Records Show Protests Led to Policy Changes at Va. Colleges

Records show policy campus demonstration discussions at VCU, attorney general involvement

This year, several demonstrations by university students in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict led Virginia higher education institutions to change their policies on protests and free speech, according to records obtained by VPM News.

Following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip that left over 1,200 dead, VCU Health Workers and Medical students started holding weekly vigils in November 2023, displaying posters to memorialize health care workers killed by the Israel Defense Force. It’s estimated that over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military attacks in Gaza since then, according to The Associated Press.

In January of this year, a VCU employee wrote the School of Medicine’s senior associate dean for DEI over concerns the posters’ “messaging itself may get worse over time,” and asked, “… do we have a clear policy of what can and can’t be posted on VCU property/ School of Medicine buildings?”

There was no policy at the time, but the school adopted a policy in mid-February because of “pre-scheduled facilities maintenance,” ahead of an accreditation visit, a spokesperson told VPM News.

Organizers of the vigil say staff told them to remove the materials because of a scheduled powerwash, but emails VPM obtained show the school’s operation manager saying Jan. 30 that the wash could wait until Spring and provide time to formulate a policy. The school’s chief of staff said not to cancel the wash, though, as the wall was still under discussion with senior leaders. Records show the wash happened Feb. 15.

Then on April 29, hundreds of VCU students rallied in support of Palestinians and chanted anti-war slogans, prompting a response from law enforcement, including VCU Police, city of Richmond Police and Virginia State Police.

The students were told to disperse 13 minutes after police arrived, and the situation escalated quickly. “Richmond Police sprayed protesters with pepper spray, VCU Police corralled isolated protesters from the crowd and restrained them with cable ties,” VPM News reported.

Another email VPM acquired via FOIA request showed that, as tent demonstrations began appearing at universities and colleges across the country this spring, the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote an email to Education Secretary Aimee Guidera on April 26, prior to the VCU rally, saying the office would “vigorously” defend Virginia schools’ authority to ban tents and take them down.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin affirmed that stance on April 28, saying on CNN he had been working with Miyares to “make sure if there are protests, they are peaceful.” Records requests for communications between the OAG and Youngkin were not provided to VPM News because of attorney-client privilege and a “working papers” exemption.

VCU changed its policy on gatherings in the hours after the April 29 rally. Emails VPM News obtained show how edits to the policy happened, but don’t clearly state who directed the changes. The school withheld over 30 emails from the news outlet, citing attorney-client privilege and a school records exemption.

Convicted former Norfolk detective still gets pension

A former Norfolk detective who was convicted and served 10 years in federal prison for extortion and conspiracy offenses, and lying about it to the FBI, appears to still be getting his pension, records obtained by Richmond TV news station WRIC show.

On Dec. 4, the station reported that it had requested records for any retirement benefit payments to the former detective, Robert Glenn Ford, from the month before he was sentenced in 2011 until Nov. 1.

A city FOIA analyst responded by saying the locality had 178 records of retirement pay stubs, but they were exempt from release. The number lines up with Norfolk police retirees’ monthly pension checks and the number of months the FOIA request spanned, also 178.

In 2011, the Virginian-Pilot reported Ford was making more than $3,000 a month from his pension as he appealed the federal case.

Ford was sentenced after being involved with several crimes that include one request to a Norfolk man convicted of murder for $10,000 in exchange for making the case go away. When he didn’t get it, according to a UVA law clinic, Ford “coerced witnesses and found unreliable snitches to build a case against an innocent man.”

The man Ford requested the bribe from, Kevin “Suge” Knight, was pardoned by former Gov. Ralph Nathoam, who noted that the man “was prosecuted based on the work of Norfolk Detective Glenn Ford, who used his official capacity to extort witnesses in order to yield high solvability percentages and was eventually convicted on federal charges.”

According to WRIC’s review of Norfolk’s code sections on the Norfolk Employees’ Retirement System, which is closed to new members, no provision exists for benefits to be revoked or forfeited following a conviction. Several Norfolk city employees are covered under the Virginia Retirement system, which does allow for the loss of benefits after a felony conviction related to their position.

The chairman of Norfolk’s police union told WRIC he wasn’t aware of the specific circumstances Ford fell under, but that retirees under NERS get retirement pay “no matter what happens after that.” City officials did not respond to questions from WRIC about its retirement system and records on Ford’s retirement pay.

Ford declined to provide a comment to WRIC.

Fired Shenandoah County deputy recertified after FOIA-exempt hearing

The Criminal Justice Services Board last month recertified a Shenandoah County sheriff’s deputy, who was fired for how he handled a drunk driving incident, in a hearing that a recently-changed FOIA law allowed to be held behind closed doors, according to the Northern Virginia Daily.

Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter fired Jacob Unger earlier this year after Unger responded to an April 5 traffic crash that involved a person who Carter said appeared to be a friend of Unger’s, who drove into a barn while intoxicated, the NV Daily reported. Unger had given the driver a preliminary breath test showing his blood alcohol content was above the .08 legal limit.

Unger’s body-worn camera footage shows him relaying that message to the driver, and then ended. Unger gave the driver a court summons for a reckless driving violation during the response.

Unger used the incorrect code section on the summons, and when the driver returned to the sheriff’s office to get it corrected, the summons was “destroyed,” Carter told the NV Daily, “and no subsequent charge (was) attempted by the deputy in regard to the reckless driving charge.”

On Nov. 21 and after a closed door hearing, the board unanimously approved of Unger’s appeal of the decertification Carter issued.

The decertification process, expanded by the Democratic-controlled Virginia legislature in 2020, prevents poorly performing officers from being fired and then hired by different departments. On July 1, a change to the Freedom of Information Act law allowed the board to hold the hearing privately, before coming out into a public session to take official action.

“It totally vindicated my client and the wrongful things that the sheriff said about him and accused him of,” said attorney David Silek, who represented Unger and said his client was punished for doing what his superior officers told him to do.

Carter, who disciplined Unger’s supervisor, gave no comment to the NV Daily in response to the recertification.

Loudoun County School Board vice chair still OK with no cameras during public comment

The Loudoun County School Board vice chairman is standing by his vote to turn off cameras during public comment periods at board meetings.

WJLA reporter Nick Minock asked vice chair Arben Istrefi on Dec. 2 if he regretted his March vote, to which Istrefi responded, “I don’t.”

“I think that, you know, we’re still allowing everyone to come and speak,” Istrefi answered. “I think it’s really important that we do focus on trust and transparency.”

In March, the school board voted 6-3 to turn off recording cameras, but keep audio, during the public comment portion of their meeting, after members of the county’s Muslim, Christian and Hindu community previously spoke out against the district’s policy on bathrooms and lockers. The policy allows students to choose which rooms they use at school based on their gender identity.

One member of the school board, Sumera Rashid, voted in favor of the motion to turn off the cameras to “avoid a Jerry Springer show,” and board chair Melinda Mansfield said she was “not interested in political grandstanding,” according to WJLA’s reporting.

But another member, Deana Griffith, who attempted to have the cameras turned back on, disagreed.

“Directing a camera towards a public speaker helps capture and relay their message effectively enabling remote viewers to access the content,” Griffith said.