Redistricting Fever: Back To School! (Or Not)

Now that the awesome yet unsuccessful pro-school lawsuit by the awesome pro-school FairfaxCAPS is nothing but a memory (and given its $140,000 price tag, maybe a down payment on a nice new summer home for its attorney), everyone affected by the South Lakes High School redistricting is going to accept the inevitable and buy their kids Bratz backpacks and send them off to school, right?

Not exactly.

Despite a court ruling this week that upheld the School Board's decision to reshuffle high schools for hundreds of western Fairfax County students, many parents have found a way to bypass the new boundary map and send their children to campuses of their choice.

More than a third of the 226 rising freshmen who were to be added to the roster of South Lakes High School for the coming year have transferred to nearby high schools for curricular reasons, school system records showed. Most of the 85 students who left the Reston school applied to pursue Advanced Placement classes not offered at South Lakes High. By contrast, nine incoming freshmen transferred from the school last year for similar reasons.

Of course, we pointed this AP/IB "loophole" out in our very first post on redistricting fever, way back in September or October. If people had just been paying attention, they could have saved themselves $140,000 and the funniest lawsuit since the McDonald's coffee one. Except that plaintiff actually won their lawsuit. The funniest quote of the story:

A friend whose transfer request was also accepted sent Cynthia Fry a jubilant e-mail.

"You would think she had gotten accepted into Harvard or Yale, we were so excited," Fry said.

Nice. Let's see what happens when these parents try to sue an Ivy League school when their own bratz don't get accepted there in a couple of years.

Misleading Headline of the Week

"Reston Woman Aims to 'Share the Sugar' "

Ew.

This Week in Crime: Have You Seen This Man? Try Your Friendly North Point Starbucks

Fairfax County police have released this attractive composite sketch of the guy who attempted to abduct a 13-year-old girl at Reston's North Point Shopping Center on July 18.

The suspect is described as white and about 50 years old. He is about 5 feet tall and 180 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a gray T-shirt, cargo pants and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Solvers by phone at 1-866-411-TIPS(8477), e-mail at www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org, or text “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES (274637). Or call Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.

This case isn't even remotely funny, we realize, but this may be the first composite sketch we've seen with such a... distinctive artist's signature. If you're an unknown artist struggling for recognition in an uncaring world, this sure beats painting caricatures of people with oversized heads playing golf, that's for sure. As opposed to decorating some godforsaken doctor's waiting room, at least this art might result in getting some creepy guy off the streets.

Yet More Redistricting Fever: On to Richmond!

We're starting to learn more about the awesome court ruling that has apparently ensured that students from the marginally McMansion-intensive neighborhoods all around Oakton and whatnot will be sent in perpetuity to South Lakes High School, where Bratz will be shoved into their arms before they're forced to sing the Internationale. The judge apparently didn't want to waste a lot of paper.

Late Monday afternoon, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Gaylord L. Finch Jr. denied a request for an injunction, according to Scott Chronister, a spokesperson for FairfaxCAPS, an advocacy group that funded the suit against the school board.

Chronister said that the judge's decision, approximately four paragraphs long, was "extremely disappointing in its brevity and lack of providing any kind of clarification on the specifics on the rationale of the ruling."

Just four paragraphs? That works out to roughly $35,000 per paragraph the pro-school, not-at-all-against-poor-students booster club spent on their case against the school system, which boiled down to a rather Dickensian argument about poor folks and bootstraps and... oh, hell. We're just so glad this is finally over and we can go back to writing about stuff everyone can agree on, like how awesome the Macaroni Grill is.

Except it's apparently not over.

"Our next move is continue our efforts to ensure accountability for the school board," said Chronister. "We need to sit down as a group and see if we want to appeal this decision. I think that it is very clear that if a circuit court could make such a decision--that the school board did not act in excess of its authority--we need to do something at the state level to fix the statute governing the board's authority," he said.

Coming soon: Bratz at the State Capitol!

Redistricting Fever: Score One for the Bratz

That awesome $135,000-plus lawsuit by pro-school booster club FairfaxCAPS asking a Fairfax County judge to stop the school system from redistricting South Lakes High School by physically picking the school up on a tractor trailer and moving it to Prince William County? Not so much.

A judge ruled in favor Monday of Fairfax County's school redistricting plan after a lawsuit was filed to stop it.

Under the plan approved by the school board, some students at Oakton, Madison and Westfield high schools will attend South Lakes High School in Reston. The school, which is being renovated, is several hundred students under capacity.

