Virginia community in chaos over school board member's MAGA riot arrest: report

A community in the Shenandoah Valley in Northwest Virginia is at each other's throats over what to do following the arrest of a prominent school board member for his alleged participation in the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.

According to The Daily Beast, "At the center of this modern maelstrom is Miles Adkins, who was elected to the Frederick County board as an independent in 2021... While Adkins has been a controversial figure since he took office, things really came to a head after he was arrested in late February for allegedly breaching the Capitol three years ago and swilling Coors Light and Fireball during the riot."

Prosecutors say while there, he communicated with a member of the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers.

Adkins was not serving on the school board at the time of the Capitol insurrection. According to the report, "During his campaign to represent the Shawnee District, his platform was against programs that might support critical race theory for the district of 14,000 students — even though critical race theory is not taught to children at that level. He defeated two opponents to win the seat with 45 percent of the vote."

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Adkins already has a history of trouble with the law, pleading no contest to a hit-and-run charge in Florida in 2014, and paying a $25 fine for public intoxication in Prince William County in 2022. He also has a history of controversial social media posts, attacking former president "Hussein Obama" for "support[ing] Muslims" and calling school shooting survivor David Hogg a liar.

His arrest came after pictures of him were identified by the Sedition Hunters, an online group of sleuths who have uncovered the identities of many Capitol riot participants law enforcement was looking for.

Tensions grew to a head on March 19, where at a board meeting a Marine Corps veteran named Robert Patton took the podium and said, “I feel that he has disgraced himself, his family, the citizens of Frederick County, and the country. You can no longer be an effective leader of the school board when you display poor judgment and a lack of honor and integrity.”

Other attendees took Adkins' side, with one person calling him a "patriot" and another saying he shouldn't bow to "these Karens" calling for his resignation. One person proclaimed January 6 a "peaceful protest," earning a rebuke from Patton.

There are few routes to legally removing Adkins from office, according to the report; a state judge could remove him for misconduct, but this requires a lengthy and complicated petition process requiring hundreds of signatures from locals. Many in the community are trying to shame him into stepping down, including fellow board members, but he is defiant, saying, “I got elected to do a job. I didn’t get elected to make friends.”

To date, over 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with January 6, mostly for misdemeanor offenses like trespassing and disorderly conduct, but a small handful for more serious offenses like assaulting police or seditious conspiracy.