News

JUST IN: Gunston Middle School locked down due to threat

By ARLnow.com
1/6

(Updated at 3:35 p.m.) Gunston Middle School was placed in lockdown this afternoon due to a threat found in the school.

Initial reports suggest that a threat of violence at a specific time was found in a bathroom. Police responded to the scene and the school’s classrooms were locked down.

“Do not come to the school,” Arlington Public Schools initially said on social media.

No actual incidents of violence have been reported.

As of 2:45 p.m. the lockdown had been lifted in favor of a “secure the school” status and students were being escorted to buses as part of a controlled dismissal.

This is the latest in a series of threats against Arlington middle schools.

In March, Gunston was put in lockdown after “a message written inside a restroom stall referencing gun violence” was discovered. Last week another threat found in a Gunston girls’ bathroom prompted a police investigation. Swanson was locked down yesterday due to a phoned-in bomb threat.

In May, a Kenmore student was charged after an implied shooting threat was posted on social media.

Separately today, Wakefield High School families were informed of an alleged shooting threat. Principal Peter Balas sent the following message to families.

Dear Wakefield Families and Staff,

Late yesterday, Wakefield Administration was informed of a threat of violence overheard by several students. The specific threat reported involved “shooting up the class.”

The Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) and the APS Safety, Security and Emergency Management office were made aware of the threat, and they investigated the situation. Any students who have knowledge of this are asked to contact the school administration.

The preliminary investigation has not revealed an ongoing threat to the safety of the school community. Students are reminded that making threats, regardless of credibility, is unacceptable and in violation of the Student Code of Conduct and will result in disciplinary action by the school as well as a referral to law enforcement.

We appreciate the students who brought this to our attention and ask all members of our community to report any threats they may see or hear, whether they believe they are credible or not.

We always take threats of violence of any kind very seriously. The safety of our students and staff is our top priority and I want to thank the Wakefield community for your support and responsiveness, and if you hear or see something that concerns you, please let me or a member of our staff know immediately.

Arlington Public Schools has partnered with the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia’s Youth Violence Project to provide free threat assessment training for students and parents. This training program is designed for all students ages 12 and up and parents of all students in Arlington Public Schools. Additional information is available on the APS website.

James Jarvis and Jo DeVoe contributed to this report

Around Town

Podcast: Va. elections analyst Sam Shirazi on the Democratic upset at the ballot box last week

By Jo DeVoe
ARLnow’s Jo DeVoe and Va. elections analyst Sam Shirazi on the latest ARLnow Podcast

Last week’s election may have had few surprises locally but it shook up the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates.

Virginia elections analyst Sam Shirazi caught up with ARLnow’s Jo DeVoe to talk about how Democrats won majorities in both legislative chambers and why Arlingtonians should look outside the county’s deep blue bubble and pay attention to state politics.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.

Sponsored

Halls Hill native recalls making history with Civil Rights-era lawsuit over voting in Arlington

By Scott McCaffrey

As a 23-year-old voter in still-segregated 1960s Virginia, Portia Haskins was convinced she had followed all the rules in order to cast a ballot in Arlington.

Election officials disagreed, saying she had failed to pay the appropriate poll tax still required in the Old Dominion, maintained in part to disenfranchise Black voters.

Haskins took the county, and state, to court. She won, with her case ultimately being folded into the landmark 1966 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Haskins was an unusual legal combatant, committed to seeking unity.

“I’m the type of person who wants to bring everyone together,” the Halls Hill native said at a weekend presentation sponsored by the county library system and hosted by the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.

After her efforts to vote were rejected at the local level, Haskins enlisted support from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge the ruling. She traveled several times to the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then watched as the case and others like it moved to the Supreme Court.

Her reaction at the final outcome? “I was so happy,” she said.

The 6-3 ruling in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections effectively outlawed requiring poll taxes for state elections in those few states, like Virginia, that retained them. The poll-tax requirement for federal elections had been eliminated with ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964.

Lessons from the struggle are still valuable today, said Haskins, now 83.

“Everybody has to come together and fight” when they see injustice, she said. “You have to get together.”

Historical photo of Portia Haskins (via Black Heritage Museum of Arlington)

Haskins is among the Arlingtonians profiled in the “From Barriers to Ballots,” an exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Several versions of the exhibition are on display across Northern Virginia, with one at Central Library running through Nov. 4.

