By Michael Alison Chandler and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 9, 2008; 4:45 PM
Fairfax County school officials said that a rally scheduled tomorrow for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, will be moved from Fairfax High School, following protests from some School Board members and parents that the event would violate school system policy.
The decision to move the event was made by the McCain campaign, Fairfax schools spokesman Paul Regnier said.
Late in the afternoon, the McCain campaign announced that the rally will be held at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax County and that people will begin assembling at 8 a.m. An e-mail from the campaign said that the Fairfax High field house, which can hold as many as 6,500 people, was not big enough.
A statement from the McCain campaign did not address the controversy.
"Due to the overwhelming response from voters in Virginia, the space at the field house at Fairfax High School will no longer be able to hold everyone who wants to attend this rally," the campaign said. "We have had double the amount of people respond than we originally expected. In order to accommodate everyone, we need to move the event to a location we are working on now."
Superintendent Jack D. Dale's original decision to allow the political rally at the school led some board members to say this morning that he had overstepped his authority. The board's bylaws forbid campaign events to be held on campus during school hours.
"Only the School Board has the authority to override a policy," said board member Kaye Kory (Mason). "We did not agree. We did not vote. We didn't discuss. So this is a violation of not our only our policy, but our procedure."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090901663_pf.html