Rogue Superintendent Sets Up Showdown with Gov. Youngkin

Asra Nomani | Asra Investigates

On Friday afternoon, January 21, as new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin finalized guidance on his executive order allowing parental choice on whether students wear masks in school, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent went rogue and issued a 34-page “Principal Briefing” PowerPoint at a meeting with school administrators, ordering them to suspend students from school for a “Dress Code” violation if they don’t wear masks in school, according to a copy of the briefing received by Parents Defending Education.

After taking office on Saturday, January 15, Youngkin issued Executive Order 2, allowing parents the ability the option of whether their children wear masks at school. School districts in largely-Democratic northern Virginia have taken a defiant stance, including Fairfax County Public Schools. Critics briefed on the new suspension policy in Fairfax County said this is an unconstitutional violation of students’ rights to an education, turning principals into the “mask police.”

Here are important details from the new briefing in Fairfax County:

• In slide No. 12, headlined, “R2109 Regarding Mask Refusal,” the school district instructed administrators: “Continue to follow existing regulations and practices. Any student who refuses to wear a face covering while indoors on school property or during FCPS-provided transportation, and who is not otherwise exempt will be precluded access to face-to-face instructional programming until they comply with the requirements of this regulation.”
• Regarding “Intentional Removal / Refusal to Wear Face Covering,” he said: “Intentional removal of or refusal to wear a face covering during the times face coverings are required by all students will be treated as a violation of the Regulation 2613 (Student Dress Code). This includes indoors on school property and transportation.
• This will result in an “SRR Violation of BSO7 (Dress Code),” and noted: “BSO3 (Refusal to comply with staff requests…) may be used as a secondary infraction code to document refusal despite redirection from staff.” The point has a big “NEW!” graphic beside it.
• The “Response” will be swift with a “1 day OSS,” which means “Out of School Suspension” for students who don’t wear masks.
• The briefing says: “1 day OSS for an infraction using the new SUS-M suspension code (this process will enable staff to monitor data regarding this unique situation and gives students the ability to return the next day to comply with the regulation).” “SUSP” is the typical code for a suspension.

Later Friday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Education and Virginia Department of Health issued guidance affirming the right of parents to decide whether their children mask or not—and taking a clear position against punishing children if they do not wear a mask. The advisory can be found at this link.

The guidance said: “There is no medical reason for a vaccinated and/or masked teacher to treat an otherwise healthy unmasked student any differently than a healthy masked student.”

In addition, the direct noted: parents “are in charge.”

Brabrand is turning school staff into the mask police and punishing children to win a public opinion battle in Virginia that was decided at the ballot box. Parents elected Youngkin to office to win back parental rights over issues from what is taught in schools to whether a child wears a mask at school. Brabrand, who is on his way out as superintendent, is setting up a showdown with Gov. Youngkin–and parents.

As word spread of this plan, parents in Fairfax County Public Schools started making phone calls to lawyers to explore filing lawsuits over their children being denied a public education.

Slide No. 3 says: “Stay the Course.”

We will continue analyzing the document. Check back here for more details.

Asra Q. Nomani, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education. Follow her on Twitter: @AsraNomani.