LOUDOUN COUNTY, Virginia—Republican-aligned candidates working for positions on Loudoun County’s faculty board gathered to share their imaginative and prescient for the county on Thursday, inside the wake of the “Loudoun Love Warrior” (LLW) controversy, the place a bunch affiliated with a couple of of Loudoun’s elected officers targeted and allegedly harassed and doxed dad and mother after they spoke out in the direction of the school board’s insurance coverage insurance policies.
These candidates say that in distinction to some of the current native officers, they’re devoted to creating a political environment that values civil discourse, transparency, and accountability, the place all residents can particular their views with out concern of retaliation, and the place all constituents are dealt with fairly regardless of their social gathering affiliation or religious beliefs.
GOP candidate Daniel Brubaker instructed reporters at a May 25 press conference that he’s working for a spot on the board to revive benefit so that faculty college students get rewarded for his or her instructional achievements. He moreover needs faculties to be additional accountable to folks and be clear with knowledge having to do with children’s well-being.
Brubaker moreover took time to take care of the LLW controversy, referring to an ABC 7News report about whistleblower paperwork exhibiting an entire bunch of messages in ongoing conversations among the many many LLW Fb members that reveals them specializing in specific dad and mother and plotting strategies to harm them.
“I contemplate … free discourse is so essential to attending to the fact and attending to the easiest protection. It’s worthwhile to have the ability to debate points, [and] completely different people ought to say points that’s prone to be flawed. Nevertheless they need to have the ability to speak with out feeling that they’re going to be killed or bodily harmed, or they’re livelihood threaten, their children or one thing like that, so we really wish to tug that once more,” he talked about.
A variety of the messages current {{that a}} mom or father, Mark Winn, was targeted by LLW in an effort to have him fired.
The group indicated that Winn was targeted for making what they considered to be “homophobic” suggestions. Nevertheless Winn says he was quoting a bible passage in his suggestions regarding the seriousness of defending children to the school board.
Two completely different Republican candidates, Kari Labell and incumbent John Beatty, along with Democrat Megan Lockwood, are all working in the direction of Brubaker for the Catoctin district seat.
Lockwood has moreover commented on the LLW controversy.
“Accusations had been made regarding doxing and threatening habits in the direction of residents exercising their First Modification correct of free speech. I was caught totally off guard, as I’m assuming most listening had been. Let me be clear: violent rhetoric and threats mustn’t acceptable. The homophobic suggestions made publicly at a winter faculty board meeting had been equally unacceptable and personally repellent to me,” Lockwood wrote in her May weblog submit.
Further Candidates
One different GOP faculty board candidate, Chris Hodges, is working for Loudoun’s Broad Run district to change member Tiffany Polifko, who has decided to not search re-election.
“I’ve no completely different political aspirations than changing into a member of the School Board and doing the easiest job I can for as long as I can,” Hodges, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a Navy veteran, talked about in a press assertion.
“My goal is to re-establish LCPS as one in all many excessive faculty districts inside the nation. We should always elevate necessities, give dad and mother a stronger voice of their child’s education, assist our hardworking lecturers, benefit from atmosphere pleasant use of taxpayer {{dollars}}, and prioritize the safety of our faculty college students.”
The Democrat working in the direction of Hodges is Linda Deans, who says her priorities are a high-quality education for all faculty college students, coach and staff vary, preserving dad and mother educated, and neighborhood engagement.
All eight electoral district seats of the county and one member elected at-large are up for re-election.
Joe Smith is working for a school board seat inside the Little River district and desires to reinforce instructional excellence, faculty safety, parental rights, and occupation steering. He talked about Loudoun’s take care of equity and culturally responsive instruction solely furthers id politics, fairly than providing a powerful instructional education.
Smith will face off with Democrat Sumera Rashid, who says her priorities are inclusivity, instructional excellence, and transparency.
Michael Rivera, a police detective and former faculty board candidate, is working for the at-large faculty board seat in the direction of Democrat Anne Donohue and incumbent at-large member Denise Corbo.
Arben Istrefi will face a important in the direction of incumbent Brenda Sheridan for Sterling District. Democrats will keep their important election on June 20, whereas the GOP received’t.
Republican-aligned Viktoria Hunyadi is working in Algonkian in the direction of Democrat April Chandler, and Republican-aligned candidate Deana Griffiths is working in the direction of Democrat Incumbent Harris Mahedavi for the Ashburn seat.
Incumbent Erika Ogedegbe is the Democrat nominee for re-election in Leesburg, with GOP Lauren Shernoff as a contender. Democrat Melinda Mansfield is working in Dulles District in the direction of incumbent Jeff Morse.
Candidates can register to affix the Loudoun county races until the deadline for submitting on June 20. The ultimate election could be held on Nov. 7.