Soros-backed attorney who got rapist released thrown off case of victim's father
On September 2, Republican Circuit Court Judge James Plowman kicked a George Soros-backed prosecutor off the case of a man convicted of disorderly conduct. Plowman reckoned Loudoun County commonwealth’s attorney Buta Biberaj's impartiality was dubious as it pertained to 48-year-old Scott Smith, the father arrested for expressing outrage in a school board meeting over the permissive LGBT policies that enabled a rapist to attack his daughter in a girls' washroom.
Biberaj, who fought for jail time and anger management for Smith, oversaw the case of the very rapist who attacked Smith's daughter. Her office recommended that the rapist, charged with forcible sodomy, be released with an ankle monitor and enrolled in a different school. Upon his release, the suspect is said to have sexually assaulted another child in a classroom.
The 48-year-old Smith, who seeks to appeal his conviction, will now have his case prosecuted by Stafford County commonwealth’s attorney Eric Olsen.
According to Smith's lawyer Bill Stanley, Biberaj was biased against his client, which would compromise the integrity of the trial. He and Smith filed a motion for Biberaj's recusal on October 22, 2021.
In his decision to appoint a special prosecutor in Smith's appeal, Plowman cited the need to protect the "integrity of the Defendant's due process rights."
Smith took comfort in Plowman's decision. He told Fox News Digital, "From the beginning, Ms. Biberaj has sought to make an example of me for simply standing up to defend my daughter."
"Biberaj has demonstrated a bias against me throughout the court proceedings," said Smith, "and she has continued to fan the flames of those who would label parents like me who stand in protection of their kids against dangerous school policies as being 'domestic terrorists.'"
Stanley similarly lauded the decision, writing, "The Court's Order today has corrected at least in some measure the injustice created by Ms. Biberaj's bias against [Smith], and has restored his hope for a fair trial on the remaining charge against him in his quest to protect his beloved daughter."
Biberaj told WTOP, "I'm surprised by the court's decision, since I was never given the opportunity to come back and have conversations about the disorderly conduct."
Biberaj removed and disqualified
This is not the first time Biberaj has been kicked off a case by Plowman.
In June, when seeking a plea deal for serial burglary suspect Kevin Enrique Valle, Biberaj downplayed and omitted relevant details about Valle's criminal past, including recent charges against him in other jurisdictions. Biberaj allegedly attempted to gloss over the fact that Valle was accused of "a possible 12 burglary crime spree spanning four counties over ten days."
Plowman characterized Biberaj's assessment not only as "entirely inaccurate" but "an overt misrepresentation by omission."
The judge noted further that "the Commonwealth is deliberately misleading the Court, and the public," writing ultimately, "Biberaj ... is hereby REMOVED AND DISQUALIFIED from further prosecution as counsel of record in this matter."
Extra to potentially misleading the public, there is some indication that Biberaj's progressive approach may be endangering the public. According to WTTG, since Biberaj's election in 2020, criminal indictments in the county have fallen dramatically by 67%, despite an increase in arrests.
In one instance, Biberaj's office released a man charged with brutally assaulting, strangling, and abducting his wife, Regina Redman Lollobrigido. After his release, he allegedly went on to savage and kill Regina with a hammer.
In addition to working to get criminals off, Biberaj also has worked with them. Last year, her office hired a registered sex offender, convicted of a child pornography charge, as a paralegal.
Scott's quest to protect his daughter
On May 28, 2021, Scott Smith's ninth-grade daughter was raped in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County, Virginia. The offender was a 15-year-old male wearing a dress, who had taken advantage of the school's transsexual policies. The school failed to report the assault in its rape statistics.
Although that aggressor was arrested, found guilty on all charges, and ultimately placed on a sex offender registry, he was soon released by Biberaj's office and placed in another school, Broad Run, where he allegedly committed sexual battery against another child.
