn Boy,’ ‘Gender Queer,’ and ‘Flamer’ [as his] male partner held the books…”

The Daily Wire also noted, “In September 2021, nearly all Fairfax school board members except Frisch fled the dais as a mother read passages from the books…”

The source also stated, “Frisch does not have any children, so his interest in schools is unclear, except as an avenue for LGBT activism and to advocate on behalf of staff as opposed to the people staff serve. His partner is a choral director for the school system.”

Other FCPS board members were also sworn into office using a stack of banned literature.

The Washington Post reported, “Kyle McDaniel…took his oath on ‘Homegoing’ by Ghanaian American author Yaa Gyasi…McDaniel said he hadn’t read the book before he selected it to be sworn in on; he just knew it had been challenged in other Virginia school districts, and its discussions of slavery piqued his interest.”

Board Member Rachna Sizemore Heizer was sworn in on “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn and “The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism” by Naoki Higashida. “Sizemore Heizer said she selected Zinn’s book because it was important to her to lift up a book that’s been challenged…[the] second book…broadened her perspective on neurodiversity,” according to The Washington Post.

In compliance with the First Amendment to the Constitution, board members Ricardy Anderson, Mateo Dunne, and Robyn Lady were sworn in on a Bible while Seema Dixit placed her hand on Hindu scriptures.

Please send information on Fairfax County Public Schools to [email protected]. 

Updated – December 5, 2023

On October 12, 2023, the Fairfax County Board of Education opened their meeting with a moment of silence for the Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists. Board member Abrar Omeish called the moment of silence a “sneak attack” and delivered a four-minute speech against Israel. She discouraged “humanizing” those murdered by Hamas, stating:

“It might seem simple, aggressors attacking families in a state seeking vengeance, but we often sympathize with and humanize the side that we relate to and the side that looks more like us, or that our biases guide us towards.” 

Omeish claimed “We do our students no favors by calling for peace” and used the social justice slogan “No justice, no peace.” She described Israel as “what global human rights organizations have called an apartheid regime of occupation that has been violating international agreements year after year and killing thousands of innocent civilians over decades.”

Omeish continued:

“When we allow only the Occupier’s narrative to exist and teach a filtered version of history that fosters dehumanization and hatred allowing horrors to unfold in the darkness. After all, one-sidedness is what allowed the occupation to continue, and it’s what facilitated this humanitarian crisis and escalation today. Meanwhile, misinformation, often called atrocity propaganda as a phenomenon, is flying around…” 

In 2021, Omeish refused to vote on a resolution to honor the lives of those killed by terrorists during the 9/11 attacks. She said the resolution was not “anti-racist” enough and didn’t address “state-sponsored traumas” experienced by Muslims.

“I vote against this today, because our omission of these realities causes harm. We’re levitating a traumatic event without sufficient cultural competence. The token phrasing around 9/11 is ‘Never Forget.’ As a nation we remember a jarring event, no doubt, but we chose to forget, as this resolution does, the fear, the ostracization, and the collective blame felt by Arab Americans, American Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus and all brown or other individuals that have been mistaken for Muslims since that day over the past two decades.”

Updated – June 6, 2023 

A Fairfax County Public School teacher has been arrested for sexual assault against a student. 

FFXNow reports that a student disclosed to staff members at James Madison High School that he was in an “inappropriate sexual relationship” with learning disabilities teacher Allieh Kheradmand, 33. 

“The Fairfax County PR Detectives were notified and assumed the investigation,” according to a statement by the Fairfax County Police Department. Continuing, they stated that, “Detectives determined Allieh Kheradmand, 33, of Reston had unlawful contact with a student over the past several months.”

Kheradmand is currently charged with four counts of indecent liberties by a custodian of a student and has been placed on administrative leave. She is being held without bond.  

In a statement released by the superintendent, the district attempted to ensure parents the matter is being taken “very seriously.” The full message is provided below:   

“Madison High School Families and Staff,

We need to inform you that Fairfax County police have announced that a teacher at Madison High School has been arrested and charged with four counts of indecent liberties by a custodian of a student. The employee has been placed on administrative leave.

In Madison and across FCPS, our primary responsibility is the safety and security of everyone who enters our doors. This is something we take very seriously. As educators, we are entrusted with the wellbeing of the children in our care every day. It deeply affects us when someone appears to have broken that trust. Please contact Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau if you have any information you would like to share at 703-246-7800, option 3.

If you have specific concerns about your student, please contact our main office or your child’s school counselor.  You can find your child’s school counselor on our website. School staff will support students in any way they need.”

Updated – March 9, 2023

Multiple scandals have engulfed Fairfax County Public Schools since the beginning of the 2023 Spring Semester. 

The Daily Mail reports that parents within the district received an email from Cooper McClain Elementary advertising college preparatory classes for 8th-grade students. They were shocked to learn that only “Black or African American students” and “Hispanic Students, of one or more race” were eligible to attend (email provided below). 