The Arlington Historical Society partnered on the exhibition, and was excited about the Haskins presentation, former president David Pearson said.

“She is someone we really wanted to learn about,” he said, pointing to a renewed effort to “really get out the stories of the complete history of Arlington.”

Haskins has been a member of Mount Salvation Baptist Church near the Glebewood neighborhood since 1951, and in the community she has promoted “the spirit of community and empowerment,” said Scott Taylor, president of the Black Heritage Museum.

Haskins lamented that much of the history of the civil-rights movement is being lost in the public consciousness.

“We went through a lot, but people today don’t know,” she said. Young people in particular, she said, “don’t care because they don’t know.”

Her request to today’s youth? “Let everybody know how you feel” and use the ballot box to create change.

“Voting is important. That’s what everybody really needs to do,” Haskins said.

News

Arlington is close to launching a new call center to divert people in mental health crises from jail

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington 911 dispatcher at the county’s Emergency Communications Center, in 2021 (via Arlington County)

The next year will see some important steps forward as Arlington County looks to uncouple law enforcement from its response to homelessness and behavioral health crises.

In 2024, the county will implement new protocols and a call system to ensure people experiencing behavioral health crises — due to a mental illness, substance use disorder or disability — receive services rather than get arrested and jailed.

The coordinator of the forthcoming Marcus Alert system, Tiffany Jones, provided the update during an Arlington Committee of 100 forum last week, adding that more details will emerge during the implementation stage.

“The main purpose is to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity, accessibility to services and is treated with dignity and respect and given the proper services that they need to thrive,” Jones said. “However, there is a specific mission to increase the availability of and access to racially responsive crisis supports — so, in short, to target the BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] community.”

The system comes from the Marcus-David Peters Act, which was signed into law in late 2020 and is named for Marcus-David Peters, a Black, 24-year-old biology teacher who was killed by a police officer in 2018 in Richmond while experiencing a mental health crisis.

Once operational, the system will transfer people who call 911 or 988, the national suicide and mental health crisis hotline, to a regional call center. There, staff determine whether to de-escalate the situation over the phone, dispatch a mobile crisis unit or send specially trained law enforcement.

“Our emergency communications center partners have been doing a wonderful job in getting trained on mental health, psychotic disorders, substance use, suicide prevention, trauma-informed care: various different topics that will help them learn how to assess and manage and transfer calls when they receive Marcus Alert-type calls,” Jones said.

The regional crisis call center is also building mobile crisis teams, Jones said, noting more information on these teams will come out at the time of implementation in December.

“Arlington County and the police department are well ahead of what the state protocols are for the Marcus Alert implementation that we’re working towards in 2024,” ACPD Community Engagement Division Supervisor Lt. Steve Proud said.

The state required localities to ready implementation plans by the summer of 2022. However, localities have until 2028 to stand up a Marcus Alert system.

So far, five localities within each region of the state have operating programs, according to the Virginia Dept. of Behavioral Health and Development Services:

  • Western: Madison and Fauquier counties, plus Warrenton and Culpeper
  • Northern: Prince William County
  • Southwest: Bristol and Washington County
  • Central: Richmond
  • Southeast: Virginia Beach

Jones had another big announcement last week related to the county’s “Mobile Outreach Support Team.”

“When we implement the funding that we will get from the state [for Marcus Alert], we’re going to expand our MOST team due to how effective they have been in the community and pouring into our community members,” she said. “So we’ll be able to have new team with a new van, and expanding hours of operation as well.”

MOST launched this summer and comprises licensed clinician, a peer recovery specialist and an outreach worker from the Dept. of Human Services. Between 1-9 p.m., they respond to referral calls in a retrofitted van equipped with everything from a defibrillator to Narcan and fentanyl test strips.

The vehicle was funded through a 2-year, $390,000 federal grant.

Mobile Outreach Support Team coordinator Michael Keen shows Rep. Don Beyer the county’s behavioral health crisis response van launched last month (staff photo by James Jarvis)

MOST Coordinator Michael Keen said he conducts homeless outreach while shelters, the public and the police department refer individuals to him, so he can introduce them to county programs. He says he has received 45-55 referrals per month in the last two months, up from an average of 15-20, largely from police.

