Another business in North Point Village Center has closed.

KLS Studios, a hair salon, that was founded in 2010 by two women, officially closed its doors to the public on Jan. 30.

According to the company’s website, the hair salon is currently operating from a temporary location and plans to reopen in the Tysons Corner area.

Appointments are being taken at a private location and can be scheduled by calling 571-313-0414.

The salon was located at 1410 North Point Village Center. No word yet on what will replace the business.

Photo via Laura Crielly

Monday, Feb. 1

• Birth of a Wetland (10 a.m.) – If the cold has you stuck inside, take a walk in nature to learn how wetlands are born. A naturalist will lead a social distant walk through the wetlands at Huntley Meadows Park.

Tuesday, Feb. 2

• Groundhog Day (8 a.m.) – COVID-19 isn’t going to stop Potomac Phil from making his seasonal prediction. The normally annual event at Dupont Circle where a taxidermied groundhog makes its prediction about spring’s arrival will be happening online this year. If you still want to meet this furry dead rodent in person, organizers say they will be in Dupont Circle in D.C. from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a socially distant meet and greet.

Wednesday, Feb. 3

• Star Cluster and Galaxies (7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) – Join the Analemma Society of Great Falls in partnership with the Fairfax County Park Authority for a (virtual) look into the deep sky. This interactive presentation is for those eight years old and up. It will provide an introduction to all the nebulas, star clusters, and galaxies that we can see in our sky.

Thursday, Feb. 4

• How To Build a Time Machine (7 p.m. to 8 p.m.) – Yes, time travel may be possible according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Hear from Dr. Robert Elrich, physics professor at George Mason University, about why this is the case and how one could actually build a time machine. Hill Valley 1955, here we come!

Friday, Feb. 5

• Stuffed Animal Sleepover (5 p.m.) – While human children may not be able to have sleepovers these days, stuffed animals still can. Scrawl Books, along with author Sue Fliess, is hosting a sleepover for all those stuffed best friends. Simply drop off a beloved stuffed animal at the Reston bookstore, then log-onto Zoom for a bedtime story from Fliess where she’ll be joined by all of those friends at the store.

Saturday, Feb. 6 

• Valentine’s In a Bag (2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) – Pick up a bag of instructions and materials from the newly-named Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art to make a unique Valentine’s Day card at home.

• Hidden Pond Winter Exploration (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) – Take a walk on the winter side. Explore with the family the wildlife and landscape at Hidden Pond Nature Center.

Sunday, Feb. 7 

• Love Lessons from Jane Austen (2 p.m. to 3 p.m.) – Learn lessons of love from Jane Austen’s novels – and her own personal life. This virtual lecture includes an optional afternoon tea-to-go with finger sandwiches and cakes, available for pick-up at Green Street Gardens.

Photo via Wikimedia Creative Commons

Winter Weather Advisory In Effect — A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for the area until noon today. Light, mixed precipitation is possible and snow accumulations of up to one inch are expected. [National Weather Service]

Reston Men Charged in Vehicle Pursuit — “An officer attempted to stop a 2007 Ford Focus for a traffic violation. The driver initially pulled over but then drove away, resulting in a pursuit. The driver, Chris Kpadeh, 20, of Reston, stopped down the road and was taken into custody. He was charged with reckless driving, speed to elude, and driving on a suspended license. A passenger, Mohamed Abdalla, 21, of Reston, was charged with two counts of possession of a concealed weapon and possessing a magazine for a firearm with the capacity of 20+ rounds.“ [Fairfax County Police Department]

No Snow Day Today — All county schools will take part in virtual learning today. Students will follow their regular Monday schedule for virtual instruction. [Fairfax County Public Schools]

Deadline for Reston Association Assessments Approaches — Members have until March 1 to pay their 2021 assessment. Installment plans are also available. [RA]

Photo via vantagehill/Flickr

Fairfax County and much of the region could see up to nine inches through tomorrow.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the region last night. Snow accumulations between four and nine inches are expected.

The Virginia Department of Transportation is urging residents to avoid unnecessary travel during today’s storm.

So far, crews are treating roads and will begin to plow snow once it accumulates throughout the day.

“With more than 3,000 pieces of equipment, crews will work around the clock on state-maintained roads, focusing on clearing roads that carry the most traffic first. These include interstates, primary roads, and routes connecting public safety and emergency services. Crews can then focus on neighborhoods and lower-volume roads,’ VDOT wrote in a statement earlier this morning.”

