Last night, I attended the third Community Town Meeting on Fairfax County s West County H.S. Boundary Study held at Oakton, H.S. and was shocked by the lengths Fairfax County Public Schools is apparently willing to go to deceive the public on its redistricting plans. The school system seems to be employing a deliberate, calculated strategy to force a pre-ordained – but highly unpopular – redistricting decision down everybody s throat, hoping that voters will forget the insult next time the School Board is up for reelection. As happened at the previous town hall meeting at Westfields H.S., the public was split into small groups led by an FCPS facilitator. Divide and conquer is still an effective strategy, especially when you can get neighborhoods fighting among themselves instead of focusing on the big picture: Redistricting is not necessary, the current option is unfair, and nobody wants it. Our facilitator in Room 215 was Barbara Fisher, who must have done her graduate work with the KGB. Ms. Fisher demanded that Hunter Mill resident Bruce Bennett (who had previously been escorted out of the Westfields meeting by the police for bringing his camcorder) not videotape the proceedings this time, either. Bennett respectfully refused, citing his rights under Section 2.2-3707 (h) of the Virginia Code: Any person may photograph, film, record or otherwise reproduce any portion of a meeting required to be open…. And if a community town hall meeting isn t an open meeting, what is? Ms. Fisher then called security and seven police officers soon arrived , accompanied by FCPS facilities chief Dean Tistadt. (See The Examiner s editorial: www.examiner.com/a-1104757~Junk_the_Fairfax_school_redistricting_plan.html). Even though Tistadt had three weeks to bone up on the law,he told the officers that no videotaping would be allowed if even one participant objected. Then he argued that the no-videotaping policy was intended to protect any underage students in the room. So once again, Mr. Bennett was escorted out of a public meeting for trying to exercise his right, confirmed by the state s Freedom of Information office, to record it. But Comrade Fisher wasn t done. When she noticed another camcorder in the room, she demanded that Oak Hill resident Jay Frost turn his off, too, threatening to call the cops if he did not. Frost icily retorted that I m not one of your students before leaving the room voluntarily. Back in Room 215, we watched a typical FCPS offering an extremely boring televised video that managed to evade every single objection to the redistricting plan raised at the previous town meeting. Fisher then put up large sheets of paper the kind you use when you re teaching kindergarteners their ABCs to record our comments, deftly channeling most of the input into just two categories: Did we agree or disagree with the Dec. 19 Alternative Option ? Which was, in fact, the only option on the table at this point. Several of the participants complained that there was no No Redistricting Option . Others noted that comments made to this effect at the Westfields meeting never made it to the FCPS website. I was not surprised. When my turn came to speak, I said that I thought the school system was deliberately misleading the public by offering only one option nobody wanted, and that these public meetings were nothing but a charade. Since my eyesight isn t so good anymore, I didn t notice the fact that Comrade Fisher neglected to write the word charade down; a student sitting in front of me helpfully pointed that out. I had to raise my hand and insist twice that this be done. Despite Fisher s totally inappropriate and insinuating remarks that nobody should feel threatened to voice their agreement with the redistricting plan (she was, in fact, the only one who ever threatened anybody all evening), the overwhelmingly majority in Room 215 (16 out of 20 not counting Mr. Bennett or Mr. Frost) opposed any redistricting at all. We found this out only at the end of the meeting, and only after one woman demanded Fisher take a tally of those opposed to any redistricting at all. Fisher had initially refused to do this, claiming that it was too chaotic in the room for a show of hands. But this was a flat-out lie, as the group was much closer to docile than anything else. Offering just one option and then using strong-arm tactics to curb dissent and stifle debate are the hallmarks of a dictatorship. This is just like China, one Asian man in attendance said, and his comment gave me the chills. He was right. Today, I called Supt. Jack Dale s office to ask why all the comments weren t posted and why his stable of lawyers can t read the Virginia Code. I m still waiting….