A month after the rape at Stone Bridge, the Loudoun County school board held a meeting in which board members suggested that the school's so-called "gender-fluid" bathrooms were not to blame. The board also indicated that it had not received reports of assaults in the girls' bathrooms.
Smith, outraged like many in the community, went to one such school board meeting on June 22 seeking answers. Instead, he received handcuffs.
At the meeting where parents called for Superintendent for Loudoun County Public Schools Dr. Scott Ziegler to be fired as well as for board members to resign, LGBT activists jeered and mocked a distraught Smith.
Smith raised his voice when an activist in rainbow-colored garb allegedly was denying that Smith's daughter had been attacked and began threatening to ruin his family. Police subsequently tackled him to the ground and then detained him.
Man tackled during Loudoun County board of education meeting | FOX 5 DC Scott Smith's arrest
Smith was convicted of disorderly conduct. Now with Biberaj dismissed from the case, he hopes to appeal that misdemeanor charge.
Teen who sexually assaulted girl at Loudoun HS bathroom won't have to register as a sex offender after judge reconsiders
The teenager who sexually assaulted a girl in a high school bathroom in Loudoun County, Virginia won't have to register as a sex offender after a judge reconsidered the sentence.
The unnamed 15-year-old had been sentenced earlier in January to supervised probation in a residential treatment facility until he turned 18 years old. He was also sentenced to register as a sex offender.
On Thursday, Judge Pamela Brooks said she made a mistake and lessened the sentence.
The 15-year-old was convicted of two acts of sodomy and was at the center of a national uproar after the father of one of the victims was cited in support of federal law enforcement focus on parents protesting against school boards nationwide.
Jason Bickmore, the probation officer for the teenager, argued that forcing him to register as a sex offender would be counterproductive to rehabilitating him of his criminal conduct. He said that studies showed teenage sex offenders who registered were more likely to re-offend.
Loudoun County Community Attorney Buta Biberaj argued that the case merited the unusual request because the teenager had committed a second act of forcible sodomy at a different school while he was on electronic monitoring for the first offense of sodomy. Biberaj requested that the teen be made to register as a sex offender until he reached the age of 30 years, but the judge refused.
Among the three attorneys representing the teenager was Caleb Kershner, a member of Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors.
Kershner argued that the teen had been “cheated” by the “failure of the system," but said that he was remorseful.
“We are setting him up for failure,” Kershner claimed. “We’ve never concentrated on [the boy] — we’re not even giving this young man a chance.”
Judge Brooks said that she had simply made a mistake in her prior ruling.
“This court made an error in my initial ruling," said Brooks. "The court is not vain enough to think it’s perfect, but I want to get it right.”
Here's more about the controversial Loudoun case:
Loudoun County teenager sentenced for 2 sex assaults, must register as sex offender | FOX 5 DCwww.youtube.com
Loudoun County schools chief of staff no longer has job after handling of sexual assault cases
The chief of staff for Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia no longer has a job following accusations that the school district violated Title IX by failing to conduct a timely investigation of multiple sexual assaults.
LCPS told Fox News in a statement Wednesday that the chief of staff position once held by Mark Smith is now "vacant." It is not immediately clear why Smith, who was also the school district's Title IX coordinator, is no longer in the position, whether he resigned or was fired.
An unnamed school board member told WJLA-TV that Smith "is gone" because he failed to meet certain "obligations" under Title IX, a federal statute that bans discrimination based on sex.
"He had obligations under Title IX and they weren’t met. He was not a Title IX expert, but it was his job,” the school board member reportedly said. "Someone had to pay and it was him."
The school board member said LCPS is looking to hire someone with Title IX experience following two sexual assaults at two different schools in Loudoun County. @7NewsDc— Nick Minock (@Nick Minock) 1642607139
The school district is being tight-lipped about the situation. WJLA reporter Scott Taylor said that LCPS Public Information Officer Wayde Byard hung up the phone on him twice while he was trying to confirm Smith's departure.