Here’s more from NWS:

…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SUNDAY TO MIDNIGHT EST SUNDAY NIGHT…

* WHAT…HEAVY SNOW EXPECTED. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT AROUND 3 TO 6 INCHES WITH ICE ACCUMULATIONS AROUND ONE TENTH OF AN INCH.

* WHERE…THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA.

* WHEN…FROM 1 AM SUNDAY TO MIDNIGHT EST SUNDAY NIGHT. SNOW WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA BETWEEN 3 AND 5 AM EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. THE STEADIEST SNOW WILL FALL THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON BEFORE  TAPERING OFF TO AN INTERMITTENT MIX OF LIGHT SNOW, SLEET, AND FREEZING RAIN. ADDITIONAL SNOW IS EXPECTED MONDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT WITH ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS MOST LIKELY AROUND 1 TO 3 INCHES, BRINGING THE STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS AROUND 4 TO 8 INCHES.

* IMPACTS…TRAVEL WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING DUE TO A PROLONGED PERIOD OF SNOW AND WINTRY PRECIPITATION WITH TEMPERATURES NEAR OR BELOW FREEZING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

IF YOU MUST TRAVEL, KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT, FOOD, AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

WHEN VENTURING OUTSIDE, WATCH YOUR FIRST FEW STEPS TAKEN ON STEPS, SIDEWALKS, AND DRIVEWAYS, WHICH COULD BE ICY AND SLIPPERY, INCREASING YOUR RISK OF A FALL AND INJURY.

VDOT also issued the following tips for residents

Stay home and avoid driving throughout the storm. Heavy snow bands will mean reduced visibility and potential for conditions to deteriorate quickly. Should the higher end of forecasts materialize, it will take some time to make a passable lane on all roads. 

Park in driveways or a single side of the street to allow a wider path for plows.

View tips on shoveling driveways, as the plows will push some snow back. Take frequent breaks, especially when shoveling heavy, wet snow.

If you absolutely must travel, completely clear your car, reduce speeds significantly and use these winter driving tips. Use extreme caution on areas prone to freezing such as bridges, ramps and overpasses. Be prepared with gas and wiper fluid tanks and an emergency kit.

Monitor road conditions and traffic cameras from home on www.511virginia.org, on the free mobile app, or call 511 in Virginia.

Follow @vadotnova and @NWS_BaltWash for real-time updates. Learn more about snow removal at virginiadot.org/snow and stats for Northern Virginia.

Roads are slick as snow continues to fall. Please use caution and if possible, stay home! #FCPD pic.twitter.com/ppRbDMinUz

— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) January 31, 2021

Photo via Doug Errett/Twitter

The D.C. metropolitan area could potentially get its biggest snowfall in two years starting on Sunday (Jan. 31), The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang predicts.

The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for the region at 10:49 a.m. today. While Northern Virginia is not under a gale warning like Maryland, the agency warns that “there is an enhanced winter storm threat for Sunday and Sunday night, with a slight winter storm threat Monday and Monday night.”

“If the threat materializes, it may cause travel disruptions,” the NWS said.

The current forecast for the Tysons area suggests Saturday night will see clouds set in with a 30% chance of snow or other precipitation after 4 a.m. Chances of precipitation go up to 100% on Sunday, when snow is expected to start falling before 4 p.m. with some freezing rain possibly mixed in.

The NWS forecast suggest snow could continue through Monday with the chance of precipitation still at 50% that night.

As of 9:57 a.m. today, the D.C. area was expected to get three to four inches of snow between 7 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. on Monday.

However, the Capital Weather Gang says this is a “complicated” storm, where total accumulation could vary from two to 12 inches depending on whether a coastal storm forms off the North Carolina coast and brings a second wave on Monday.

In preparation for the weekend, Virginia Department of Transportation crews have been treating roads in Fairfax County and elsewhere in Northern Virginia over the past two days.

Updated on Feb. 1 to correct information on the project phase and jurisdiction receiving funding

Despite being approved more than two years ago, the construction phase of the restoration of Sugarland Run (South) Stream still hasn’t begun.

The $1.2 million project remains in the design phase, according to the Town of Herndon’s deputy Director of Public Works John Irish, though it’s expected to be completed by May.

The project will improve stormwater systems, stabilize erosion along streambanks, prevent flooding, and ensure the stream meets requirements for Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, first established in 2010. It will do this by planting vegetation, in-stream structure placement, and installing brush mattress.

