Arlington is the latest place to have its schools threatened by “creepy clown” social media accounts.
Hoax social media posts, often featuring images of sinister-looking clowns, have threatened schoolsacross the country. Thus far the posts have led to numerous arrests of teens suspected of making the threats, but no reported violence.
Last night, two Instagram accounts — @virginiaclowns and @dmv_clowns — posted similar threats, warning of shootings at a number of area schools, including Kenmore, Gunston and Thomas Jefferson middle schools in Arlington.
The threats have prompted a stepped-up police presence at Arlington schools this morning.
“We are aware [of the threats] and were in contact with the Arlington Police Department staff last night when we saw the messages,” Arlington Public Schools spokesman Frank Bellavia told ARLnow.com. “As a precaution, ACPD has had an increased presence at our schools this morning.”
Gunston Middle School students will be dismissed just before noon today due to an air conditioning issue.
School administrators say they are “currently without air conditioning in the majority of our building.” The A/C troubles come as temperatures are expected to reach into the upper 90s today.
Separately, Taylor Elementary School is also reported to be experiencing air conditioning problems.
“There is an issue with the HVAC in three classrooms,” Arlington Public Schools spokesman Frank Bellavia told ARLnow.com. “The problem is intermittent and right now it is on. Maintenance is looking into the problem and we are watching it closely.”
A parent tells us that her daughter’s kindergarten classroom, another classroom and the school’s gym are “a sweatbox.”
“My daughter was talking about fighting to sit by a fan,” the parent said.
The letter from school administrators to Gunston parents, after the jump.
A middle school teaching assistant is watching his educational career go up in smoke after being arrested on drug charges.
Police say Zachary Van Dyke, 32, smoked pot with a 13-year-old student at his home. He also allegedly sold some pot to the teen.
Van Dyke was a teaching assistant at Gunston Middle School and a freshman basketball coach at Washington-Lee High School. He has been suspended by Arlington Public Schools and charged by police with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and distribution of marijuana.
Police say they’re seeking additional information from “anyone with past inappropriate encounters with this suspect.”
From an ACPD press release:
The Arlington County Police Department’s Drug Enforcement Unit is investigating a suspect involved in the distribution of marijuana to a juvenile victim. The suspect was a Teaching Assistant assigned to Gunston Middle School and a freshman basketball coach at Washington-Lee High School. He has been suspended by Arlington County Public Schools, pending the outcome of the investigation. Representatives with Arlington County Public Schools continue to cooperate with the police investigation.
The suspect, 32 year-old Zachary Van Dyke, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and distribution of marijuana stemming from an incident on May 27, 2016. The investigation revealed that Van Dyke transported the 13 year-old juvenile victim to his residence where they smoked marijuana. Van Dyke also sold marijuana to the juvenile. Van Dyke was arrested and held on bond in the Arlington County Detention Facility.
The investigation into this incident is ongoing. Anyone with past inappropriate encounters with this suspect or who has additional information is asked to call Detective S. Proud at 703.228.7156 or email [email protected]. To report information anonymously, contact the Arlington County Crime Solvers at 866.411.TIPS (8477).
On Wednesday we reported that a cat and her kittens were living on top of Gunston Middle School. Today we’re happy to report that the kittens have been successfully removed from the roof.
After a bit of an impasse with Arlington Public Schools officials, yesterday animal control officers from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington were able to find a way to safely get to the roof, capture the kittens and get them back down from the roof.
AWLA detailed the process in a Facebook post last night.
We are happy to report that the kittens have been safely removed from the roof and are in our care here at the shelter!
We were made aware of this little family after a young student saw the kittens outside his classroom window and called the shelter. The mother cat was able to freely come and go from the flat roof, and had decided that it was the safest spot for her kittens!
Because the mother cat is feral, we needed to wait to remove her kittens until they were old enough to eat on their own and not rely on her for survival. Typically our officers do not climb onto roofs for safety reasons, but after we were informed that there was a secured ladder on the side of the building, the officers knew they had to help. And so Operation Roof Kitten Rescue began!
Officers Corcoran, Solano and Dispatcher Barrett were able to capture the fearful kittens in a net and transfer them to a carrier. They created a harness made of leashes so that Officer Solano could “wear” the carrier as she descended the ladder.
The kittens are now the perfect age for socializing: old enough to eat on their own, but young enough to learn to enjoy human contact. They will now go to a foster home until they are old enough and friendly enough for adoption. Thank you to everyone who assisted us in this rescue!
What will happen to the kittens’ mother? AWLA also answered that on the Facebook post.