School officials said students need to be moved to keep academic programs strong, but some parents said they do not want their children to be transferred.

Some parents sued, saying they didn't have enough input in the plan.

In the meantime, the pro-school supporters of the lawsuit seem to be turning on each other:

Appeal on what grounds? Just didn't like the decision? This isn't a jury trial. Plus CAPS would have to come up with another $50,000? Where would they get that?

I still want to see exactly how $140,000 dollars was spent? How many CAPS members took some of that money? So called administrative costs?

Why doesn't CAPS publish their financial records? Sounds like a big scam to me?

Unless you spent money on the lawsuit, and I doubt you did (SLPTA), then I don't think it is any of your business. If I wanted to go burn my greenbacks in the backyard, it is also none of your business. Commenting on someone else's wastefulness seems like a very arrogant thing to do.

Some of these CAPS people are as nasty as the South Lakes PTA people-it is hard to have sympathy for either camp. The self-righteousness is tiresome.

Agreed. Now we can all get back to worrying about what's really important: the band programs.

Worse Than That Time United Sent Your Suitcase to Houston: The Search for Jeddah

If you saw about a dozen people and a news crew prowling around Lake Audobon the other weekend, don't worry: they weren't searching for a body. Instead, they were scouring the area for a cute little puppy who escaped from Dulles Airport.

Jeddah, a 4-year-old female dog who resembles an Ibizan or Pharaoh hound, was reported missing from her crate at Dulles International Airport on July 10.

The dog was scheduled to travel with her owner John Weisner to Saudi Arabia, but just before he boarded his plane, Weisner was told by United Airlines staff that Jeddah had escaped her travel crate.

Since then, John and Ronia Weisner have stayed in Northern Virginia, searching for Jeddah with the help of dozens of volunteers. The search for Jeddah moved into Reston last weekend.

Wow. If it's that easy to get a largish animal out of a secure baggage-handling area in a heavily guarded airport, how hard must it be to get something in? Try not to think about that the next time you fly. But hey! Cute puppy! Given that he was spotted in Reston, we're sure there were plenty of like-minded individuals happy to pitch in, right?

Resident Lisa Qualls helped in the search. "I care very much about animals especially, and I'm a vegan activist," said Qualls, who learned about the search through an e-mail.

You know, sometimes it's just a bit too easy to write this blog. Mauve! Awesome! Anyway, what happened?

Qualls said she and about 15 volunteers, including a news crew and a woman with a tracking dog, searched for Jeddah near Lake Audubon, but they did not locate the dog.

Apparently Jeddah had enough of earth tones, as he's since been spotted repeatedly in Centreville, according to this site, where you can go if you want to help look for the dog or get something called "Twitter" updates. Those crazy kids!

Restonian, in easy-to-read Jumble(tm) format

Do complicated things like "paragraphs" and "sentences" leave you tired and confused? We ran this blog through Wordle, a site which creates "word clouds" based on what phrases appear most often (click to enlarge). Frankly, we're shocked that the words "awesome" and "mauve" weren't big enough to be seen from the surface of the moon.

Reston: We're #37!

Money Magazine's annual list of the 100 best places to live is out, and Reston ranked 37th. Here's what they had to say:

This planned community is built around Reston Town Center, where residents shop, dine, ice skate in the winter and attend summer concerts at an open-air pavilion.

Residential streets are lined with tree canopies and surrounded by Fairfax Countys lakes and trails for families to enjoy canoeing, kayaking, hiking and horseback riding.

Proximity to Washington D.C. provides plenty of career opportunities. But street traffic can be maddening.

You don't say! Here's some other fun facts, courtesy of the number-crunchers at Money: The median age of a Restonian is 40.5. Nearly 87 percent have completed at least some college, nearly 53 percent are married (for you remaining 47 percent, the sizzling Reston singles scene has already been well-documented on this site). Median family income is $120,918 (you folks will need to click on the ads a whole lot more for us to hit that level), median home price is $385,000, and we spend an average of $8,900 per household on vacations (but who ever leaves Reston, given our staycation-prime, resort-like setting?)

Pretty sweet, right? Well, a non-existent place called "Hunter Mill" ranked 19th, presumably because of its McMansions and proximity to Wolf Trap, "Sully," another non-town, ranked 25th, because you can go see the new Air and Space Museum daily if you so choose, we guess. Burke, the county's other semi-planned community, ranked 31st. Herndon, sadly, didn't even make the list.