The district attempted to defend the restrictions in a statement, claiming that a “typical CPP (i.e. college preparatory) student was black and Hispanic” and that white and Asian students were not openly forbidden from attending. 

Another school—the nationally ranked Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHS) —is under investigation by the Virginia Attorney General as of March 8, 2023. TJHS is accused of withholding National Merit Awards from deserving students in order to promote “equity” within the district. 

TJHS further received over $1,000,000 in donations and grants from China since 2014 alone.   

In February of 2023, board member Abrar Omeish sparked outrage after describing the Battle of Iwo Jima as “evil:” 

“ Just something for us to reflect on as we learn our history and think about it. The days when Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for really what I hate to say human evil is capable of. So that’s something just to remember, especially actually [sic] in advance of Holocaust Remembrance Day.”   

A pivotal battle in the Second World War, nearly U.S. 7,000 Marines were killed and over 20,000 were wounded before capturing the island from the Japanese army. 

In a statement to ABC7, Omeish claimed she had been taken out of context and that any backlash to her remarks was Islamaphobic. Omeish nonetheless attempted to draw a moral equivalence between the Empire of Japan and America’s internment of Japanese citizens: 

“I am very disappointed my statements on Iwo Jima and the Japanese Day of Remembrance have been so misrepresented. I would like to set the record straight. Before the battle at Iwo Jima in Feb 1945, Japan knew it could not defend the island, but its government still demanded its military forces to fight to the death. Even though Lieutenant General Kuribayashi knew there was no possibility of winning the battle, Prime Minster Hideki Tojo sent him on a suicidal mission to inflict as many casualties as possible on allied forces and to never surrender. The unnecessary spilling of blood was not right.

“At the same time, our own government also knew in Feb. 1945 that the overwhelming number of 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans posed no threat to American security. By that time, the Japanese American 442 Infantry Regiment was already well on its way to becoming the most decorated American military unit in WWII. The refusal of our own government to release the Japanese prisoners was and should continue to be condemned. Our government’s actions were also not right. During the school board meeting, I mentioned both points to nuance our discussion regarding these events. The deliberate distortion of my statements is completely unfounded and frankly shocking. Truthfully, it is hard not to see how the distortion is not loaded with its own fears about me and driven by what is entirely unrelated to this subject: the false assumption articles like these depend on— that Muslim somehow implies anti-American.”

Omeish had previously elicited criticism after accusing the state of Israel of murdering Arabs and desecrating the Holy Land. 

Published  – October 4, 2021 

The Fairfax County Public Schools reports a total of 187,000 students enrolled in district schools. Demographically the district reports the total number of students are; 

• 37.8% White 
• 26.8% Hispanic 
• 19.5% Asian 
• 9.8% Black 
• 5.7% Multi-racial 
• 0.3% American Indian 
• 0.1% Native Hawaiian 

Fairfax County Public School District employs 24,700 full-time employees, 93% who are school based while 7% are non school based. The district has a FY 2021 budget of $3.1 billion.

FCPS School Board has mandated vaccines for teachers and staff. The teachers and staff were given until the end of October to get vaccinated or submit to routine negative COVID tests. The district claimed to mandate the experimental vaccine so employees can have peace of mind when going into the workplace. On their district website, it says, “To lead by example. FCPS continues to promote vaccination for everyone, including our students, as soon as they are eligible. Our goal is for every eligible employee to be vaccinated. The sooner our community reaches a high vaccination rate, the sooner we begin to put the pandemic behind us. ”

The Fairfax County Public School District raises many areas of concern including mask mandates, special treatment for transgendered students, and updating the student handbook to protect LGBTQ+ rights. 

In a recent letter to parents and staff, the school district decreed that all students and staff must wear a mask during the 2021-2022 school year, regardless of their vaccination status.

“The school board of Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia voted unanimously to approve a revised version of its “Student Rights and Responsibilities” document, which outlines expectations for student behavior. The new rules also mandate that all students receive “safe and equitable access to all school . . . facilities and activities” and that students have “the right to non-disclosure of gender identity and/or sexual orientation.”

Moreover, the guidelines state that internal, school-generated lists of students — such as in the honor roll, yearbooks and school newspapers — must identify transgender children by their preferred names and pronouns and explicitly affirmed rights and protections for transgender students, said Karl Frisch, the first openly LGBTQ member of Fairfax’s school board.”

Finally, “The Fairfax County School Board adopted a regulation stating that students should be called by their chosen name and pronouns, can use locker rooms and restrooms consistent with their gender identity, and can wear any clothing as long as it complies with the dress code in October.” 

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) sent second-graders a “summer learning guide” in July which included a Youtube video titled “Woke Kindergarten” that vilified the police. The district said the video had been posted by mistake and removed it.