When it comes to feral kittens there’s a delicate balance between leaving them with their mothers vs taking them into the shelter. If we leave them with the mother until they are completely grown and leave her on their own, they will be too old to socialize and adopt out – they will be feral like their mother, and then those kittens will grow and have more kittens of their own, leading to a larger and larger population of feral cats in the area. The officers and shelter staff feel that it’s in the best interests of the mother and kittens to remove them at this time. As stated above, the officers are looking options for the mother cat. We can assure you that the welfare of both the kittens and mother are what we are most concerned about.
Arlington Public Schools and the Animal Welfare League of Arlington are trying to figure out how to get a cat and her kittens off of the roof of Gunston Middle School (2700 S. Lang Street).
The feline family recently took up residence on the school’s roof, apparently after the cat climbed a tree to get there.
Both APS and AWLA want to get the cat and kittens down from the roof, but are still formulating a plan for how to do it.
“We think that the mother cat is feral, and we want to capture the kittens while they are young enough to be socialized,” said AWLA’s Susan Sherman. “Once the kittens are old enough to get down from the roof on their own, they will likely be too old to socialize.”
Sherman said an AWLA animal control officer has been to the school “several times” to talk to officials from the school and the attached Gunston Community Center. One sticking point is deciding who’s going to go up on the roof. School workers don’t want to get attacked by the cat and animal control officers don’t want to play Spiderman.
“We offered to assist the school facilities people to set a humane trap on the roof, but they said the mother cat might attack them,” Sherman explained. “Our officers do not climb up on roofs. The part of the roof the cats are on is flat, and we requested access from classroom windows but the school facilities person told us the windows cannot be unscrewed or removed.”
“We are working on a plan to capture the kittens as soon as possible but want to do it in a way that is safe for the cats and people,” she said.
A police tip earlier this month led to the arrest of a man suspected of slashing another man in the face after an argument last June, police announced this morning.
According to the authorities, a tip received through Arlington County Crime Solvers led to the arrest of 24-year-old Ramon Calderon on April 14.
Calderon is suspected of brandishing a pocket knife, then cutting another man across the face at the Gunston Middle School soccer fields in June. The attack caused “a fairly large laceration,” on the victim’s face according to police, and resulted in significant bleeding due to a cut minor artery. The man was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he received 60 stitches.
Police said last June that the two men were arguing about the “worth and importance of a college education” before the attack, but they did not specify whether the suspect was arguing for or against the value of higher education.
An argument between two men about the value of a college education ended with one of the men being slashed across the face.
The malicious wounding incident happened Friday night around 8:30 at the Gunston Middle School soccer fields. Police say two men were having a verbal argument when one of them brandished a pocket knife and cut the victim across the face, from the corner of the mouth to the ear.
The slash caused “a fairly large laceration,” according to police, and resulted in significant bleeding due to a cut minor artery. The victim was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he received 60 stitches.
The suspect fled the scene and the investigation “is ongoing.” The suspect is described as a Hispanic male, about 6’3″ and 220 lbs. At the time of the incident was wearing a pink Nike polo shirt and blue jeans, police say.
The argument started when the men began debating the “worth and importance of a college education,” police say. The suspect became angry during the argument, at which point he pulled out the pocket knife. A crime report did not specify whether the suspect was arguing for or against the value of higher education.
Old Dominion Drive and the park outside Gunston Community Center are getting upgrades.
On Saturday, The Arlington County Board unanimously approved $7.3 million worth of contracts to construct sidewalks on both sides of the arterial road from 38th Street N. to west of N. Glebe Road. The improvements will also install as well as curbs and gutters, traffic and pedestrian signals and stormwater upgrades.
Of the contract, $2.34 million will be coming from the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the rest will be coming from local bond funding and money from the HB 2313 transportation funding law.
“Old Dominion Drive is one of the last arterials located within a County neighborhood without sidewalks on either side,” the county said in a press release. The improvements are expected to be finished by fall 2016
The county also approved a nearly $600,000 contract for improvements around Gunston Community Center in the Long Branch Creek neighborhood. The money will go toward renovating the parking lot, outdoor basketball court and lighting. The parking lot and courts will be closed starting in March and are expected to reopen in the summer. People using the community center’s turf fields and indoor facilities will be directed to park at the adjacent Gunston Middle School parking lot.
“These two projects are prudent, timely investments in maintaining and upgrading our existing infrastructure,” said Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes.