The conditions along the stream banks and stream valley have been deteriorating in recent years.

The project will also restore a portion of the stream that flows near the Washington & Old Dominion Trail crossing.

The town received $200,000 from Fairfax County for the design work, which includes the geomorphic assessment, surveying, and public outreach meetings.

Irish writes to Reston Now in an email that this phase is “approximately 95% completed.”

In all, the design phase will end up taking up nearly three years. This is due to Herndon being asked by the county to apply for and, then, waiting for a state grant.

A stream condition assessment and negotiation of a fee that met budgetary guidelines also took time, writes Irish.

All in all, design work didn’t start until February 2020.

After designs are completed in May, they will be sent to the county with a request for one million dollars for construction. Once those funds are received, Herndon will advertise for construction bids.

Despite seemingly a long way to go in the process, Irish says construction is still expected to start this summer and completed within six months of the awarded contractor being given the go-ahead.

That means the project could be completed by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

The initial funding agreement did estimate the project could take up to four years, so the project theoretically could still be completed on time if not early.

However, a spokesperson for Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services tells Reston Now that this particular project is “lower priority” as part of their full Sugarland Run Watershed Management Plan, which was first adopted in 2010.

It remains unclear how this assessment will impact the expected providing of one million dollars to the Town of Herndon for construction and completion of Sugarland Run Stream restoration later this year.

A new French-inspired cafe and bakery is coming to Sunset Park Drive in Herndon next month.

Le Vingt-Trois Cafe and Bakery plans to open on Feb. 23 at 311 Sunset Park Drive, according to Inside NOVA, which first reported the opening of the businesses.

The cafe offers a mix of fresh breads, bagels, croissants, sweets, coffee, and tea. Gluten-free options are available upon request.

Customers can drop by on weekdays between  7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Orders can be placed online. Curbside pickup is also available.

Photo via Le Vingt-Trois Cafe and Bakery

New Vaccine Distribution Process In Effect — ” While local health districts are allowed flexibility in how doses are administered, roughly half of the available supply each week will be used for people 65 and older. The other half will be allocated for people eligible in the other categories.“ [Fairfax County Government]

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Partners with George Mason University — The department’s data analytics strategy management division partnered with the university to give students a chance to work with real world data from the community. Students studied the relationship between medications administered and procedures performed to distance from the receiving hospital. [FCFRD]

Warren Thompson Talks Growth for His Reston-based Hospitality Company — “If you ask Warren Thompson to predict what the restaurant industry looks like on the other side of the Covid-19 crisis, he’s straightforward — ‘I believe 30% to 35% of restaurants will not make it. They will either close or change hands.'” [Washington Business Journal]

Reston Tech Company Names Chief Growth Officer — “Reston-based tech company TekSynap announced last week it has hired Pete Brady as chief growth officer. With more than 35 years of experience in military operations, growth, business development and technology, he was most recently the chief growth officer with BlueWater Federal, which was acquired by Tetra Tech. “ [Virginia Business Monthly]

Photo via vantagehill/Flickr

For the first time since it formed in 2016, the county’s Civilian Review Panel has cited its disagreement with the Fairfax County Police Department’s investigation of racial bias allegations that happened in Herndon in 2019.

Because six of the nine-member panel disagree with the findings of FCPD’s investigation, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors directed the police department to address the panel’s requests for the next steps. The matter was discussed at a board meeting on Tuesday.

The panel disputed FCPD’s findings that an interaction in 2019 between a police officer from the Reston District Station and an African American man in Herndon was motivated by racial bias.

The man said he felt that he had been targeted and suspected of trespassing “for no reason at all.”

According to the investigation file, the officer began following the man’s car when he turned at a red light in Herndon and stared at the officer. When he ran the car’s license plate and it matched with a woman in Virginia Beach — what he knew to be “a source city for illegal substances” in Fairfax County — his suspicions grew and he followed the man into his apartment complex in Herndon.

The officer approached the man and asked him for his identification, where he lived, and other identifying information. In a complaint submitted to the county, the man said he was shaken by the encounter and was “extremely frightened and nervous.” He recorded the encounter on his cell phone.

According to the report, the officer stayed in the parking lot for a few more minutes after he verified the man’s identity and ran the license plate again.

The man, whose name was not released, said he felt the incident was racially motivated because the officer believed he did not live in the apartment complex and stood in a manner that hindered his ability to get out of his car. No use of force was exercised in the incident.