Earlier today I was hung up on twice by Wayde Byard, Public Information Officer at Loudoun County Public Schools. Byard refused to say who is the District\u2019s current Chief of Staff. Last week it was Mark Smith. Byard said no comment if Smith is still employed. @7NewsDCpic.twitter.com/HjWkYIUb9e— Scott Taylor 7 News I-Team (@Scott Taylor 7 News I-Team) 1642607587
Fox News reported that a LCPS web page previously listing Smith as the chief of staff was removed Wednesday.
WJLA reported that the school district is seeking to hire someone with Title IX experience.
The alleged Title IX violations are related to two sexual assaults of students at LCPS schools that were first reported by the Daily Wire and later confirmed by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department.
The first assault took place in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School on May 18, 2021. Police arrested a 14-year-old male suspect on charges of one felony count of forcible sodomy and one felony count of forcible fellatio after an investigation. The same suspect was later charged with crimes related to a second assault at Broad Run High School on Oct. 6.
Last week the suspect, now 15, was found responsible for the crimes and sentenced to a juvenile treatment facility. The court required him to register as a sex offender for life.
The school district did not disclose the sexual assaults to the public before the Daily Wire revealed what happened in its report. At a school board meeting one month after the first incident, Superintendent Scott Ziegler publicly denied that there was any record of sexual assaults taking place in school bathrooms at a contentious school board meeting where he spoke in favor of a policy that would let transgender students use the bathroom of their preference.
Outraged parents accused LCPS of covering up the sexual assaults in schools. Ziegler later apologized and claimed that federal Title IX rules prevented the schools from conducting their own investigation into the incident until police had finished their investigation.
According to the Daily Wire, this claim was contested by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which has said, "Although a school division may need to delay temporarily the fact-finding portion of a Title IX investigation while the police are gathering evidence, once notified that the police department has completed its gathering of evidence (not the ultimate outcome of the investigation or the filing of any charges), the school division must promptly resume and complete its fact-finding for the Title IX investigation." Federal law also requires that a school is "obligated to conclude a grievance process within a reasonably prompt time frame."
Ian Prior, executive director of the parents' advocacy group Fight for Schools, said in a press release that Smith's departure shows LCPS violated Title IX in its handling of the sexual assault.
“We have been saying for months that Loudoun County Public Schools violated Title IX and this report confirms that,” Prior said Wednesday. "While it is a positive development to see that LCPS is taking action, the fact remains that the buck stopped with Superintendent Scott Ziegler and the former leadership of the school board.”
“Ziegler remaining while his subordinates take the fall only further diminishes the trust in LCPS leadership, particularly when there is a publicly funded 'independent' report on the failures of LCPS that Ziegler refuses to release to the public,” he added.
On Tuesday, an independent report on how LCPS handled the sexual assault cases was completed, but officials said the report will not be released to the public.
Byard told WJLA that Virginia law and attorney-client privilege prevent the school district from releasing that information.
"The report is complete. It is being withheld from disclosure in its entirety under Va. Code 2.2-3705.1(2) relating to materials protected under the attorney-client privilege. Furthermore, portions of the record are being withheld from disclosure under. Code 2.2-3705.4(A)(1) relating to scholastic information and Va. Code 2.2-3705.1(1) relating to personnel information concerning identifiable individuals," he said in an email to WJLA.
"Of course, they are not going to release what happened," Scott Smith, the father of the teenage girl who was assaulted at Stone Bridge High School last May, said.
"What happened is horrific," he told WJLA. "There are so many high-up players involved in this cover-up. It’s just unbelievable."
'Boy in skirt' who assaulted girls in Loudoun County schools avoids jail after victim's family asked judge to get him help
The 15-year-old "boy in a skirt" who sexually assaulted two classmates in different Loudoun County, Virginia, high schools will be sent to a juvenile treatment facility after the parents of one of his victims asked a judge to get him help rather than incarcerate him. He will also be registered as a sex offender.
