Defunders keep fighting “Does abolition really mean ending the police? Yes.” So said community organizer Ang Conn, as she spearheaded last Wednesday’s Zoom conversation on policing, hosted by Defund Cville Police. Over 80 community members joined in on the call. The group hopes to keep the pressure on as the summer of protests moves into […]
Defunders keep fighting “Does abolition really mean ending the police? Yes.” So said community organizer Ang Conn, as she spearheaded last Wednesday’s Zoom conversation on policing, hosted by Defund Cville Police. Over 80 community members joined in on the call. The group hopes to keep the pressure on as the summer of protests moves into […]
Pipeline pushback In June, environmental activists celebrated as Dominion Energy canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have carried natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina, passing through central Virginia. A little further west, however, the fight continues, as construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline inches along. Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission […]
After months of debate, the Albemarle County School Board decided in July to hold the first nine weeks of classes with distance learning for most students. One exception to the mandate was made for students with special needs. The decision immediately stirred up controversy and concern, with many community members believing face-to-face instruction was not […]
For many people, Shenandoah National Park is a great place to hike, camp, bike, and explore. But now, Albemarle’s middle and high schoolers will have a chance to see a different side of the park, and dig deeper into its creation. What happened to the people who once lived there? What are their stories? Can […]
Rogers that A statue of an old racist general in Charlottesville has once again been recontextualized—UVA’s George Rogers Clark monument was splattered with an impressive arc of red paint in the middle of the night on Sunday. Clark was a general during the United States’ violent westward expansion in the 19th century. The statue shows […]
After weeks of discussion and debate, the verdict is in: Charlottesville City Schools will reopen virtually for all students, while Albemarle County will allow a limited selection of students to participate in in-person learning. Both districts finalized their decisions at school board meetings on Thursday. During the division’s virtual meeting, ACPS staff detailed the division’s […]
For weeks, Filadelfia Soto—along with hundreds of other teachers in Albemarle County—was left in the dark. She had received emails with “general information about school board meetings,” but nothing about how the school division planned to reopen in the fall, or when teachers could weigh in on the issue. So when division staff rolled out […]
Statue disposal Many of Richmond’s Monument Avenue Confederate statues are gone, but debate over their removal continues, and people have wondered where the toppled statues are being stored. This week, some sharp-eyed Richmonders noticed a large collection of monument-shaped tarps standing around the city’s wastewater treatment plant. It’s about as close as you can get […]
As protests against police brutality continue around the country, school districts are tackling another form of systemic racism and oppression: whitewashed history. Since last year, Albemarle County Public Schools has been working to create an anti-racist social studies curriculum, elevating the voices and stories of marginalized people and groups, which are often misrepresented by (or […]
In light of the ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism, school districts across the country have cut ties with police—including here in Charlottesville. On June 11, Charlottesville City Schools announced it was discontinuing its memorandum of understanding with the Charlottesville Police Department, ending its current school resource officer program. Instead, the district says […]