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On August 20, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner allowed a motion to dismiss a recall application against Elaine Tholen, a member of the Fairfax County Public Schools School Board, ending efforts recall against it.
The petition against Tholen, the representative of the Dranesville District Board of Directors, was initially deemed sufficient on July 23 to go to a court hearing. Tholen’s lawyer filed a petition against the court’s decision to judge the petitions sufficient, and the hearing on that petition was held on August 13. Gardiner said he granted the motion to dismiss “on the Commonwealth’s position that the motion is not based on facts establishing probable cause for the kidnapping.
The recall effort against Tholen and two other council members – Springfield District Representative Laura Cohen and General Representative Abrar Omeish – began in October 2020. The effort began in response to the district’s concurrent education program. , which allowed students to choose between fully online learning or a hybrid option that included both online and in-person instruction. The program was launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The claims against Cohen and Omeish have yet to go to the circuit court.
Supporters of the recall said being out of the classroom harmed students. A spokesperson for the school district said the district is sticking to its concurrent education program and it has been well received.
Virginia requires that certain reasons be met for a recall to move forward, including neglect of duty, abuse of office, incompetence, and conviction for drug or hate crime offenses. Supporters of the recall must collect signatures equal in number to 10% of the votes cast in the last election for this post. The Tholen recall was submitted with over 5,000 signatures.
The three board members were elected to a four-year term on the board on November 5, 2019. Tholen won the Dranesville district open seat on the board against two opponents, receiving 58.7 % voices. Cohen won the Springfield District seat after beating two opponents, including the incumbent, with 50.5% of the vote. Omeish won one of three general seats, receiving 20% of the vote in a six-party race.
Ballotpedia has tracked a total of 89 recall efforts related to the coronavirus or government responses to the pandemic that were launched against elected officials in 2020 and 2021.
In the first half of 2021, Ballotpedia tracked 164 recall efforts against 262 civil servants. This is the highest number of recall efforts for this point of the year since the first half of 2016, when we tracked 189 recall efforts against 265 public servants. In comparison, we tracked between 72 and 155 efforts at the midpoints of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
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