The teen — who is not identified in news reports because he is a minor — was found responsible for one felony count of forcible sodomy and one felony count of forcible fellatio in a May 28 incident at Stone Bridge High School, in Ashburn. The teen was also found responsible for a felony count of abduction and a misdemeanor count of sexual battery in a second assault with a different victim at Broad Run High School on Oct. 6, WTOP-TV reported.
The first victim was the teenage daughter of Scott and Jessica Smith. Scott Smith was arrested during a raucous June 22 school board meeting and charged with disorderly conduct after school officials denied receiving reports of sexual assaults occurring in school bathrooms, even though the board was aware that Smith's daughter had been assaulted in the girls' room just weeks before. At the time the school board was debating the adoption of a policy that would permit transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. Parents argued this policy could endanger students, while school officials denied that was true. The incident became a cultural and political flashpoint as control of schools became an issue 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election.
The Smith family gave statements at a disposition hearing — the juvenile equivalent of a sentencing hearing — asking Loudoun County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Chief Judge Pamela Brooks to send him to receive psychological treatment rather than lock him up in jail.
Smith's daughter, now 16, took the stand and addressed the defendant by name, telling him, "I’m still here. I believe you belong in a program, even though you took advantage of me.”
Her mother also gave a statement asking the judge to place the defendant in a long-term residential facility where he can get help to reform.
"I feel that if this boy goes directly to juvenile jail, he will not receive any treatment," Jessica Smith said, according to the Daily Mail.
"I feel if he is placed in a long-term residential, he might have a fighting chance of becoming a better human being," she told the judge.
During his statement, Scott Smith said, "You voluntarily took what you wanted. That makes you a dangerous animal. Dangerous animals deserve to be caged, sometimes even put down."
According to WTOP, when he said that, the defendant's mother, who was in the courtroom, began shaking uncontrollably.
But Smith ended his remarks by telling the defendant, "You could change."
“I don’t believe that you’re a monster. I thought you looked like a monster, but you really don’t.” He said that when he was a teenager he had been sent to a residential facility, without giving further details.
"Please, dude — do the right thing, man. I can see in your eyes, you know you did wrong," he told the defendant.
Before the judge handed down his sentence, the defendant was permitted to make a statement.
"In my time here, I’ve probably thought about this more than I’ve ever thought about anything in my life. I hurt people in this courtroom. Until I heard the witness testimony, I didn’t realize how much I hurt them. I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, the families, the victims," he said.
“I will never do anything like that again, or hurt anyone like this again.”
Ahead of sentencing, the judge was given the results of a psychological evaluation of the defendant. This evaluation tests a person's sexual interests to see if there is any deviation from what's considered generally acceptable behavior and assesses the risk of a future re-offense.
“This court has dealt with juvenile sexual assaults before; it’s sadly more common than people outside the system realize," Brooks said, according to WTOP.
After reviewing the reports prepared for her, Brooks told the defendant, "Yours scares me. What I read scares me for yourself, your family and society in general. Young man, you need a lot of help.” She told him he is at high risk for re-offending.
“Even though your lawyer argues this was consensual,” Brooks said, “when someone says yes one day it doesn’t mean they say yes every day. No means no. You exhibited predatory behavior.”
“I hope when you come out, you come out as a healthy, functioning individual. I’m not sending you to the Department of Juvenile Justice. That would not serve any purpose for you, the commonwealth, or the community,” she said.
She ordered the defendant to have no contact with the victims or their families, then announced, "This judge has never made this order before: I am ordering you onto the sex offender registry.”
The defendant will return to court in July 2024, when he turns 18 and his probation will end.
'Loudoun County protects rapists!': Virginia students stage walkouts protesting recent sexual assault cases in schools
Students across Loudoun County, Virginia, staged a walkout Tuesday in protest of recent sexual assault cases within the public school system, Fox News reported.
