School Board Is Stifling Dissent Against Redistricting

At no time has the community agreed that there should be any redistricting, but Fairfax County is accelerating past that position straight on to the selection of who the losers will be in the redistricting process.

That was the purpose of this second meeting, to identify the losers. The School Board bullies stayed out of sight while forcing citizens to square off against one another to answer the following question: "On which community will the most citizens gang up when threatened with the possibility of being redistricted themselves?"

Once citizens have identified the weakest neighborhoods, the School Board will turn its attention to beating up those weaklings. The other neighborhoods, seeing this, will count their blessings that by turning on their friends and neighbors, they have been able to avoid the same fate.

No one wants to leave neighbors to the board's mercy, but the meeting was designed to create a fearful atmosphere in which citizens had to choose from among themselves who the victims will be, rather than being given the chance to clearly state their preference that there be no victimized neighborhoods.

One attendee criticized the first town hall meeting for having a question-and-answer period "with no answers." For the second meeting, the county eliminated the questions.

For the final public meeting, scheduled for Wednesday at Oakton High School, we can expect to see the "discussion" constrained further still.

Citizens should demand to be heard and that their preference for no change be recognized and followed.

The School Board has failed to make its case that redistricting is necessary, and its staff must be permitted to issue a report to the board stating that it found overwhelming resistance to boundary change.

As ever, the victims outnumber the bullies. We need to stand together to defeat them rather than closing our eyes, crossing our fingers and hoping someone else is singled out for redistricting.

Dan Carney, an automotive critic and columnist for MSNBC, lives in the Fox Mill Estates neighborhood of Herndon with his wife and children, who attend Fox Mill Elementary and Rachel Carson Middle School.