Daniels wrongly accused in text messages

Salem District voters received text messages from Spotsylvania County Republican Committee accusing Daniels of using kids as guinea pigs. Also in this issue: Micah Ministries holds annual memorial.

by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT

Some voters in Spotsylvania’s Salem District have received a text message stating that Lorita Daniels, the incumbent School Board representative, voted “for boys to compete in girls’ sports and to use girls’ bathrooms.” 

“Dr. Daniels believes our kids should be guinea pigs to experiment with gender ideology and other politically motivated theories,” the message reads.

The message is accompanied by a photo of Daniels taken earlier this year by a Free Lance-Star photographer and the disclaimer “Paid for and authorized by the Spotsylvania County Republican Committee.”  

It urges Salem District residents to vote for Daniels’s opponent, Chris Harris. 

The message does not provide further information about the vote it is referencing. The only vote on gender-related issues taken by the School Board this year was the Aug. 14 vote to implement the Virginia Department of Education’s model policy on the treatment of transgender students. 

The board voted 4-to-2 to implement the model policy, with Daniels and Battlefield district representative Nicole Cole voting against implementation. 

At the meeting, Daniels said she could not support the model policy because she felt it went against federal policy. 

The federal civil rights law commonly known as “Title IX” states that, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” 

Spotsylvania County Public Schools receives funding from the federal government, and Daniels said she worries about losing out on that funding for Title IX violations. 

She also pushed back against the assertion on the part of board members who supported the new policy that a vote against it is a vote against parents’ rights.

“This is not about parents’ rights,” Daniels said. “When we are putting our children in harm’s way, we should take pause.” 

Rabih Abuismail, chair of the Spotsylvania County Republican Committee, did not immediately respond to questions from the Advance about the message. 

Abuismail is also a member of the Spotsylvania School Board and voted in support of implementing the new policy. 

The Advance also asked Daniels about the ad. 

“Let’s talk facts and stop grappling at straws,” Daniels said in a text message. “My supporters know me and they know where I stand. Misinformation is popular and all around us and it is up to the well-informed constituents to know the truth. As an educator, I believe that all children have a right to a fair and decent education where they can thrive in a supportive environment. 

To speak lies without proof is a poor representation of the opponent and we as a county should want someone in office who has integrity about the business of our children.” 

Registrar says she is fighting misinformation

With Election Day looming, Spotsylvania’s general registrar, Kelly Acors, told the Advance that she and her team have been working hard all election cycle to combat the “inconsistent and wrong” information that is being shared on social media and especially at the early voting location. 

On Thursday, the registrar’s Facebook page Spotsylvania Votes posted under a banner reading “Myths v. Facts” that the office does not count any votes until the polls close on Election Day. 

In an Oct. 12 email to all candidates, Acors asked candidates and their volunteers to please refrain from digging in the trash to reuse sample ballots and from wearing a yellow vest. 

“Wearing a yellow vest has given the illusion that inhabitant(s) are under Oath and working for our office. We have voters assuming that if wearing a vest and assisting in that way, an individual is more than likely a County employee,” Acors wrote. 

Nick Ignacio, a candidate for clerk of Circuit Court, was frequently seen wearing a yellow vest at the early voting location. 

In an Oct. 14 response to Acors’s email, Ignacio said he was wearing the yellow vest to protect himself from being hit by a car. 

Earlier in October, the registrar’s Facebook page posted a picture of the official county sample ballots, to help voters understand the difference between those and the misleading ballots being distributed by Ignacio and others.  

“Candidates will hand out their own sample ballots,” the Oct. 5 post reads. “These are the OFFICIAL county sample ballots.” 

On Sep. 27, the page posted a letter from Acors to the community along with a press release about a blocked ballot bin on the voting scanner that was cleared with election officials from both political parties present and serving under oath.

“If you have a question or problem, rather than share inaccurate information on social media - call our office and speak with staff,” Acors wrote. “We are not inclined to lie, cheat, act against the law, nor are we a destructive form of government willing to go to jail for the outrageous matters we are accused of.” 

In an email to the Advance, Acors said the misinformation being spread this election cycle is worse than it has ever been. 

“I’ve always said local elections are harder than a Presidential (until 2020!) but this year has topped them all,” Acors wrote in an email to the Advance. “It bothers us the most and (it) is disheartening (to hear) the voters that call after they vote and are upset with many factors from early voting and feel they voted not in the way they meant.”

The last day of early voting in Virginia is this Saturday, Nov. 4. On Election Day - Tuesday, Nov. 7 - Acors wants to remind voters that they will vote at their precinct location, not at the registrar’s office or the early voting location. 

Micah Ministries holds annual Memorial Service

by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT

Melissa Brewster, 45, was a talented artist and a self-described “old soul” who was still battling her demons but hoped to become a peer recovery specialist one day. 

Sandra Caldwell, 72, loved strawberry popsicles, her Boston terrier Daisy May and her partner, Mike, insisting as her health failed that she stay in the hotel room they shared so she would never have to leave his side. 

Walter Chinault, 59, worked as a carpenter and helped construct many of the buildings in Fredericksburg. 

And Charles Cutchin, 66, was known throughout the Micah community for his “philosophizing,” as he called it. 

“I’m like soup, just warmed up,” he’d say, or “Excuse me, Mr. Pistol, I didn’t know you were loaded.” About a friend, he’d say, “We go way back, like Cadillac seats.”

These Fredericksburg residents are among the 24 homeless and formerly homeless members of the Micah Ecumenical Ministries community that died in the past year. 

The churches of Micah celebrated their lives at the annual All Saints Day service, held Thursday evening outside Fredericksburg United Methodist church downtown. 

A tent was set up to represent each person and as staff of Micah read their names and remembrances, a flashlight was lit inside each tent. 

The youngest person memorialized Thursday was Christian Kinsella, who was just 21 years old. Caldwell, at 72, was the oldest. 

According to research conducted last year by Rebecca Brown, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the average life expectancy of a homeless person is 42 to 52 years old. If assistance isn’t available until someone reaches 65 years old, then he or she may be dead by then.

Micah is working towards opening Jeremiah Community, a neighborhood of tiny homes with on-site supportive services for the chronically homeless - those who have been homeless for a year or more and have an underlying condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder or physical disability.

The organization is preparing to submit an application for rezoning of a parcel of land off Bragg Road in Fredericksburg, executive director Meghann Cotter said. 

But Cotter said she is already grieving the fact that by the time Jeremiah Community opens, many of those Micah currently works with will no longer be alive. 

“The reality is that we’re building a place where people can have the support for whatever is left of their life with the best chance possible,” Cotter said. “We are increasingly trying to take care of this community better than we did and 18 years from now, I hope we’re a community where nobody sleeps outside.” 

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