Thursday, December 13, 2007

The school bullies are at it again. As usual, they are intimidating the weak and forcing the fearful to do their dirty work.

Schoolyard bullies? No, school board bullies.

The bullies are tightening their grip on the question of redrawing high school attendance boundaries in the western part of Fairfax County, ensuring that the public's true opinion is not heard and recorded by the county staff charged with surveying constituents' opinions.

That staff is scheduled to issue a recommendation to the Fairfax County School Board Jan. 10, based on feedback it gathers in three "town hall" public meetings held at affected high schools.

The board is bullying citizens by strong-arming communities into fights with one another over who gets to stay and who goes. It is classic bully behavior to frighten victims into allegiance with the bully.

At the first meeting, on Nov. 12 at Chantilly High School, the School Board was present, but its members refused to answer questions from the crowd of thousands who turned out in opposition to redistricting. The board was there to listen, not to answer questions, citizens were told. If that were true, they would have heard a strong message against redistricting.

Because the extent of the opposition was readily apparent to any observer in the crowd that overflowed the school's gymnasium and cafeteria, the School Board changed tactics for last Monday's meeting at Westfield High School.

For that meeting, the board prohibited a large gathering, where protesters could demonstrate strength, and attendees instead were whisked off to classrooms where, in small groups, the overwhelming opinion against redistricting could be hidden.

The board did not even make a token appearance, instead subjecting citizens to a video propaganda feed to televisions in each classroom.

How could the overwhelming sentiment be hidden, even in small groups? By refusing to accept commentary against redistricting, that's how.

Instead of acknowledging that sentiment, the meeting room facilitators discussed only the pros and cons of the four proposed redistricting scenarios the county has concocted.

They will now point to the fact that attendees registered opinions on these scenarios when in fact, the community wants no change. But that option was left off the table.

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.