Could be worse, though. We're definitely radder than West Bloomfield Township, MI (#36) or Frisco, TX (#38). We don't walk across covered bridges wearing knee-high boots and khakis like the twits pictured above in Plymouth, MN (#1), and we still rule the pools and the schools when it comes to old nerds.

In Great Falls, the Price is Wrong

You'd think things wouldn't be that different in the sylvan community to our north, "Great" Falls. Separated from Reston by just a few miles and an asteroid belt of giant McMansions on postage-sized lots, the people of that sylvan community are just like you and me. Except when a dispute between neighbors arises, in which case someone gets an aging game show host to come to the rescue.

But John and Carmela Peterson could not have imagined that their effort to save the landscaping outside their Great Falls home would result in all this: a letter from legendary TV game show host Bob Barker, pleading with the state of Virginia to liberate the deer "to tread their little path to the few remaining woods," and a statement by Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, stating that there is hardly "anything more selfish, callous and cowardly than shooting a mother deer."

John Peterson was, in the view of some of his neighbors, preparing to kill animals who had as much right to tromp around Great Falls as the people who live on the area's two-acre lots. "None of us are farmers," says Martina Caputy, whose yard is adjacent to Peterson's. "We're not dependent on crops or anything like that. This was a senseless slaughter of the deer."

Caputy is married to Anthony Caputy, chief of neurosurgery at George Washington University Hospital. In 1999, he conducted successful surgery to unblock the carotid artery of Barker, longtime host of "The Price Is Right." So when Martina Caputy heard from the state game warden that "our neighbor had as much right to kill the deer as we have to enjoy them," she decided that she needed extra firepower on her side.

She rang up Barker, long known for lending his celebrity to animal-rights causes. From his California home, Barker dashed off a letter to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, waxing poetic about how the Great Falls deer "walk along an ancestral path that leads them to and from their sleeping place" and warning that if the state doesn't come on down and stop the hunt, "the children will be catatonic, the neighbors will be up in arms, the fawns will be orphans and the does will be dead" -- all "for the sake of a few flowers."

Wow. That's some purty writing. If we had a similar problem in Reston, the best we could hope for would be beseeching Wink Martindale to write a few off-color limericks.

Redistricting Fever: For $135,000, We'll Write War and Peace and Bratz

The price tag for the awesome pro-school lawsuit filed by awesome pro-school booster club FairfaxCAPS to re-redistrict South Lakes High School's boundaries to a six-square-mile plat north of the Arctic Circle and declare IB an un-American activity has now hit $135,000 and counting. You know, that's a lot of money that could have been spent on band programs AP tests sports booster club fundraisers whatever the backers of the suit claimed they were so concerned about in the first place.

Luckily, the money was well-spent, right?

When this legal process started, I publicly stated that I thought our odds of winning a court injunction were slim.

Whoops! Never fear, though, because things are looking up!

As we near the end of the legal process everyone concurs, the School Board’s argument at the hearing July 3rd was weak. Normally, government administrative bodies tend to win cases brought against them. The law tends to favor their decision-making as something a judge should not second guess. However, our legal team believes our chances of winning a court injunction have notably improved.

At this juncture, the case is the Petitioners’ to win or lose. The School Board decided the West County redistricting based on considerations not authorized by State law. In addition, the way they arrived at their decision was specious in all sorts of respects. Based on Judge Finch’s comments, we anticipate he is taking this ruling seriously and will send a strong message in issuing his decision. Our goal is an injunction against proceeding with the redistricting decision made on February 28. We are hopeful that Judge Finch will grant our request.

Hmmm. This seems like it's going somewhere... wait for it....

At the end of the hearing, Judge Finch unexpectedly asked for post-hearing briefs from both the Petitioners and the School Board County. Our legal team believes the request for final legal briefs is very positive. Unfortunately, additional costs come with the need to file this final brief.

Our total cost for this legal action will be approximately $135,000. This is relatively inexpensive, despite how it sounds. It is actually less than one-third of the original estimated cost for this case. Thanks to your FairfaxCAPS volunteers, we have been able to contain costs. Volunteers spent hundreds of hours developing and building the challenge to this troubling School Board action into a very strong case. Our outside litigating attorney, Steven Stone, is a well-respected education law attorney who is doing a fine job. He also has done everything possible to contain costs. To date we have paid $120,000 in legal fees and have $15,000 remaining to pay.

... and SCENE!