In official comments to the panel, FCPD Chief Edwin Roessler said that while the office had a series of “poor, cascading assumptions and judgments that were wrongly based on his training,” there is no evidence that race was a factor in the incident.

He acknowledged that FCPD said the encounter indicates that there are some elements that need to be “train[ed]-away.”

“We can’t just keep going to proactive patrol training,’ Roessler told the civilian panel during the course of its investigation. “I pray that you are understanding that as your Chief I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

However, the panel determined that FCPD’s internal review did not thoroughly investigate allegations of racial bias and racial profiling. The panel also concurred with the chief that the officer was not professional.

“The investigative record was virtually silent as to why the officer decided to follow the complainant in the first place and panel members questioned whether a similarly situated white driver would ever have been followed in such a manner,” according to the panel report.

But when the panel did not receive additional information about the investigation last year, the panel voted to advise the board that the investigation was incomplete and needed follow-up interviews with the officer’s coworkers and deeper data analysis.

The panel also found that FCPD lacks objective criteria to evaluate racial bias or profiling incidents. It encouraged the police department to include all community contacts, stops searches and arrests into a data management system. Other recommendations are listed below.

Data analysis of an officer’s community contacts, stops, searches and arrests should  be compared and contrasted with comparable data from the district station where the incident occurred and the county as a whole. The data analysis should also take  into account the racial and ethnic composition of each district as compared to the county overall. 

For the purposes of investigations into allegations of bias or profiling, data analysis  of the officer’s community contacts, stops, searches and arrests should cover a  period of 3-5 years, or if the officer has less tenure, for the duration of his service in  the FCPD. If during the prescribed time period the officer has worked in different  districts within the county, the review and analysis of the officer’s community  contacts, stops, searches and arrests should not be limited to the district where the  officer is assigned at the moment, but rather should include all such encounters in  every county district where the officer served during the time period. 

Like the efforts the FCPD has undertaken to analyze and identify use of force  incidents, the FCPD should consider creating an early warning system to alert  commanders as to whether an officer’s community contacts, stops, searches or  arrests are excessive and disproportionate for a particular race or ethnic group. 

The FCPD should retain an independent expert on implicit bias to examine all law  enforcement policies, practices and training for the purpose of recommending  evidence-based strategies to mitigate the impact of implicit bias on policing.  

Officers should receive implicit bias training on an annual basis. 

The county’s board voted to direct Roessler to take further action on the panel’s requests.

The Civilian Review Panel reviews FCPD investigations containing “allegations of abuse of authority or serious misconduct to ensure accuracy, completeness, thoroughness, objectivity, and impartiality,“ according to the county’s website.

Photo via FCPD 

Lake Audubon Pool, operated by Reston Association, is in the midst of renovations. The pool is undergoing re-plastering, the pump and filter are being replaced, and other plumbing is being fixed.

Work began in mid-January and is expected to be completed sometime between mid-April and early May. But weather could delay the project, cautions Mike Leone of Reston Association.

This week work on the Lake Audubon Pool capital project began. This project will involve a full removal (pictured) and re-plaster of the pool, as well as replacing the pool pump, filter, and associated plumbing in totality. The project will be completed by mid to late April. pic.twitter.com/AO40Nul3Ps

— Reston Association (@RestonOnline) January 22, 2021

This is all part of Reston Association’s regular maintenance plan and required for compliance under Fairfax County Health Department code. Plaster coatings have about an eight-to-ten- year service life, writes Leone in an email to Reston Now.

Another Reston Association pool, Lake Thoreau, is also expected to undergo renovations but a funding hang-up has caused delays. The Lake Thoreau Pool project could cost up to $3.5 million.

At this time, it remains unclear when Reston Association pools will open this summer. In 2020, four out of 15 pools opened in late June.

“RA does not have hard dates for the opening of any of our pools for the 2021 summer season,” wrote Leone. “We are planning to open as many facilities as we can this summer.”

As pool season inches closer, updates will be posted on the Reston Association website.

Photo courtesy of Reston Association

Fairfax County should provide hazard pay to all local government workers, a union that represents more than 2,000 general county employees argues.

The county is currently considering a proposal to provide a one-time $1,500 hazard pay bonus to workers who are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19. Staff say about 4,000 employees would be eligible for the benefit.