Kenmore Middle School Principal John Word speaks to parents about an assault at the school
Kenmore Middle School principal John Word
The location of an assault on a sixth-grade student in front of Kenmore Middle School (photo via Google Maps)
A sixth-grader was attacked by two seventh-graders outside Kenmore Middle School last Thursday after school hours, and the incident has raised concerns among parents about how the school handles cases of bullying and violence.
According to Kenmore Principal John Word, a seventh-grader said the sixth-grade victim had called him “a racial slur” over the summer, and the seventh-grader and his friend waited until about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday to retaliate.
In the field between Kenmore and Carlin Springs Elementary School along S. Carlin Springs Road, the two seventh-graders hit the younger boy in the face at least twice, while a crowd of other students watched, school officials confirmed. The victim reportedly received bruises on his face but didn’t need to receive medical treatment.
An administrator quickly broke up the fight, the school said, but police were called and filed a report. The boy’s mother, who will not be named to protect the identity of the minor, said she did not receive any communication from the school until she went herself the following day.
The incident sparked concern among parents of Kenmore students, to the point where the school held a community meeting yesterday afternoon to address the attack.
“This was not random, it was targeted and wrong,” Word told a group of more than a dozen parents in the school’s library yesterday. “After interviewing those culprits, the victims and some witnesses, I was convinced that this incident should result in the most severe consequence I could administer.”
The seventh-graders initially were given two-day suspensions, Word said, but he decided to increase their punishments after the school completed its investigation. Word could not reveal the seventh-graders’ final punishment due to student confidentiality laws, but according to the APS Handbook, the most severe punishment allowed for incidents like “physical altercations, fighting and bullying” is “a maximum of ten (10) consecutive days out-of-school suspension, request for disciplinary hearing for additional suspension time and/or a recommendation for expulsion.”
While Word said he waited to reach out to the community until he had all the facts, that explanation did not ease the concerns of the parents at yesterday’s meeting.
“I’m concerned about my children’s safety at this school,” said a parent, who requested her name not be used due to potential “repercussions upon our children.” “There was no message given to our kids… The bylaws show that you have 48 hours to respond. Now we have all these kids hearing these things [about the attack], and they wonder why no one has talked to them about it in school.”
When the victim’s mother began to introduce herself at the meeting, she couldn’t finish her sentence before she began crying. She clutched a tissue for the majority of the hourlong gathering, while listening to the meeting’s translation by a Spanish interpreter sitting next to her.
The assault — which is how the school classified the incident — took place exactly one week after a separate altercation at Gunston Middle School. ARLnow.com received a tip about a seventh-grader at Gunston who, his parents say, was “sucker-punched” in the hallway during school hours. The victim had received “verbal bullying” during class and “a substitute teacher did not intervene on his behalf,” the parent wrote. (more…)
(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) A man exposed himself outside Gunston Middle School (2700 S. Lang Street) last Tuesday, police said.
The incident happened just before 7:00 p.m. Police say an unknown suspect exposed himself at the water fountain outside the school, near the athletic fields.
“The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his thirties, approximately 5’3″ tall and 140 lbs,” according to an Arlington County police crime report. “He was wearing a bright red shirt and blue jeans at the time of the incident.”
There’s no indication that any children saw the man’s genitalia, police told ARLnow.com. WJLA reported that the fields were likely in use by community groups at the time.
The Arlington Soccer Association’s club practices at the turf by Gunston Middle School (2700 S. Lang Street) have been targeted by thieves last week.
The ASA sent an email to soccer parents Sunday night alerting them that thieves had stolen items, including smartphones, from the fields while the teams were practicing. The first incidents of theft happened on Tuesday, according to the email, with soccer balls, phones and several travel bags taken.
“In response to the first incidents on Tuesday, ASA issued guidelines for personal property management to our travel team coaches and team managers that included specific suggestions to mitigate potential issues at Gunston and Virginia Highlands [Park],” the email states. “Despite this, issues continued several times during the week.”
One witness to a theft Tuesday night said it was perpetrated by a 15 year-old.
“A 15 year old youth grabbed two soccer backpacks and started running,” said the witness, who declined to be identified. “Fortunately, bystanders chased and caught the thief and held him until the police arrived. Since each backpack contained a smartphone, the police told us that he would be charged with attempted grand larceny.”
ASA said the Arlington County Police Department has agreed to station more officers, both on foot and in vehicles, at the fields during practice. The ASA has also issued guidelines to its players that include the best place to leave bags during practice at Gunston — behind the goal closest to the school — and a request for each team to provide two volunteers to help supervise practice.
Arlington is the latest place to have its schools threatened by “creepy clown” social media accounts.
