A group that included Virginia Del. Marcus Simon, Fairfax County Public School teachers and students and members of the organization FCPS Pride gathered Thursday night before a school board meeting to condemn recent acts of hate in county schools.
FCPS Pride organized the event, a “Pride Rally Against Hate” for all communities in county schools, on the same night the board voted to proclaim June as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the school system.
The proclamation later passed 11-0, with Board Member Abrar Omeish abstaining.
The group used Thursday’s event to speak out about two recent hate incidents on school campuses.
In one incident at Falls Church High School, a student admitted stealing a Pride flag from school grounds and then burning it, according to a message shared with the school community. The incident was caught on video, and “another young person is heard using homophobic and hate-filled language toward the LGBTQ+ community,” the message said.
“This is not the kind of school community we seek to cultivate,” Principal Ben Nowak wrote in the message sent out last week.
In another incident at West Potomac High, someone left homophobic and antisemitic messages on the school’s “spirit rock.” The messages were discovered as the school convened for its Class of 2023 graduation.
“To see these symbols of hate at the space that welcomes others to our school is devastating,” Principal Tanganyika Millard wrote in a message to the school community.
FFX Now first reported the incidents.
At Thursday’s rally, Robert Rigby with FCPS Pride, called the incidents the “tip of the iceberg to a growing swell of animosity toward all vulnerable community — disabled folks, Black folk, queer folk.”
Participants waved Pride flags and held signs with messages such as “Fairfax Welcomes Everyone,” “Queer People Are Masterpieces” and “Black Lives Matter.”
“We have some folks in here that are trying to make our kids not feel welcome,” said David Walrod, president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers. “And every student should be able to go to school and feel safe. Every student should be able to go to school and feel like they’re welcome.”
Aer Queen, a Fairfax County music teacher who led the group in a song, said progress on stopping the spread of hate seems to have halted.
“It doesn’t matter what demographic or where these people are from,” Queen said. “It’s coming, it’s happening and popping up everywhere, which … that’s devastating.”
The school system, Delegate Simon said, “is a better place for all kids when we treat every kid with love and respect and dignity, and make them feel like their school is a safe place for them to come and learn math and reading and history and social studies.”
Fairfax County Public Schools said it doesn’t have a system to track hate and bias incidents, but is working to develop one.
Earlier this year, in nearby Montgomery County Public Schools, Superintendent Monifa McKnight said hate and bias incidents are rising.