However, SEIU Virginia 512 — the Fairfax County government employees’ union — says the bonus should be available to all workers, because they have all taken risks and been forced to adapt so the county can keep providing essential services during the pandemic.

As of yesterday (Wednesday), a petition urging Fairfax County supervisors to extend $1,500 hazard pay bonuses to all staff has been signed by nearly 1,000 workers, with more signatures expected to come, according to SEIU Senior Communications Specialist Rachel Mann.

“We’ve all been impacted by what’s going on. Whether we are doing our assigned work or not, we are still working,” SEIU Virginia 512 Executive Board President Tammie Wondong said. “…We are continuing to keep Fairfax County running. Residents are being continually served. So, that’s why everyone needs to have hazard pay.”

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors was initially scheduled to vote on the proposed plan on Tuesday (Jan. 26), but the decision was postponed after Chairman Jeff McKay asked staff to continue discussions with the union and other workers’ groups.

Under the staff plan, hazard pay would go to workers whose risk of being exposed to COVID-19 is rated “high” or “very high” by the Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) risk assessment. It would also be limited to merit or career positions.

Fairfax County intends to pay for the bonuses using CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funds. Federal guidelines, however, dictate that CARES Act money can only be used for hazard pay if an employee is performing duties that involve physical hardship related to COVID-19 response efforts.

In other words, localities must establish criteria for hazard pay eligibility to use CARES relief funds, Fairfax County Department of Management and Budget Director Christina Jackson told the board on Jan. 12.

The county could use its own funds to extend hazard pay to more workers, but McKay suggests employees should temper their expectations for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

“Based on the economic impacts of the ongoing pandemic, it will be challenging to address many of the Board’s priorities in the FY2022 [budget],” McKay said in a statement to Tysons Reporter. “The budget is still early stages and we are exploring what options are available, but it is unlikely we would have the resources to increase hazard pay funding in the next budget cycle.”

SEIU Virginia 512 supports the amount of the proposed bonus, which came out of talks between workers’ groups and county staff, but the union argues restricting hazard pay to select positions and agencies ignores the risks all employees face when doing their jobs.

For instance, a sanitation worker may not typically come into direct contact with the residents whose trash they collect, but their job still requires them to regularly go out into the community.

“You don’t know who you’re passing, and you don’t know who’s infected. You just don’t know,” Wondong said. “It’s a risk that we take just coming in and out of our homes every day.”

The burden placed on workers who test positive for COVID-19 to prove they contracted the disease through their job could also potentially be a concern.

Further complicating matters, Fairfax County has been reassigning many employees to duties outside their usual purview as some departments have reduced operations and others have ramped up during the pandemic.

Wondong is a social worker for the county’s aging and older adults services division, but she is currently working in a different role for her department, one that allows her to work from home but also normally carries a higher salary than what she’s being paid.

Wondong says hazard pay would not be up for debate if Fairfax County employees had stronger collective bargaining powers to guarantee equitable compensation and working conditions.

“What we believe as a union is that all county workers deserve fairness and equity when it comes to pay and benefits. That’s what we believe,” Wondong said.

Photo via Fairfax County government/Facebook

Fairfax County’s Zoning Ordinance Modernization Project (zMOD) remains a point of discussion among members of Reston’s community as the heft project moves forward.

The project, which was launched in 2017, is aimed at modernizing the county’s zoning ordinance that was established in 1978. It has been the subject of debate in recent months, but the project’s progress was authorized by the Fairfax County Board of Directors on Dec. 1 to be advertised for public hearings.

The board’s decision to move forward with the project in December was billed as an opportunity to “provide sufficient time to advertise” today’s 7:30 p.m. planning commission public hearing on zMOD and a public hearing with the county’s board of supervisors on March 9.

While the project has moved forward, it has come under scrutiny by various community members and organizations.

The Reston Association (RA) issued a letter to Hunter Mill district Supervisor Walter Alcorn in November wherein RA President Julie Bitzer outlined a number of concerns regarding zMOD. In Bitzer’s letter on behalf of RA, the listed concerns outlined issue with proposed changes for accessory living units (ALU), home-based businesses, parking, and traffic.

RA and Reston Citizens Association (RCA) have discussed those initial concerns and more over the last week. Each organization has taken umbrage with the zMOD proposal to remove a 55-and-over age requirement for ALUs due to a belief that the change will create a strain on the local infrastructure and population density.

Both organizations also have opposed proposed changes to home-based businesses due to concerns about traffic congestion and losing the character of single-family residential neighborhoods.

