At Fairfax County School Board Debate, Republican Candidate Refers to "Silly Things Like ADD"

[RandySF]

Last night, the Fairfax County At-Large candidates for School Board participated in a forum in Great Falls (see video, at the bottom of this post). The At-Large candidates are Democratic-endorsed Abrar Omeish, Rachna Sizemore Heizer, incumbent Karen Keys-Gamarra and Republican challengers Vinson Palathingal, Priscilla DeStefano (who wasn’t there last night) and Cheryl Buford. Also participating last night were Democratic-endorsed Elaine Tholen, plus Anastasia S. Karloutsos and Ardavan Mobasheri for the Dranesville District seat on the Fairfax County School Board.

For a fascinating discussion of what went down last night at this forum, see Shyamali Hauth’s public Facebook post, which makes the following points (bolding added by me for emphasis; also note that Hauth encouraged me to share the post):

“Rachna Sizemore Heizer, Karen Keys-Gamarra, Abrar Omeish, and Elaine Tholen all gave intelligent and thoughtful answers at tonight’s Great Falls Citizens Association Forum tonight. These are by far the most qualified candidates to represent Fairfax County on the School Board at-large and in the Dranesville district. Abrar demonstrated her capacity to listen to everyone and pledged to represent all county residents while ensuring equity across the county. Karen brought detailed information on successes she has helped to bring about over the past two years. And Rachna showed a depth of knowledge and nuanced understanding of all issues. She is extraordinarily highly qualified for this position.”

“I strongly disagreed with many of the comments made by their opposition. Comments from Republican-endorsed candidates tonight ranged from a desire to leave schools as they are in terms of numbers/boundaries (no interest in addressing inequity), to faulting black and LatinX children for not working hard enough to get into TJ.”

“I was particularly disturbed by the Republican candidate, Vinson Palathingal, who dismissed children with disabilities as ‘silly’. He said they just needed to work harder. He obviously does not understand the nature of various disabilities nor does he believe in inclusive strengths based education. It would be harmful to our students for someone with his views to be in a position of authority over the schools.”

https://bluevirginia.us/2019/09/video-at-fairfax-county-school-board-debate-republican-candidate-refers-to-silly-things-like-add

[Ahpook]

1. My family moved to Reston in the late 70's

What a great time!

Terraset, the mentality of holistic living. health and energy.

Miss it

[DFW]

2. I lived there for 13 years

My brother still does. He was a happy camper when he got to vote for Jennifer Wexton to take the VA-10 seat from teabagger Barbara Comstock. We were born there, but most people of our generation born there were Republicans. But then there was a huge influx of educated people moving in with the expansion of the federal government and the upscale tech jobs. Those people settled, and also had children, many of whom now vote. They do not want their kids learning about how the sun revolves around an immobile, 6000 year old earth