Some Fairfax County school officials breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday when Republican presidential candidate John McCain moved a Wednesday morning campaign rally from a public school to a public park.
The move came amid public outcry in the battleground state from parents and officials claiming Republican favoritism and a violation of school policy.
“To say the least, people were uncomfortable,” said Jane Strauss, a Fairfax school board member who said she and her colleagues were pleased with the decision.
The McCain campaign said the decision was made to accommodate higher attendance than originally predicted, due in part to the popularity of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Paul Regnier, spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools, passed along the school policy on use of buildings and grounds, which includes a provision banning campaign events during school hours, although he said he was unaware of any pressure on the campaign from school officials to move the rally.
“The school system got caught on this one,” said Toni-Michelle Travis, a professor of politics at Fairfax’s George Mason University, explaining Virginia’s status as a battleground state has required districts to look more closely at what’s appropriate fare for events held on campus.
“We’re seeing the growing pains of a viable two-party system in Virginia,” Travis said.
Fairfax, like nearby Alexandria and Arlington schools, has hosted political events during the current campaign season, but never during a regular school day. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke in Fairfax in July, and at Alexandria’s T.C. Williams High School on a February weekend. Hillary Clinton spoke at Arlington’s Washington Lee High School on a weekday in February, but only after the last bell rang.
“It was strictly a choice event for students,” Arlington spokesman Frank Bellavia said. “And there was no campaigning allowed – they couldn’t pass out buttons or anything like that.”
Alexandria spokeswoman Amy Carlini stressed the school policy requiring election-related events to be held outside of the regular school day, but said “there are exceptions for everything” depending on the school board and superintendent’s judgments on educational benefit.