Still, $15,000 seems pretty steep for a legal brief, particularly when your principal argument appears to be cribbed from a 19th century Dickens serial. We can only wonder what the itemized invoice for preparing the brief might look like:

* Ream of office paper, $5.99
* Inkjet printer ribbon, $34.99
* Copying fees at Kinko's... $12.99
* 700 Anytime Minutes, pre-paid wireless, $49.99
* Legal dictionary, $125.99
* Bratz dolls (for experimentation purposes), $11.99
* Knowing you've helped protect people from "those coming from poverty".... priceless.

Hot Enough For Ya? Try some tepid Lake Anne water

You know, when the mercury starts inching towards the 100-degree mark, the first thing that comes to mind is a nice spot in the shade, maybe a tall glass of lemonade, and some refreshing water pumped in from Lake Anne to cool the house. You see, folks around Lake Anne don't cotton to old-school things like "air conditioning." This is a New Town (tm), after all, and we have new ways of doing things. Like, instead of using air conditioners, whose unsightliness and lack of earth-toned color options detract from the fact they actually work, Reston built a system that takes water from Lake Anne, chills it and then runs it through a series of tubes to cool people's homes. Sounds great, except when there's no rain and Lake Anne gets emptier and more tepid than usual:

Donna Shaffer said she does not want a repeat of the air-conditioning issues she faced last summer when drought conditions caused her air conditioner to stop cooling her Lake Anne townhouse. So she said she started a petition to allow her and her neighbors to opt out of the Reston Lake Anne Air Conditioning system that cools their homes in the summer.

Shaffer said some residents like the RELAC system, which uses chilled water from Lake Anne to cool homes, but many people have found that the system does not send enough cold air to their homes. "When the temperature gets about 85 degrees and it gets humid out, the system just doesn't work," she said.

Luckily, that almost never happens in the DC area in summertime. But what of the cost savings, since you're not using electricity and Freon, and whatnot?

Shaffer also said the RELAC system is more expensive than other air-conditioning systems. She said she pays about $170 for RELAC and $150 for her electric bill, but she only paid about $130 for her summer energy bills at her last home, which was comparable in size to her home in Lake Anne.

Currently residents are only allowed to get off RELAC for health reasons and they must provide significant medical documentation of their condition, according to Milton Matthews, CEO of Reston Association. Shaffer is petitioning to allow residents to hold a referendum to vote on whether they would like opt out of the system without providing that documentation. She needs at least 70 signatures, about 20 percent of the system's eligible voters, before RA will consider scheduling a referendum, Matthews said.

Richard Speier fronted a similar referendum in 2005, and although that referendum failed, Shaffer said they might have a better chance this year because there are more people worried about the RELAC system. "It doesn't look like a drought this summer, but it could happen, and people have become more dissatisfied because of what happened last summer," Shaffer said, referring to last summer's drought which caused lake levels to drop and affected the RELAC system.

Well, I'm sure some Valuable Lessons were learned after last year's drought, right?

Greg Odell, division manager for Aqua Virginia, said last year's drought caused them to have "a tough year," but the company has since developed a plan to deal with droughts, which includes pumping water from deeper portions of the lake.

Good plan! Meanwhile, how is the RA handling the -- ahem! -- heat?

"My contention is that we're being forced to be on this system," Shaffer said, explaining that RA officials have said to her that their hands are tied in the matter. "They don't seem to be willing to do anything other than follow the governing documents and have a referendum and leave it up to the residents to get enough votes," Shaffer said.

How crass and uncaring -- actually not overstepping their bounds and all.

This Week in Crime: At North Point Shopping Center, Two Starbucks, One Potential Abduction

A 13-year-old girl was the victim of an attempted abduction at North Point Shopping Center on Friday.

Police said the 13-year-old girl was walking in the 1400 block of North Point Village Center when she was approached by a man, who started talking to her.

The two went into a coffee shop and later walked a short distance together. The man asked for a kiss and tried to grab the girl. She ran away uninjured and called police.

The suspect was described as white man, approximately 50 years old. He was about 5 feet tall and 180 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes, wearing a gray t-shirt, cargo pants and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Solvers by phone at 1-866-411-TIPS or call Fairfax County (web|news) Police at 703-691-2131.