According to local reports, students also walked out to show solidarity with the victims of the heinous crimes.
On Monday, an area judge found a skirt-wearing male student guilty of sexually assaulting a female student in the girls' bathroom in May. The unnamed male student was placed under electronic surveillance over the attack, but was later said to have groped another female teen at a different Loudoun County high school earlier this month.
Bryson Gray are the details?
Michelle Luttrell, principal at Loudoun County High School, said that students would not be penalized for their demonstration.
In a statement, Luttrell said, "Students who choose to participate will not be penalized for their participation; however, we do ask that students who participate do so peacefully, without signage, and in accordance with the Students Rights and Responsibilities we all reviewed and signed at the beginning of the year."
Students at other area schools, including Stone Bridge High School, Broad Run High School, Riverside High School, and more, participated in the walkout Tuesday.
According to a Tuesday report from the Washington Free Beacon, "hundreds" of public school students in the district participated in the demonstrations.
Earlier in October, Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler said that the district's current policies do not adequately address sexual assault cases.
In a statement, Ziegler said, "I want to acknowledge that our processes and procedures were not adequate to respond to these recent events. It has become clear that our administrative procedures have not kept pace with the growth we have seen in our county."
District officials also apologized for stating that there were no sexual assaults in restrooms during a June school board meeting.
The Free Beacon's report added that Ziegler was aware of the sexual assault that took place during the 2020-21 school year even though he previously said that the district did not have any record of "assaults occurring in our restrooms."
What else about the students' protest?
Demonstrating students, according to the report, shouted, "Loudoun County protects rapists!"
A report from WJLA-TV added that students also demonstrated from outside other schools in the district, including Briar Woods High School and Lightridge High School, bringing the number of protesting students to the hundreds.
The unnamed male teen suspect is due back in court on Nov. 15 to face a sexual battery charge on the second attack.
Loudoun County students plan walkouts in protest of student sex assaults | FOX 5 DC www.youtube.com
Barack Obama slapped with reality check after he denounces 'trumped up culture wars,' 'fake outrage'
Former President Barack Obama was slapped with a reality check Saturday after urging Virginia voters to ignore what he called "fake outrage" and "trumped up culture wars" that he claimed are being peddled by "right-wing media."
What did Obama say?
While campaigning for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, Obama denounced focusing on cultural issues, instead saying that Americans should be concerned with recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We don't have time to be wasting on these phony trumped up culture wars, this fake outrage that right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings," Obama said.
Former President @BarackObama: "We don't have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake o… https://t.co/k102Jlbu2r
— The Hill (@thehill) 1635024216.0
Obama appeared to be speaking about McAuliffe's opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin, whose campaign platform includes supporting parents to have a voice over decisions made by school boards.
"Instead of stoking anger aimed at school boards and administrators, who are just trying to keep our kids safe, who are just doing their jobs, stoking anger to the point where some of them are actually getting death threats," Obama said. "We should be making it easier for teachers and schools to give our kids the world-class education they deserve, and do to so safely while they are in the classroom."
What was the response?
Obama's comments generated sharp rebuke.
Critics pointed out that children's education is not part of the "trumped up culture war" as Obama claimed, especially considering that McAuliffe has said parents shouldn't have a say in school board decisions.
As many others pointed out, Loudoun County Schools also stands accused of "covering up" two sexual assaults as they pushed controversial LGBT policies.
- "Sorry, but McAuliffe saying that parents shouldn't be in charge of their children's education and the Loudoun County school board lying to parents about sexual assaults in bathrooms isn't 'trumped up cultural wars,'" Ben Shapiro said.
- "Let's be clear: THEY are waging the culture war. WE are fighting back.Covering up a sexual assault in school restrooms to push a transgender policy in gov't schools is the definition of waging a culture war," radio host Larry O'Connor said.
- "Barack Obama is telling parents they have fake outrage over school boards covering up sexual assaults and teaching critical race theory," Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) reacted.
