We demand Karen Keys-Gamarra resign as both an At-Large Representative of the Fairfax County School Board and as a Virginia Supreme Court Guardian Ad Litem (GAL).

On October 5, 2010, United States President Barack Obama signed bill S.2781 into federal law. That law was named “Rosa’s Law.” It removed the term “retarded” from all federal regulations and agencies. It also required states to remove the use of the word “retarded” from their laws and government business.

However, during an official Fairfax County School Board meeting on Thursday, October 20, 2022, Ms. Keys-Gamarra disregarded her obligations as a public official. She stated, “We can’t be that, retarded,” in a comment broadcast to the live and online audiences and now included in the board’s recording of the meeting.

Rachna Sizemore-Heizer, chair of the Fairfax County School Board and parent of a child with a disability, said in a local TV interview that was the third time Ms. Keys-Gamarra had used the slur, once with her. School Board Representative Laura Jane Cohen (Springfield District) spoke in a TV interview about the use of the word, as well. 

It is clear Ms. Keys-Gamarra has exhibited a pattern of behavior that illuminates disrespect, disregard, and hostility toward people with disabilities.

During Ms. Keys-Gamarra’s tenure as an At-Large School Board Representative, students with disabilities were restrained, secluded, denied appropriate services, refused appropriate instruction, suspended at a rate four times greater than their nondisabled peers, and engaged at the lowest levels in post-secondary goals. Legal costs over the past three years have reached exorbitantly high levels in cases where the Fairfax County School Board has sued parents with special needs students for merely advocating for their children and others. 

Ms. Keys Gamarra took an oath of office as At-Large Representative. She swore to support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia and to faithfully and impartially discharge all of her duties incumbent upon her as the At-Large Representative of the Fairfax County School Board. Based on her repeated actions, Ms. Keys-Gamarra cannot be trusted to uphold the civil rights of people with disabilities. She’s lost the trust and confidence of the people of Fairfax County to uphold her oath.

Furthermore, she cannot be trusted with making decisions on behalf of vulnerable children with disabilities. Pursuant to the Standards to Govern the Appointment of Guardians Ad Litem  § 16.1-266, Code of Virginia, Ms.Keys-Gamarra is required to represent, as an attorney, the child’s best interests before the court as “a full and active participant in the proceedings who independently investigates, assesses and advocates for the child’s best interests.” Ms. Keys-Gamarra has demonstrated, with her systemic use of the word “retarded,” a bias and inability to advocate for the best interests of children, particularly children with special needs.

The parents and children of Fairfax County Public Schools can’t move forward with reconciliation and healing with Karen Keys-Gamarra, who has built and sustained walls of discrimination, cultural insensitivity and violation of Rosa’s Law.