While less crowded than the January 10^th meeting, the January 24^th Loudoun County School Board meeting contained no less enthusiasm among the Dominion students, parents, and teachers present for the return of Dr. Brewer.

In addition to previous meetings, the backdrop was set for the 6:30 p.m. meeting when news released a day prior suggested that the investigation into Dr. Brewer—which originally only revolved around his treatment of Brian Damron before and during his resignation process—was being broadened in scope. Frustrated parents and students began speculating that such actions were motivated by Loudoun County schools administrators’ personal grudges against Dr. Brewer. Accordingly, the crowd at the meeting seemed to have a chip on its collective shoulder.

A large drop from the 214 speakers at the meeting previous, 80 people signed up to talk in front of the nine-member Board. However, a far higher percentage of the speakers—rounding on 100%—spent their minute at the podium exalting Dr. Brewer’s character. Organizers of the ‘Support Dr. Brewer’ Facebook group sought to make the stories told on Tuesday more personal and heartfelt than the ones two week prior, and the Titan community listened; for nearly ninety minutes, the school board heard non-stop student and parent accounts of Brewer’s specific impacts on them and their families.

Perhaps the largest divergence, however, from the last meeting to Tuesday’s meeting was the tone of the speeches. At the first two meetings to support Brewer, the speakers’ tone was largely positive, and the crowd sought to convince the board of Brewer’s positive attributes in a non-confrontational, upbeat way. While the previous meetings seemed more like a rally of support, the January 24^th meeting appeared more like a protest. More than one speaker dubbed the investigation against Brewer a ‘witch hunt’, and speakers frustrated with the slow progress of the investigation attacked everything from Superintendent Williams’ $14,000 pay raise in August of 2016 to potential personal vendettas against Brewer held by LCPS administration members. The speakers who were most direct in their slams on the School Board and its members were those who drew the loudest cheers.

Immediately following the community speakers portion of the meeting and a short break thereafter, Dr. Williams segued into a slideshow showcasing many of his most popular Tweets over recent days. Frustrated by what they perceived as a trivial follow-up to the impassioned speeches on Brewer’s behalf, Dominion students began organizing a march on the School Board. The march, which will take place Friday, January 27^th at 11:00 a.m., is a student-led effort to ask “for Dr. Brewer’s reinstatement and full transparency,” reads a Facebook post about the event by SCA Vice-President Anika Maan.

Because of the deepening of the school board’s investigation into Brewer, the dates of his hearing and accordant decisions on behalf of the trial officer and the School Board—the former of which was believed to be January 27^th—are currently up in the air. However, it’s clear that the Titan community won’t lose their principal without a bitter fight.