- "The 'right-wing media' tricked Terry McAuliffe into telling parents they should influence school boards. @GlennYoungkin is surging because he's got answers for Virginia's public education's failures," radio host Hugh Hewitt pointed out.
- "Two girls were sexually assaulted on school property, and school admin officials publicly lied about their knowledge of it to parents," reporter Susan Crabtree pointed out.
- "My child's education is not a trumped-up culture war," Michael Needham, chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), fired back.
- "Here in WA: I was fired for refusing an experimental vaccine, I saw the COVID pts. Vax passes start Monday in Seattle. An elementary school has a gender unicorn on the wall. A high school handed out a sexual survey asking when kids first had anal. But sure, it's Trumped up anger," another person said.
- "Gaslighting at its finest," one person observed.
- "Zero self-awareness. Zero accountability," another person said.
- "Schools cover up sexual assault. That's not trumped up. That's not culture war. That's a dereliction of public duty. The failure to address it is a failure of leadership. Saying otherwise is a deflection," another person said.
Obama is the latest high-profile figure to stump for McAuliffe. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have also been campaigning for McAuliffe, which signals the race to become Virginia's next governor is much tighter than Democrats anticipated.
McAuliffe and Youngkin are separated by fewer than three points in an average of recent polling, according to FiveThirtyEight.
AG Merrick Garland claims he was unaware of Loudoun County Public Schools sexual assault cases
Attorney General Merrick Garland told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he was not aware of the sexual assault allegations in the Loudoun County Public Schools district while facing questions on the Department of Justice's decision to investigate alleged threats of violence against school officials.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) grilled Garland on the sexual assault allegations, which were first reported by the Daily Wire. A 15-year-old gender-fluid male suspect is accused of sexually assaulting a ninth-grade girl in a restroom at Stone Bridge High School last May and then inappropriately touching another girl in a classroom at Broad Run High School in early October.
The cases are relevant because Scott Smith, the father of one of the alleged victims, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct at a June 22 LCPS school board meeting during which the schools superintendent said there was no record of any sexual assaults occurring in school bathrooms. Smith's high-profile arrest was cited in a National School Boards Association letter to the Biden administration that asked the DOJ to investigate alleged threats of violence against school officials and likened protesting parents to "domestic terrorists."
Garland's response to that letter, announcing that the DOJ is "committed to using its authority and resources" to do as the NSBA asked, was criticized by Republicans who said the Biden administration was "weaponizing" law enforcement against parents.
During his question time, Roy recounted the facts of the alleged sexual assaults to Garland and asked if Scott Smith's behavior at the June 22 school board meeting, in light of what happened, was equivalent to "domestic terrorism."
Rep Chip Roy Eviserates AG Merrick Garland www.youtube.com
"Attorney General Garland, do you know where Broad Run High School is?" Roy asked, to which Garland shook his head no.
"On October 6, a mere 15 days ago, inside Broad Run High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, a young girl was sexually assaulted," Roy informed the attorney general.
He asked Garland if he was "aware [that] Loudoun County prosecutors confirmed that the boy who assaulted this young girl in Broad Run High School is the same boy who wore a skirt and went into a girl's bathroom, sodomized and raped a 14-year-old-girl in a different Loudoun County High School on May 28? Are you aware of those facts?"
"Are you aware further that the boy was arrested and charged for the first assault in July but released from juvenile detention?" Roy continued.
"It sounds like a state case, and I'm not familiar with it, I'm sorry," Garland said in response. He added that he did not know the facts of the case.
"Is the FBI or the Department of Justice investigating the Loudoun school board for violating civil rights under authority of, say, the Violence Against Women Act?" Roy asked.
"I don't believe so, but I don't know the answer to that," Garland responded.
Roy then described the events of the June 22 school board meeting, including Smith's arrest.