Election '08: As Goes Reston, So Goes the Nation (or at least maybe Herndon)

The Reston Citizens Association held a straw poll during the Reston Festival last weekend -- which, in case you missed it, was a great event chock full of live pan-flute performances and informative booths detailing the value of gutter screening solutions. You'll never guess which presidential candidate won:

Barack Obama – 134 votes
John McCain – 43 votes

Lest you think we're all mindless "sheeple" controlled by the evil liberal costal elitists who've secretly fluoridated Reston's drinking water, you'll be pleased to know that Ross Perot and Dennis Kucinich each received one write-in vote apiece.

Oh, yeah, the RCA held its own election, too, and this one apparently counts.

The results from almost 200 ballots are as follows:
Marion Stillson, President – 180 votes
Mike Corrigan, At-Large Director – 154 votes
Diane Lewis, At-Large Director – 122 votes
John Lovaas, Lake Anne/Tall Oaks Director – 55 votes
Barbara Burleson, Lake Anne/Tall Oaks Director – 50 votes
Todd Harbour, Hunters Woods Director – 44 votes

What's telling is that while there were only two write-in votes in the straw poll for president, there were 43 of them for the RCA candidates.

The Last Time You'll Hear 'Reston Real Estate' and 'On Fire' Together for Some Time

The U.S. Geological Survey, the giant government complex in Reston where federal employees either a) look at rocks under microscopes or b) monitor spy satellites that take pictures of your grocery cart on the way out of Fresh World to ensure you didn't buy anything suspicious like falafel, caught on fire early Monday morning, closing the facility for the day.

A free holiday for employees paid for by our tax dollars -- yay! One of our eyewitnesses sent us this harrowing report:

No visible external damage, but apparently enough to warrant it closed for the day.

Which brings to mind a question: How do rocks catch on fire?

This Last Week in Crime: Happy 4th of July! Now Give Me Your Wallet

Beware of people asking for money on the 4th of July (second item):

Police responded to a robbery in the 11600 block of Stoneview Square at about 8 p.m. July 4. A man reportedly approached a 42-year-old Reston man and asked for money. When the Reston man pulled out his wallet, the other man reportedly snatched it out of his hands and ran. A witness to the incident reportedly chased the man who stole the wallet and convinced him to give back the wallet though he kept the money and fled. He was described as black, about 15 to 16 years old, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighing about 140 pounds. He had a mustache and was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.

But other than that, how did you enjoy the fireworks?

Meanwhile in Reston's Fake Downtown, Jet Engines and Scan-Tron Sheets, plus a Potbelly Sandwich Works to boot

All them tall buildings in Reston Town Center (tm) are sure starting to get filled up fast! First, Rolls Royce has relocated its headquarters to the big brick building we'll refer to as the "big brick building." Gov. Tim Kaine came all the way up from Richmond to cut a ribbon and everything a few days back, and there was probably ice cream for the kids, which, given the fact that they're a British company that does a big chunk of its business in pounds, probably cost them the equivalent of a tuppence or a ha'penny or something.

Of course, you're probably thinking that if you're not in the market for a spare set of jet turboprop engines for your Airbus 300, you're SOL. Luckily, a few other establishments catering to a slightly less high-end clientele are coming to everyone's favorite 7/8th scale urban environment:

Retail stores and restaurants opening in the next few months include J.Crew, Anthropologie, Pitango Gelato and Jackson's Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge [and] The Bike Lane, a cycling store... Otteni said the majority of the other outlets should be open by fall. Boston Properties is also negotiating with a furniture retailer, more fashion retailers and a wine bar, he said.

Ho-hum. Is there anything to get excited about?

Also new at Reston Town Center is Potbelly Sandwich Works.

Sweet! Also, if you're an up-and-coming liberal arts university in search of the raddest assessment materials, 2009 is gonna be your year!

Boston Properties is also working to build an office for the College Entrance Examination Board by August 2009. The office building will be located on top of an existing parking garage.

Better bring a bigger shopping bag.

Redistricting Fever: And for a few pennies more, he'll spellcheck the brief before sending it to the judge

So remember how FairfaxCAPS, the awesome school booster club which is suing Fairfax County Schools to force it to change the mascot of South Lakes High School from the Fightin' Bratz to the Saxons, hired a lawyer who was so impassioned about the rightness of their case that he threatened to drop it like a hot potato unless folks coughed up an additional $15,000 at the last minute, just days before the court date?

Yeah, that was awesome. Well, that day in court has come and gone, and after his rather Dickensian performance, their attorney is at it again:

After three hours of listening to the arguments, Judge Finch stated that his decision will be an important one, especially since it affects so many children. He added he will deliberate over the arguments and make a final ruling by late July. However, because the decision is so important, he is requiring each side to prepare an additional legal brief summarizing all the arguments. A strong, concise, and thoughtful brief is critical to our case. Unfortunately, this unexpected additional brief brings with it unexpected expenses.