(more…)

Announcement

Register by Oct. 12 for Arlington’s Winter Youth House Basketball!

By Kids - stay active this winter!

Arlington kids can keep active this winter with Arlington County’s Department of Parks & Recreation’s Youth House Basketball League. Available for grades 1-12, this program begins in mid-November for grades 1-8 and early Jan. for grades 9-12 and costs between $75-90.

Come join the fun! Sign up by Oct. 12*!

Go to Register by Oct. 12 for Arlington’s Winter Youth House Basketball! Read more
News

Crime report: Officers assaulted, robbery victims knocked to the ground

By ARLnow.com
File photo

It was an active weekend for Arlington County police.

A number of notable incidents were detailed in the latest ACPD crime report. Among them were a pair of assaults on police early Saturday morning.

In the first incident, an intoxicated suspect allegedly kicked an officer after ACPD was called for “vehicle stopped in the middle lane of traffic” on 23rd Street S. in Crystal City.

ASSAULT ON POLICE, 2023-11110021, 500 block of 23rd Street S. At approximately 1:46 a.m. on November 11, police were dispatched to the report of a fight. Upon arrival, witnesses directed officers to a vehicle stopped in the middle lane of traffic. As officers approached to investigate, they came into contact with the male and female suspects. The female suspect disregarded officers commands and attempted to go back towards the vehicle. When officers attempted to detain her, she allegedly became combative and resisted before being taken into custody. As officers were detaining the female suspect, the male suspect became aggressive and attempted to interfere. Additional arriving officers detained the male suspect during which he resisted officers. During a search of the female suspect, she kicked a police officer. [Suspect 1], 29, of Washington, DC. was arrested and charged with Assault on Police, Obstruction of Justice and Public Intoxication. [Suspect 2], 25, of Greensboro, NC, was arrested and charged with Obstruction of Justice and Public Intoxication.

Another assault on police was reported later that morning along S. Four Mile Run Drive, after a victim was allegedly assaulted by a woman she knows.

ASSAULT ON POLICE, 2023-11110041, 4200 block of S. Four Mile Run Drive. At approximately 4:25 a.m. on November 11, police were dispatched to the report of an assault with injury. Upon arrival, it was determined the female suspect and female victim, who are known to each other, had a verbal dispute inside of a parked vehicle during which the suspect exited the vehicle and assaulted the victim through an open car window. Responding officers located the suspect on scene and while officers attempting to detain her, she allegedly struck a police officer. Medics responded and treated the victim of the initial assault on scene for non-life threatening injuries. [The suspect], 33, of Jacksonville, FL was arrested and charged with Assault on Police.

Later Saturday evening, police responded to the assault of two teen girls in Rosslyn by a teen boy armed with a taser, who remains at large.

MALICIOUS WOUNDING BY A CAUSTIC AGENT, 2023-11110171, 1500 block of Wilson Boulevard. At approximately 5:53 p.m. on November 11, police were dispatched to the report of an incident involving a juvenile. Upon arrival, it was determined the two juvenile female victims were walking in the area when they were approached by an unknown group of juveniles. The juvenile male suspect then knocked Victim One to the ground, produced a taser and attempted to steal her personal belongings before the victims fled into a nearby business. The suspect then followed the victims into the business and tased Victim Two. The victims exited the business and ran from the area during which the suspect caught up with them, pepper sprayed Victim Two and followed them into a residential building where he poured a drink on Victim Two before fleeing the scene on foot. Medics responded and evaluated the victims on scene.

Finally, on Sunday night, a man walking in the Barcroft neighborhood was knocked to the ground by someone who ran up on them from behind. The victim suffered serious injuries, according to ACPD.

MALICIOUS WOUNDING, 2023-11120208, 900 block of S. Buchanan Street. At approximately 10:23 p.m. on November 12, police were dispatched to the report of a robbery. Upon arrival, it was determined the male victim was walking in the area when the unknown male suspect approached from behind, knocked the victim to the ground, physically assaulted him and produced a possible taser or stun gun. The suspect then stole the victim’s wallet before running from the scene. The victim was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. Officers established a perimeter and searched the area with negative results. There is no suspect description. The investigation is ongoing.

View More Stories