"The superintendent, Scott Ziegler, declared in front of the father of the girl who had been raped that the 'predator transgender student or person simply does not exist,' and that to his knowledge 'we don't have any records of assaults occurring in our restrooms,'" Roy said.
"When this statement bothered the father of the girl — I'm a father of a daughter, I believe you are too sir — the girl who had been raped, sodomized in the bathroom of a high school by a dude wearing a skirt, that father reacted," he continued.
"The victim's mother is heard on a cellphone video telling the crowd what happened," Roy said. "The victim's father is seen being arrested, bloodied, this man, this arrest of a 48-year-old plumber became the poster boy for the new domestic terrorism, the Biden administration, the administration in which you serve, has concocted to destroy anyone who gets in the way."
Roy then brought up the NSBA letter.
"Attorney General, do you believe that a father attending a meeting, exercising his First Amendment rights, and yes, getting angry about whatever lies are being told about his daughter being raped in the school he sent her to be educated in, that this is domestic terrorism, yes or no?" he asked.
"No, I do not think that parents getting angry at school boards for whatever reason constitutes domestic terrorism," Garland answered. "It's not even a close question."
Facing other questions about the case, Garland reiterated that he did not know the facts of what happened.
Email confirms Loudoun County school board knew about alleged sexual assault on day it happened
The Loudoun County Public Schools board was informed of an alleged sexual assault that took place in a high school bathroom on May 28, 2021, an email from Superintendent Scott Ziegler shows.
The email, which was reported by WTOP-TV, alerted the school board that an incident took place at Stone Bridge High School in which a female student alleged she was sexually assaulted by a male student in the restroom.
The May 28 email reads:
Good Afternoon, Board Members, The purpose of this email is to provide you with information regarding an incident that occurred at Stone Bridge HS. This afternoon a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulted her in the restroom. The LCSO [Sheriff's Office] is investigating the matter. Secondary to the assault investigation, the female student's parent responded to the school and caused a disruption by using threatening and profane language that was overheard by staff and students. Additional law enforcement units responded to the school to assist with the parent. The school's counseling team is providing services for students who witnessed the parent's behavior. The alleged victim is being tended to by LCSO.
According to WTOP-TV, the details of the incident were not disclosed to the school board because the board may be involved in student disciplinary actions, and they are rarely told the specifics of major incidents at schools.
The email demonstrates, however, that the board would have known about the alleged bathroom assault at a June 22 school board meeting, where Ziegler told the public there was no record of any sexual assaults in a bathroom. A proposed policy to accommodate transgender students by letting them use whichever bathroom they wish was the topic of heated debate at the meeting. Parents had raised concerns that letting boys who identify as girls use the girls' restrooms would endanger the safety of their children.
School board member Beth Barts asked the superintendent if there were sexual assaults in restrooms occurring regularly.
"The predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," Ziegler answered at that meeting. "We don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."
But as the Daily Wire first reported, just three weeks prior a freshman girl said she was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt in the bathroom. According to an attorney for the girl's father, the suspect has been charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio related to the incident. The same suspect is alleged to have assaulted another girl in a classroom at a different high school earlier this month.
The May 28 victim's father, who was in attendance at the school board meeting, grew visibly angry after the school board would not acknowledge his daughter's alleged assault and was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Last week, Ziegler apologized for making a "misleading" remark, claiming that he thought the question was specifically referring to assaults involving transgender students.
"First, let me say to the families and students involved, my heart aches for you," Ziegler said in an Oct. 15 statement. "And I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide. We acknowledge and share your pain and we will continue to offer you support to help your families through this trauma."
The victim's family now intends to file a civil lawsuit against the school. Bill Stanley, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement that Ziegler's apology confirmed that the school administration "failed to provide the safe environment" for the victim.
"As evidenced by subsequent events and revelations, Loudoun Public Schools have been failing the parents who entrusted them to provide a safe environment for their children every day," Stanley said. "That trust has (been) irrevocably broken by Loudoun County Public Schools' actions and inactions."
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