An illegal alien from El Salvador groped 13 girls in the hallways of a Fairfax County high school.
The all-Democrat school board running that same district has a new priority.
And now they've found a way to ruin Christmas for students for one awful reason.
Fairfax County Public Schools Survey Puts Christmas Holiday on the Chopping Block
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia sent parents a survey this month asking which holidays should be cut to add more five-day school weeks.
One option on the survey: eliminate religious holidays entirely – including Christmas.
School board member Melanie Meren framed it as a response to parent concerns about the fragmented schedule, telling parents the changes would "provide a more stable, focused schedule for students and families' lives."
That sounds reasonable until you look at what the board actually did when it voted in April.
The board voted 8-1 to eliminate Veterans Day as a student holiday.
A proposal to eliminate Indigenous Peoples Day, the woke district’s renamed Columbus Day, failed 7-4 – meaning they protected that one.
Christmas is suddenly on the chopping block while a made-up Democrat holiday gets to stay.
FCPS Spent $12.5 Million on Lawyers After Illegal Immigrant Groped 13 Girls at Fairfax High School
Parents pushing for more instruction time have a legitimate point.
FCPS has the lowest percentage of full five-day school weeks in the region – just 52% of weeks run a full five days.
Low-income students get hurt the worst, because every broken week means more disruption and more lost ground.
Parent and Washington Examiner contributor Stephanie Lundquist-Arora said: "You're taking away instruction time, and you're completely interrupting their education."
But here's what the board refuses to address.
FOIA requests revealed that FCPS spent $12.5 million on legal fees in just the first nine months of fiscal year 2026 – a new district record with two months still left in the year.
That bill traces directly to the Israel Flores Ortiz scandal.
Ortiz – an 18-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador enrolled as a junior at Fairfax High School – was arrested in March after 13 female students reported he groped them in the hallways between classes.
He was convicted on nine counts of misdemeanor assault and battery and sentenced in April to 360 days in jail.
The district's response was to hire law firm McGuireWoods at up to $1,850 an hour to conduct what Superintendent Michelle Reid called an "independent outside" investigation.
McGuireWoods then concluded the administration had "acted promptly and appropriately" – a finding that surprised exactly no one who had read the contract.
Reid herself earns $445,353 a year in taxpayer money.
Her combined salary with her chief of staff tops $750,000 annually.
Meanwhile, the district cut 70 teaching positions this year even as it received a $197 million budget increase – bringing total spending to $4.1 billion – and class sizes are climbing.
The district spends $272 million annually on 2,346 administrators who never set foot in a classroom.
It funds a 19-person department devoted entirely to environmental initiatives at a cost of $2.2 million a year.
And it blew $150 million on a brand-new high school – Skyview – despite enrollment projections showing FCPS losing students for the foreseeable future.
This Is What the Pattern Actually Looks Like
Thirteen girls reported being groped in the hallways by an illegal alien the district enrolled and supervised.
The board's response was to hire lawyers at $1,850 an hour to tell the public everything was fine.
Now those same board members are surveying parents about whether Christmas should be a school day.
They protected a Democrat holiday nobody had ever heard of and eliminated Veterans Day in the same vote.
They spend $272 million a year on administrators who never teach a single child, and they still cut 70 teachers.
This isn't incompetence – it's a values statement.
The girls in those hallways weren't worth a policy change, Veterans Day got eliminated, and now Christmas is on the survey.
Fairfax’s school board doesn't care about students – it has made clear its highest priority is pushing a left-wing political agenda.
Sources:
- Nick Minock, "Fairfax schools consider eliminating Christmas, other religious holidays from days off," WJLA, June 2026.
- Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, "Fairfax Schools' Pricey Legal Advice Disguised as 'Independent Investigation,'" The Daily Signal, June 12, 2026.
- "Fairfax schools' external investigations are not independent," The Washington Times, June 2026.
- "Illegal immigrant Israel Flores Ortiz gets 360 days for groping girls at Fairfax County Va. High School," Fox News, April 21, 2026.
- "Fairfax County Public Schools buckles amid scandals," Washington Examiner, April 13, 2026.
- Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, "Fairfax Schools Respond to Financial Scandal With Denial, Deflection, and Spin," The Daily Signal, May 12, 2026.
- "Ahead of vote, parents offer alternatives to Fairfax County's irregular school calendar," WTOP, April 8, 2026.
