Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid seems to be playing dumb about her district’s directive to destroy student identification records. As I previously reported in IW Features, Fairfax County Public Schools issued new guidance to school registrars this summer, telling them to purge copies and digital uploads of students’ personal identification documents from school records. 

On July 1, Dave Anderson, Fairfax County Public Schools’ senior district manager for student registration, sent an email to school-based registrars – labeled as confidential – that states: “Based on recent Division Counsel guidance reflective of FCPS Policy and the Code of Virginia, FCPS will no longer retain copies of identification documents, including the student birth certificate, in the student’s cumulative file…For clarification purposes, identification documents refer to copies of a parent’s photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, etc.”

Earlier this month, IW Features sent an email to Reid and School Board Chair Sandy Anderson asking why. The email states, “On July 1, Dave Anderson sent FCPS school registrars an email directing them, under guidance from chief legal counsel, to purge student identity documents. What is the reason?”

On September 10, Reid responded in an email, “I will check in with staff to identify what document(s) you are referring to and respond as appropriate.”

It’s strange that the superintendent is at least pretending to be unfamiliar with Dave Anderson’s now-viral email. And while Reid was at the keyboard considering the supposed mysteries of her district’s “document(s)” that ordered school registrars to destroy student identification records, she failed to state a reason for the seemingly reckless decision. Surely, she must be familiar with her own policies, particularly poorly considered ones that make students more vulnerable to gang violence and trafficking.

Reid is either incompetent or lying. 

And in his email, there’s no getting around that Dave Anderson implicates the district’s chief legal counsel, John Foster. Foster, who is widely known to work closely with Reid, sent an intimidating email to all Fairfax County Public Schools employees on September 11, which threatened to terminate the jobs of district employees who shared communications labeled confidential, such as the one Anderson sent on July 1. In Foster’s September 11 email, he also requests that the district’s employees snitch on their colleagues who are sharing his communications. He wrote, “[I]f you have any information concerning the improper disclosure of the memorandum, I would appreciate hearing from you.” 

IW Features sent an email to Foster which asks, “Why is the district destroying current students’ identification documents? To what guidance from your office is Anderson referring?”

As of publication, Foster has not responded. IW Features will update this article if he does.

IW Features also contacted Pat Herrity, the only Republican on the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, and Jeff McKay, one of nine Democrats and the board’s chairman. McKay’s office has not responded. Pat Herrity’s staff member sent IW Features an email on September 15 that states, “Our office has not received any response from FCPS yet. Supervisor Herrity doesn’t understand the rationale for the destruction of documents but is still waiting on Doctor Reid’s response. We will follow up with you as soon as we receive any information.”

IW Features will update this article accordingly.

Though the district is currently silent even to Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors about its reasons for purging documents proving students’ identification, residency, and parental relationships, many employees and parents have ideas about why Fairfax County Public Schools leaders intend to purge copies of students’ identification records in their cumulative files. For example, the Fairfax County Public Schools’ employee who provided Dave Anderson’s email to IW Features said district leadership is destroying identity documents to evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Fairfax County Public Schools leaders’ related biases are well known. On President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, for example, Fairfax County Public Schools administrators posted signs in nine languages about the district’s sanctuary policy throughout the county’s 199 public schools and centers.

And Fairfax County Public Schools isn’t the only place where such evasive action is being taken. A day after Trump took office, in a memo titled “Immigration Client Alert,” a leftist law firm in Maine advised public school officials to do exactly what Fairfax County Public School officials have done: resist immigration enforcement by purging students’ identification documents. 

It’s unclear if Fairfax County Public Schools leaders knew about this particular memo or had contact with the law firm, but such advice shows that leftists support the mass destruction of public school students’ identification documents in order to evade immigration enforcement.

IW Features also contacted Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General to inquire about the basis for the school district’s directive and Dave Anderson’s reference to Virginia Code. Specifically, the email asks, “Were you aware of this change of policy regarding the purging of student identification documents from the cumulative file? Do you support this policy change? Can the Office of the Attorney General speak to why FCPS is purging current student identification documents and to which part of the Code of Virginia Anderson might be referring?”

The Office of the Attorney General has not responded. 

While the largest public school district in Virginia has drastically changed its policy in an unprecedented way – destroying current students’ identification records which thereby potentially threatens their safety – our leaders have no comments or explanations. Surely, if this new guidance was for any reason other than to evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they would be willing to explain it.