The Fairfax County School Board issued an apology Thursday evening after the commonwealth reprimanded of one of its members for disclosing confidential information about his opponent’s son.
The apology came in response to the Nov. 27 rebuke from the Virginia Department of Education, which ruled that Hunter Mill District board member Stu Gibson had violated confidentiality regulations and laws when he discussed the student this summer and fall. The School Board also decided not to appeal the state’s findings.
“I am sorry,” Gibson said in a statement. “I apologize if anything I said caused any harm. It was certainly not my intent.”
Christine Arakelian, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican against Gibson in November and whose son is a Fairfax County student with a disability, told The Examiner she was unsatisfied with the statement.
“I don’t think the apology went far enough,” she said. “It is not just an offense against me and my son, it was an affront to the law … public officials in Virginia do not have the wherewithal to determine which laws they think are important and which laws they think are unimportant.”
Gibson did not return a call for comment Friday.
The dispute originated from a July 1 letter Gibson sent to parent-teacher groups in his district in which he described a meeting between him and Arakelian, the state report said. The meeting focused on “what the school system was doing to address the needs of students like her son, so called ‘twice exceptional’ students who are at the same time gifted in some respects and learning disabled in others.”
The state memo laid out no punishment for Gibson.
In Thursday’s statement, the School Board pledged to receive additional training regarding legal requirements governing confidentiality of student records.
Gibson defeated Arakelian in the Nov. 6 School Board election with 13,170 votes to her 8,390.
