TAXPAYER ALLIANCE PRESIDENT HANDCUFFED AND ARRESTED AT DOMENECH SCHOOL BUDGET BRIEFING

At approximately 10:20 a.m. today, Arthur G. Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, was handcuffed and arrested at the request of the Fairfax County Public Schools Office of Community Relations. Mr. Purves was sitting in the conference room of the Fairfax County Public Schools Burkholder Administrative Center to attend school superintendent Dr. Daniel A. Domenech's FY2001 budget briefing for the press.

Mr. Purves had wanted to ask the superintendent why he (Dr. Domench) had waited until after the November 2, 1999, supervisors' election to announce an enormous increase in the school budget. During that election Mr. Purves, who was running for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, had asked Dr. Domenech to announce the budget increase before election day. Instead, Dr. Domenech announced the increase after the election. Since the increase is likely to cause a hike in Fairfax County taxes, Mr. Purves felt the voters should know about it before the election.

Rather than let Mr. Purves attend the budget briefing, the Office of Community Relations accused him of trespassing on school property. Purves, however, said he wanted to exercise his free-speech rights as an American and ask Dr. Domenech about the budget. A county police officer arrested Purves, handcuffed and frisked him, and then led him out a back entrance to avoid the press and cameras waiting to enter the briefing.

"Dr. Domenech apparently has no tolerance for dissent," Mr. Purves observed. "Rather than answer a citizen's question, he handcuffs the citizen and has him arrested. Is this the sort of leader we want for 160,000 schoolchildren?"