Excerpt:
I've been meaning to write up a more detailed report of what happened at Wednesday night's Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting, where the prospect of expanding the Islamic Saudi Academy was discussed, but haven't been able to get around to it yet. Until I am able to get into it in more detail, here is a brief report of my experience there, along with some terrible Blackberry photos of the event.
To make a long story short, the audience was packed with ISA supporters—to the point where the Board chairman stated that he had never seen so many people in the auditorium before, even for full Board of Supervisors meetings. This resulted in some unintentional comedy, as the people you see standing on the stairs and in the aisles in the photo above all had to be moved out of the room in order to ensure that there were no violations of County fire code.
Why were there so many people there? Well, obviously, the school coordinated with parents and staff to ensure that everyoneattended the meeting. No word on whether they offered credit, gave students a day off the next day, or what, but it was immediately obvious that these people were strongly "encouraged" to attend.