LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 1, No. 49 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Time to cut school ties with TJ?
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[ Oct. 13 – 19, 2016 ]
Tips Lead to Schoolhouse Vandalism Suspects BY DANIELLE NADLER
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock talks to TV reporters after the debate against her Democratic challenger LuAnn Bennett. Comstock has urged Donald J. Trump to drop out of the presidential race.
DID TAPE, COMSTOCK TORPEDO TRUMP IN LOUDOUN? BY RENSS GREENE
E
ven before the race for president began more than a year ago, Loudoun County was targeted by strategists in both parties as a must-win locality in the push to take Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. Last month, polls showed that Republican nominee Donald Trump gaining ground on Democrat Hillary Clinton, but the gap has widened in recent weeks and the campaign was dealt two blows on Friday. First was the surfacing of a 2005 recording of Trump making crude sexual remarks about women. That was quickly followed by region’s top elected Republican, 10th District Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, calling for the business mogul to drop out of the race. During her re-election campaign,
Comstock had avoided commenting about whether she supported Trump, with her staff referring questions about the candidate to a Washington Post article from May in which she said “Donald Trump needs to earn the votes of me and many others” and that she would be “watching.” “This is disgusting, vile, and disqualifying,” Comstock said in a statement Friday, hours after the voters heard recorded Trump comments. “No woman should ever be subjected to this typwe of obscene behavior and it is unbecoming of anybody seeking high office. In light of these comments, Donald Trump should step aside and allow our party to replace him with Mike Pence or another appropriate nominee from the Republican Party. I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump and I would never vote for Hillary Clinton.”
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Comstock’s opponent, LuAnn Bennett, used similar language in a statement after the video was made public, released prior to Comstock’s statement. “Trump’s actions are vile and disgusting. These latest revelations are shocking, but they are sadly not surprising,” Bennett stated. “Donald Trump has demeaned women since before he ran for public office, and the Republican Party, with a few exceptions, have stood with him and enabled him every step of the way.” Although Comstock had previously declined to take a stance on Trump, Bennett’s campaign has tried throughout the campaign to tie Comstock to the GOP presidential nominee, most recently this week at a debate hosted by the Loudoun County Chamber of TRUMP >> 22
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Five teens have been connected to the vandalism of the historic Ashburn Colored School, the Sheriff ’s Office announced Oct. 5, less than a week after the schoolhouse was found covered in racist and vulgar graffiti. Three 16-year-olds and a 17-yearold from Sterling and a 16-year-old from Ashburn have been interviewed by detectives. Investigators will work with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and the Loudoun County Juvenile Court Service Unit Intake Department to obtain charges in the case. The names of the suspects are not being released because they are younger than 18. “We would like to thank the community and our local leaders for their outpouring of support and for understanding the significance of these offenses,” Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a statement. The vandalism was discovered the morning of Oct. 1 at the one-room schoolhouse on Ashburn Road. The simple, wood-framed building served the community’s black students from 1892 to 1959. The graffiti included racist and vulgar messages, including swastikas and the words “White Power.” Deep Sran, founder and academic lead of the Loudoun School for the Gifted, which has been working to restore the 124-year-old schoolhouse, thanked the community for speaking up to help investigators quickly find the suspects. “Everyone at the school was genuinely surprised at how quickly these kids were found,” he said. Chapman said the first suspect was identified through a tip. “We had several tips, but this one in particular was very good,” he said. “We followed up on it, and it led us to a parVANDALISM SUSPECTS >> 29
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