Parents Furious After School Board Buries Report on Sexual Assaults of 2 Students by Boy Wearing Skirt
There’s an old saying: “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”
That statement is usually applied to politics, but it is even more disturbing when applied to a politicized response to horrific assaults committed against kids.
The crime is already monstrous; subsequent efforts by public servants to hide the criminal actions committed under their watch amplify the shame, disgrace and distrust. Only those who have replaced their moral code with political priorities would participate in such schemes to avoid accountability.
It appears the school board of Loudoun County, Virginia, has not learned anything from its role in two sexual assaults committed in schools in 2021. Given the opportunity to come clean with parents, the board voted to double down on the cover-up.
WRC-TV in Washington reported the Loudoun County school board voted in a meeting Feb. 14 not to release an independent report on the school district’s handling of the two assaults. The board claimed attorney-client privilege and student privacy concerns as justification for suppressing the report.
Parents were outraged.
“I am the father of the first sexual assault student. What are they hiding in there? What are they hiding? They are hiding something bad,” Scott Smith said.
On June 22, 2021, Scott was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest at a Loudoun County school board meeting for attempting to discuss his daughter’s assault while the board debated transgender bathroom access.
Scott was persecuted by a George Soros-backed county prosecutor, who was ultimately removed from the case because of impartiality concerns. Scott received a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail.
The board approved allowing boys who identify as female to use girls’ bathrooms.
This decision was especially shocking, considering that on May 28, 2021, a 14-year-old boy wearing a skirt entered a girls’ bathroom and sexually assaulted Smith’s daughter. It was later revealed the board knew of that incident before the approval vote.
The boy’s mother claimed her son was not transgender but “pansexual.” Such a distinction no doubt meant little to his victim. The boy was found guilty of sexual assault.
Instead of removing the dangerous presence from their schools, the Loudoun County school board allowed the perpetrator to transfer to another high school in the district.
On Oct. 6, 2021, the boy attacked another girl at his new school, according to police.
According to The Washington Post, he was convicted of one of the assaults and pleaded no contest to the other.
“The student was then enrolled in a residential treatment facility where he will remain on probation until he turns 18,” the outlet reported.
Fox News reported the Loudoun County school board commissioned a report about the incidents and the board’s response in October 2021, and the board has had the findings since January 2022.
Several board members initially supported releasing the report but ended up voting against doing so last week. The vote was 6-3 against the release.
This came after former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler and spokesman Wayde Byard were indicted in December by a grand jury for the handling of the sexual assault incidents.
Ziegler was charged with three misdemeanors: one count of false publication, one count of prohibited conduct related to alleged retaliation against a teacher, and one count of penalizing an employee for a court appearance.
Byard was indicted on a felony perjury charge.
The charges against the two are a good start. Government officials must maintain transparency and accountability to the people. Covering up potential wrongdoings by schools and administrators is a violation of public trust.
The Loudoun County school board has stonewalled oversight every step of the way. There may be even more wrongdoing unmasked in the report, which would explain why the board is too scared to release it.
The board members may want to bury the report, but they should also remember: If you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging.
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