LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
LoudounNow
[ Vol. 4, No. 52 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[November 14, 2019 ]
■ PUBLIC AND LEGAL NOTICES - PAGE 38 ■ NOW HIRING LOUDOUN PAGE 48 ■ RESOURCE DIRECTORY PAGE 49
AG Launches Schools Discrimination Inquiry BY RENSS GREENE
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) hosts a post-election press conference Wednesday, Nov. 6, where she renewed calls for a county police department.
Randall Pushes Police Department at Post Election Press Conference BY RENSS GREENE The day after Democrats won majorities on the local Board of Supervisors and in the state General Assembly, returning County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) hosted a press conference where she repeated her call to create a Loudoun County Police Department. “We don’t have to recreate this wheel,” Randall said. “We can look to Fairfax county, to Prince William county, to many other large counties around the commonwealth to understand how that
is done.” Randall pointed out that in other large counties, the sheriff ’s office only supervises the courts and jail, and said law enforcement should never be political. “Every four years, the sheriff ’s deputies are always worried about whether or not they get to keep their jobs based on if they supported somebody in an election,” Randall said. “That should not happen.” A former Loudoun detective is currently seeking a U.S. Supreme Court hearing for a wrongful termination law-
suit against Sheriff Michael L. Chapman after he was not re-sworn for supporting a different candidate in the Republican primary during the previous local election. Chapman has not responded to Loudoun Now’s requests for comments. But he has objected to the idea in other venues, including via a statement put out on the Loudoun County Sheriff ’s Office’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts and Alert Loudoun, the county’s official
The state Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into allegations of discriminatory admissions practices at the Academies of Loudoun and systemic racism in the school system at large, after a request from the Loudoun NAACP. Loudoun NAACP President Michelle Thomas said the organization reached out to the AG’s office after the school district was sluggish to respond to complaints from parents, and even to share the results of its own equity assessment, which found a “hostile learning environment” where students faced no consequences for hateful actions. “We’ve produced plans for them, we’ve produced solutions for them, and they have implemented it in a halfhearted way,” Thomas said during a press conference Tuesday evening. “When that happens, it creates a strain on the partnership because our best intentions never become realized.” The school system had not previously disclosed the investigation. The letter informing the school division of the investigation is dated Oct. 3, more than a month before the NAACP’s press conference. “The question is, what are we going to do?” Thomas said. “It’s fine that they’re investigating. We know what they’re going to find. … That there’s discrimination, it’s rampant—it’s not just rampant, it’s systemic.” Loudoun NAACP Education Chairwoman Robin Reaves Burke said data she has collected shows that black students are underrepresented in the gifted and talented program, and are less likely to be put into the pipeline to attend the Academies of Loudoun. “The admission process of 2018-
POLICE DEPARTMENT >> 55
INQUIRY >> 53
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