Stafford board denounces CRT, preferred pronouns
STAFFORD — Leaders in a Northern Virginia county voted to withhold funding for school programs that would teach critical race theory or ask that students identify their chosen pronouns.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to denounce the teaching of critical race theory and The 1619 Project in county schools and condemned requiring students to choose their own pronouns, according to local news outlets. The supervisors said they could withhold any money the school system spends on either.
Republican Supervisor Gary Snellings, the proposal’s author, and other board members at the meeting said that by controlling the county School Board’s funding, they wanted to ensure that programs and policies align with community desires.
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Several weeks ago, the acting schools superintendent said the school system isn’t teaching critical race theory and that teachers aren’t told to ask students their preferred pronouns.
Critical race theory centers on the belief that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and maintains the dominance of whites in society. The 1619 Project, first published in The New York Times Magazine in 2019, “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative.”
Petersburg bans carrying of guns in any public place
PETERSBURG — The Petersburg City Council unanimously passed a measure Tuesday barring people from carrying firearms in any place open to the public.
The ban includes city buildings, public parks, city-owned recreation or community centers and any public street, road, alley or sidewalk, The Progress-Index reported. On-duty law enforcement officers and armed security personnel acting on a contract with the city are exempt.
Councilor Charlie Cuthbert introduced the idea in July shortly after community activist Willie Noise III was fatally shot at the city-owned Patton Park.
The law is nearly identical to the Virginia State Code, said City Attorney Anthony Williams, who added that there may be issues with enforcing the law.
A violation is equal to a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries the possibility of a 12-month jail sentence and up to a $1,000 fine.
2 companies will pay $1M to settle kickback allegations
ALEXANDRIA — Two Virginia companies have agreed to pay over $1 million to settle allegations that they got kickbacks linked to federal government contracts reserved for certain small businesses, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh said Index Systems of Fairfax and Capital Consulting Group of Arlington agreed that Index would use its specific certification to bid on a government contract on which Capital Consulting was not eligible to bid.
Index was certified by the Small Business Administration as an 8(a) small business, meaning that it was owned and operated by a socially or economically disadvantaged citizen. CCG lacked that certification, the news release said.
According to Parekh, the two companies allegedly agreed to subcontract all the work on the government contract to CCG in exchange for an amount calculated by each hour of work subcontracted to CCG, and CCG allegedly paid Index the agreed-upon kickback amount when the work was subcontracted to them.