RCA adopted a set of resolutions to outline community concerns with the latest zMOD draft on Jan. 21 while RA held a special Board of Directors meeting to discuss a resolution on the project to be presented to the county. RCA offered a measure of support in its resolutions to defer a detailed review of these points for future study.

“RCA has carefully followed the progress of the county staff’s proposals in the zMOD project,” Reston Citizens Association president Dennis Hays said in a release. “We believe the staff has gone far beyond the intended purpose of zMOD, proposing far-reaching changes with little to no consideration as to the impact such changes would have on established communities.”

Among the primary concerns that RA and RCA have raised is the amount of time to suitably address the zMOD changes as a whole when there is not a sufficient redline version or chart to identify potential changes in the zoning ordinance. The current executive summary of the zMOD project was released Nov. 24 is 741 pages.

“Our goal is to slow this down and give us a bit more time to participate and drill down into some of the details,” Bitzer said during RA’s Board of Directors meeting.

Image courtesy Fairfax County

What to Know About the Vaccine – ‘The overall decrease in Virginia’s vaccine allocation, a result of limited supplies nationally, is going to significantly limit the pace at which we vaccinate the more than 156,000 residents in Phase 1a and 1b priority groups who have registered through the Health Department’s online application system and are currently in the queue to receive an appointment.’ [Fairfax County Government]

Wireless Service Comes to Metro Rail Tunnels Systemwide — ‘Transit riders and visitors to the nation’s capital now enjoy one of the most connected wireless experiences of any rail system in the U.S. with coverage available in all tunnels. The nation’s major wireless carriers–AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon –and Metro today officially announced the final milestone, more than a decade in the making, to provide wireless service for those who use the Metrorail system.’

Professional Services Firm Names Risk Manager — ‘Reston-based professional services company Caliburn International LLC announced Tuesday it has promoted Mike Reynolds to vice president of risk management. With more than 35 years of experience, Reynolds joined Caliburn in 2020 as a program manager for risk management, supporting U.S. Department of State task orders in Erbil, Iraq and Somalia.’ [Virginia Business Monthly]

Photo via vantagehill/Flickr

Vaping has reversed years of incremental progress in Fairfax County Public Schools in the number of students who report being drug-free, according to a report from the school system.

“The slow improvement FCPS had shown over the last several years on the drug-free youth metric ended during SY 2019-20 due to increased numbers of students who reported vaping,” the report said.

Over the last couple of years, vaping has emerged as the drug of choice among students in schools across the United States. Experts and school leaders have labeled it an “epidemic,” and studies have found that it is easy to access, targeted toward teens, and highly addictive.

In FCPS, one-third of middle and high school students reported alcohol and drug usage for the 2019-20 school year. The drug-free metric FCPS uses has not moved too much in recent years, but the uptick in vaping led to a “dramatic dip” for the 2019-20 school year, when 11% of students reported that they vaped, but did not use other drugs or drink alcohol.

The rapid downward trend due to vaping “requires direct and swift action to counteract, especially given the negative health impacts that have been associated with vaping,” the report said. It concluded that more funding may be needed to address the root causes of vaping.

FCPS included vaping in its drug-free metric for the first time for the 2018-19 reporting year. At the time, the report said, vaping did not have much of an impact — students who reported vaping also reported drinking or using other drugs.

Last year, the 11% of students who vape moved the needle 2 percentage points. When vaping is added in, the percentage of students who are drug-free drops from 79% to about 77%.

During the 2020 school year, 11.2% of students reported vaping while not using alcohol or other drugs. Broken down by grade level, 9% of eighth-graders, slightly more than 12% of sophomores and 12.5% of seniors reported vaping only.

Vaping appears to have also led to an increase in drug-related suspensions. Through March 2020, the number of students with suspensions for drug and alcohol offenses was 448, an increase of 6 percentage points when compared to the 2018-19 school year — 424 offenses through March 2019.

The report found that Asian and Black students were more likely to be alcohol and drug-free than Hispanic or white students.

In its report, FCPS concluded that its current interventions may not be enough to lessen vaping and other kinds of drug and alcohol use among students overall. The report said it is unclear whether any of FCPS’s traditional interventions would have specifically impacted vaping rates.

For example, substance abuse specialists were “likely managing students with more serious drug abuse issues,” the report said. Further, the “enhanced access to middle school health lessons would likely have had only an indirect or low-level impact on vaping.”

Photo via Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash