Virginia
Virginia legislation would require school bathroom checks every 30 minutes – Virginia Mercury
Under a bill proposed by a Republican delegate, Virginia schools could be required to have a school employee check every bathroom every half-hour to ensure students are safe.
The proposal follows a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.
“It’s a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended,” said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, the bill’s patron. “Nothing is set in stone until … it gets that ink from the governor’s pen.”
Proposal
Under the proposed House Bill 1528, named Celeste’s Law after the Hampton student, public schools would be required to have an employee in each school check every restroom in the building no less frequently than once every 30 minutes during normal school hours.
“If they are walking around, going to the bathrooms and checking them, on the way they’re also observing everything else that’s going on,” Cordoza said. “If someone is planning to do something to harm other students — they go to their locker, they grab something else — they may see that. So it’s really making the job more efficient.”
Cordoza said the culture in schools has changed in recent years, a factor that partly led him to introduce the bill.
He also said his legislation doesn’t envision teachers being taken out of the classroom to conduct the security checks. The bill specifically mentions employees conducting the checks would include “any school resource officer or any school security officer.”
“We don’t want to overburden school resource officers or SSOs either,” he said. “We just want to make sure our kids are safe, and I want to do that in the most effective and efficient way possible.”
Hampton case
Cordoza said he promised Nikia Miller, the mother of the Hampton student, that he would do everything he could to make sure a similar situation didn’t happen to any other children in his area or the commonwealth more broadly.
In March 2020, an elementary school principal in Hampton City Public Schools alerted Miller that her child had been sexually assaulted multiple times by another student who was a year older. Miller’s daughter was 6 when the alleged assaults began.
Miller told WAVY she believes there were at least 10 cases of assault against her daughter during an 18-month period. The child developed repeated anxiety and panic attacks and had to attend weekly therapy sessions, the mother said. She was also moved to another school.
Last year, Miller filed a $5 million lawsuit against Hampton schools, the Virginian-Pilot reported, saying the division had been negligent.
Hampton City Public Schools in response stated it had conducted an investigation along with the Hampton City Police Division that found two female second graders who attended different after-school programs had met in a girls’ restroom after school hours.
The school division said it had no knowledge of the encounters until after the fact.
“Hampton City Schools staff members remain committed to ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students,” the school division said in a statement to WTKR last year.
The school division said that at the parent’s request, it had enrolled the aggrieved student at another school and offered counseling.
The Hampton case isn’t the only Virginia incident to unfold in a school bathroom.
In 2021, a high school student in Loudoun County Public Schools assaulted two female students on separate occasions. The first assault occurred in a bathroom; subsequently, the teenager was transferred to another school, where he assaulted another student. The first victim has since filed a $30 million lawsuit against the school division, saying it failed to follow Title IX processes for sexual assaults or even begin an investigation until five months after the assault.
Cordoza, who said he is familiar with the Loudoun cases, said the General Assembly must “now proactively try and prevent it from happening.”
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Virginia
Netflix casting Central Virginia singles for “Love on the Spectrum” after Danville man joins show
DANVILLE, Va. (WSET) — Netflix is searching for singles in Central Virginia to appear on its documentary-style dating series “Love on the Spectrum,” after a Danville man was cast for an upcoming season and producers are now looking to find his match.
The series follows adults on the autism spectrum as they navigate dating.
Monica Karavanic, executive director of The Arc of Southside in Danville, said the person cast has ties to her organization.
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“This show has been loved by millions internationally and so for it to come to Danville is pretty awesome and we’re just really excited and hoping to make it work,” Karavanic said.
Casting is focused on singles ages 25 to 40, of any gender, who live near Danville or Lynchburg and would be interested in going on a date with a man on the spectrum. Producers say the time commitment could be as little as half a day.
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For more information on how to apply, you’re asked to email: production@northernpictures.com.au
RICHMOND, Va. — Friday will be sunny and seasonably warm, with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s.
The pattern of cool nights and mild afternoons will continue through the weekend and through much of next week as upper-level flow continues to bring reinforcing mild and dry air out of eastern Canada.
Rain chances will be very limited over the next week, with only a slim chance with a frontal passage on Monday.
Stay With CBS 6, The Weather Authority.
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WTVR
PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — Ressie Keen, a 107-year-old Pittsylvania County woman, is safe after escaping a house fire that destroyed her more than 100-year-old home, leaving behind a yard filled with charred debris and scattered belongings.
Keen said she has no special secret to her longevity.
“I ain’t got no secret, just thanking the Lord to let me stay here to see 107,” she said.
Keen said she moved to the home decades ago and built a life there.
“I’ve moved there in 1969, our first crop was made in 1970, and I been living there ever since,” she said.
The fire broke out in Keen’s bedroom on Thursday afternoon. Keen said she and her sitter got out as the fire grew.
“I don’t know what happened, only thing I knew to do was to get out of there. So me and my sitter we got out. She tried to put it out but she couldn’t,” Keen said.
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Pittsylvania County Fire Marshal Scott Hutcherson said investigators believe the fire started with an electrical issue.
“We think we had an electric outlet failure, more or less; an adaptor on the outlet probably failed,” Hutcherson said. He said the fire spread quickly once it ignited nearby items. “It set the bed on fire and the clothes that was on top of it, the material on top of it, what’s pretty much what got the fire going. And then it easily spread to the second story.”
Keen’s son, Ronnie Keen, said the loss has been painful for the family.
“It was devastating real devastating, lot of memories lost. But I know those memories and emotions the things that were sentimental were still right here,” he said.
A family photo album was among the few items recovered. Pointing to one image, Ronnie Keen said, “That’s a picture of the house.”
He added that the album was badly damaged. “It’s so charred it’s kinda hard to open,” he said.
Keen also held onto her favorite cast-iron pan.
“I knew this wasn’t going to get burnt up,” she said.
The home was considered a total loss, but the family said the most important thing is that Ressie Keen survived. She is now living with her son.
“I’m overjoyed that she’s here with us and she’s safe,” Ronnie Keen said.
Hutcherson said to prevent this, make sure that there is a smoke alarm in your home. He says you can reach out to the Pittsylvania County Public Safety office for a free installation of a smoke alarm.
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