Fairfax County’s school district updated its code of conduct this year to include a “required culturally responsive, learning intervention” for students with first-time “hate speech” infractions. In Fairfax County, hate speech is defined in the broadest sense possible to include “misgendering.”

Fairfax County Public Schools has a history of compelling speech, arguably violating the First Amendment. In the last year, the 12 Democrat-endorsed school board members have made “ misgendering ” and “deadnaming” offenses punishable with suspensions for students as young as 5. It has also implemented a bias incident reporting system , which restricts free speech and is being challenged in courts nationwide.

Parents justifiably have concerns about the district’s broad definition of hate speech and questions about what this Orwellian “culturally responsive” reeducation training entails. Exercising my parental right to review training under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment , I emailed the district’s superintendent, Michelle Reid, to inquire who is responsible for leading this “learning intervention” and what it entails. Reid forwarded my request to her team, including the district’s chief equity officer, Nardos King.

Several days later, I emailed Reid and King for a status update on the training. There was no response.

The following week, I emailed them again, this time with the PPRA office’s email address copied. That day, Reid responded, “After checking in with the team, these are still under development and will be shared as soon as they are completed.”

It is peculiar that a required training associated with such a priority amendment to the school’s code of conduct was not completed in time for the school year. Indeed, the district’s administration felt that the code of conduct was so important that it made all students watch a video and take quizzes this month to demonstrate their understanding of it.

Regarding the reeducation training, parents are left wondering: Are Fairfax administrators incompetent, or are they trying to hide something?

In fairness, either of these two explanations is possible. The district’s superintendent and school board members are in favor of hiding children’s gender identities from their parents, so it would not be surprising if they are hiding the training materials as well. And about Fairfax’s competence, I am less than confident in the district’s administrators.

In her response to me, Reid did not mention who was supposed to administer the reeducation training to our children. I subsequently learned from a school administrator that the culturally responsive, learning intervention “is being addressed centrally by the Equity Office and not by individual schools.”

Setting aside for a moment that equity officers are paid to peddle political agendas and indoctrinate our children, taxpayers should hope that a government employee is paid at a level commensurate with her duties and skill. Considering King’s annual salary in 2022, $232,074 , it is reasonable to expect that the district’s chief equity officer is responsive to parents and fulfilling professional duties. But not so, it seems.

King’s salary is suspiciously high, given that the district’s teachers with a master’s degree and more than 30 years of experience are maxed out on the fiscal 2023 pay scale at $132,747. Even the top career administrator in the federal Department of Education, with an annual salary of $203,700 , makes significantly less than our local school district’s chief equity officer.

King’s promotion to equity officer perplexed many parents for other reasons as well. In 2010, as the principal of Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, Virginia, she was embroiled in scandal after placing a controversial ad in the school’s yearbook for a product she sold. “Body Magic,” the ad claimed, would help with weight loss and improve sex lives — a strange message for a principal to proliferate to her teenage students. In a community forum following the incident, a wise resident foreshadowed what was to come, “They won’t fire her. They’ll promote her to a position at Gatehouse.”

And now, King reigns as chief equity officer of Fairfax County Public Schools at Gatehouse. The former “Body Magic” saleswoman informs curricula and district regulations regarding how our children should think about sensitive topics such as race and gender, and she will now implement the “required culturally responsive, learning intervention” should they deviate from those boundaries.

Is her unresponsiveness and failure to produce training materials born out of incompetence or something more nefarious? The answer is likely both.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and a member of the Independent Women’s Network.