We need to quickly raise enough funds to pay for the preparation of this brief. Without your generous financial support, we would not have made it to court. Please consider contributing from $100 to $500 to help us clear this last, unexpected hurdle.

Yeah, those legal-sized notepads and watermarked heavy-bond paper don't grow on trees. Oh, wait -- actually, they do.

'Price Improvements' and other desperate things Realtors(tm) like to say

We'd thought such a brilliant innovation as a spastically dancing Open House sign would have singlehandedly solved the subprime mortgage crisis and made Reston housing values rebound faster than South Lakes High School's boundary lines. But fear not! We spotted a For Sale sign with a "Price Improvement" tag in front of a townhouse at Reston Town Center today, and we're still reeling at its brilliance.

Think about it: When you see "Price Reduced" slapped on top of one of the many For Sale signs dotting Reston's mauve and stucco developments, it sends the wrong message. First, it's just tacky. Second, it brings up some unpleasant associations. Like, you know, that maybe Reston isn't that special a place and that now isn't a good time to buy, what with prices being reduced and whatnot. Pretty soon, just about anybody could buy that $251,000 home with a really split foyer. And if prices are being reduced, why not just wait until they fall through the floor and people will gladly swap their homes for a box of shiny beads and bus fare?

But a price improvement? That's awesome! Whether selling or buying, that means you'll be in the driver's seat! The winner's circle! Better hurry, before it gets improved again and only the bank will take it!

This Last Week in Crime: Those Fun-Loving Kids!

Fairfax County Police arrested a Reston teen for a couple of burglaries that took place in May and June.

Police have charged a 17-year-old Reston boy in two recent burglaries.

The first burglary happened May 31 in the 2000 block of Royal Fern Court, and the second occurred on June 21 in the 12000 block of Greywing Square.

Police arrested the teen after the saw him allegedly peeping into the windows a ground-floor apartment in the 12000 block of Greywing Square on Friday.

Those crazy kids! Of course, like all impressionable youngsters, he was merely imitating an older role model when he was lurking around Greywing.

Meanwhile, in the other other Reston, the one in Canada where they have loonie-sized hail, someone got shot to death, which confirms everything we've always suspected about that vermeer of politeness feigned by our neighbors to the north, the end.

Redistricting Fever: You pick the headline -- a) Funnier than a Dickens novel, or b) You mean it really wasn't about the band programs?

So after months of wailing, gnashing of teeth, feigned concern about band programs, IB and Bratz, not to mention quality Indian takeout, it comes to this: The awesome lawsuit against Fairfax County Schools and its evil plan to redistrict South Lakes High School, whose backers said was never about socioeconomics, is really all about socioeconomics.

[Plaintiff attorney Steven] Stone fired back, saying, “Those coming from poverty require greater economic needs? Who says? There is no proof of that. That's the social engineering of the board and it's insulting. There are great examples in this country of those coming from poverty who achieve great things. They never got any special treatment.”

Wow. He sounds like the stock character in every Dickens novel who, after being visited by ghosts/urchins/crazy women who live in attics unexpectedly learns the Error of His Ways. Except that in IB, they probably make people read Das Kapital instead of right-thinking literature like Dickens.

Anyhoo. Now that they've had their day in court, we weren't really expecting the plaintiff's attorney, who apparently cares about this case so very deeply that he was ready to drop it like a hot potato unless the awesome, not-concerned-about-socioeconomics booster club FairfaxCAPS coughed up an extra $15,000, to play the race/poverty card so quickly. But what of the hapless defense attorney? Did he just give up and promise to send every kid in the county to Langley?

[Tom] Cawley questioned the standing, or legitimacy of the suit, saying that Virginia code defines the power of a local school board and that not everything a school board does can be taken to Circuit Court. “No Virginia law says someone has a personal right to go to a particular school,” he said.

Just don't tell the Saxons that.

Actually, after what amounts to nearly a year of this nonsense, the person we really feel for at the moment is the judge -- and not just because his first name is "Gaylord."

“This is a very important case, not only for those in the courtroom but also for many not here,” concluded Judge [Gaylord L.] Finch Jr., who said he will take the case under advisement and asked for additional briefs from each side to be provided by July 22. The judge expects to issue a written decision in the case by July 28.

Yeah. Good luck with that.