Arlington police have charged a former Washington-Liberty High School basketball coach with sexual offenses and are seeking possible additional victims.
George Porcha, 53, of Winterville, North Carolina, is charged with carnal knowledge of a minor and taking indecent liberties with children, per an Arlington County Police Department press release sent out this evening (Tuesday).
(Updated at 3:20 p.m.) Starting this month, Arlington students can now get free Metrobus rides throughout Arlington.
This builds on a program in place since 2022 allowing students with iRide SmarTrip card to ride Arlington Transit (ART) buses for free. Students who live in Arlington and are enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade can obtain these cards from Commuter Stores in Arlington or, if they are APS students, through their schools.
Arlington Public Schools has preemptively given students a snow day and an effective three day weekend due to expected accumulating snowfall tomorrow.
APS made the announcement just before 6 p.m., with several inches of snow in the forecast for Friday. Neighboring Alexandria and Fairfax County also announced Friday closures.
After a snow day today, Arlington students will be going back to school on Wednesday — but on a two-hour delay.
Arlington Public Schools made the following announcement at 6 p.m.
(Updated at midnight) There will be no classes for Arlington Public Schools students Tuesday.
The snow day means at least a four-day weekend for students, when combined with today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. APS made the announcement around 6 p.m.
(Updated at 4:55 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools experienced a data breach this week affecting information it collects for visitors to school buildings.
The school system notified people of “externally exposed” data in a message sent this afternoon (Friday). The breach is part of a broader leak, reported this morning, affecting some schools in the U.S. that, like APS, use a visitor management system from Raptor Technologies.
(Updated at 4:45 p.m.) A “mob” of seven boys is facing serious charges after allegedly attacking another teen at Washington-Liberty High School.
The fight happened around 3:15 p.m. — five minutes after school dismissal — on Tuesday but police were not called until an hour later. A tipster tells ARLnow that it took place inside the school.
There was another possible overdose at Wakefield High School last week.
Around 1:20 p.m., medics were dispatched to Wakefield for a report of an unconscious person, according to Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Nate Hiner.
Arlington School Board Vice Chair David Priddy says he will not be seeking another term.
He was elected in 2020 along with Cristina Diaz-Torres, who currently serves as the School Board Chair and last month announced that she too would step down after one term. Both of their terms expire at the end of this year, meaning two seats are up for election this year.
Arlington Public Schools is poised to tie planned S. Walter Reed Drive upgrades into its $180 million Arlington Career Center project.
This past Saturday, the Arlington County Board approved a memorandum of agreement permitting APS to appoint the same contractor for the Career Center’s construction to handle the road improvements — part of the county’s Neighborhood Complete Streets program — from 5th Street S. to Columbia Pike.
A stranger tried to lure a Williamsburg Middle School student into her car during Friday’s dismissal, according to police.
Arlington County police are so far classifying the incident as “suspicious,” stopping short of confirming it as an attempted abduction.
(Updated at 2:50 p.m.) Arlington School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres will not be seeking re-election.
Diaz-Torres, who became chair this July, announced the decision last night (Wednesday) at the Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting, to a chorus of dismay from some meeting attendees.
