'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.
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."
Outraged parents say Loudoun County school board is 'complicit' in alleged school sexual assaults, demand resignations
Outraged parents demanded the immediate resignation of Loudoun County Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler at a school board meeting Tuesday that was dominated by public comments on allegations that the school district covered up two alleged sexual assaults.
More than 60 parents, students, and residents of the Virginia county spoke at the school board meeting, blasting members of the school board after the Daily Wire reported on alleged efforts by the school board to conceal the sexual assault of a ninth-grade girl by a gender-fluid boy in a school bathroom amid debate over a controversial transgender accommodation policy.
"This is not China, this is the United States of America, and we will not be silenced," said one furious mother, according to Fox News. "Remove the superintendent immediately and then resign for your negligence and duplicity. End this nightmare!"
Loudoun County resident Scott Smith says that his daughter, a student at Stone Bridge High School, was raped by a boy allegedly wearing a skirt in a school bathroom. Smith's attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, told the Daily Wire that a boy at Stone Bridge High School was charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio related to an incident on May 28, when Smith says his daughter was attacked.
The sheriff's office confirmed to Fox News that a sexual assault case from May 28, 2021, was conducted following a "thorough 2-month-long investigation that was conducted to determine the facts of the case prior to arrest." Police said the case is still pending court proceedings.
On Oct. 6, at another Loudoun County school, a 15-year-old boy was charged with sexual battery and abduction after police said he forced a girl into an empty classroom, where he held her against her will and touched her inappropriately. The Daily Wire reported that the suspect is the same student who allegedly assaulted Smith's daughter, though police have not confirmed that.
"These incidents were reported immediately to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, and LCPS cooperated fully with the investigations," said a spokesperson for Ziegler. "Any information related to student information is confidential under state and federal laws regarding student privacy."
Over the summer, Loudoun County Public Schools debated a policy that would allow students of any gender into all school bathrooms. The policy faced opposition from parents who were concerned that a male student claiming to identify as female might abuse girl students in school bathrooms. Though parents raised these concerns, school officials repeatedly denied that the transgender policy posed any danger to girl students.
"The predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," Ziegler said at a June 22 school board meeting. "We don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."
The school board voted to adopt the controversial transgender policy on Aug. 11. Policy 8040 requires teachers to use the preferred pronouns of students and mandates that school bathrooms be renovated to increase privacy, since any student can use whichever bathroom they want now.
Following the Daily Wire's bombshell report, livid parents at Tuesday's school board meeting castigated school officials for adopting the policy without disclosing either alleged sexual assault.
"The 8040 policy was rushed through to a vote without consideration for the safety of all students, simply to satisfy a liberal agenda – a policy that you knew full well would allow our children to be abused inside our schools," said one mother. "At least two young women are recent victims of sexual assaults in our high schools, one of them in a restroom.
"Your moral compasses are busted! You, Dr. Ziegler, and our school board – every one of you – are complicit in these crimes against our children because you did nothing about it, nothing."
"What is worse than a child being raped at school? The cover-up by those who are trusted with the safety and well-being of children," another mother said. "Today, Scott Ziegler must resign for the unconscionable act of allowing an alleged rapist back into school to rape again, and for that cover-up."
"You guys failed. Sexual assaults happening in public schools is unacceptable and should never happen," said Linda Killen.
"How do you expect parents across this county to drop off their kids and entrust you all to keep them safe when you've shown on more than one occasion you are not up for the job?" added Monica Sadeghi.
"When the Catholic Church passed predator priest from parish to parish, the walls came eventually crashing down on them. And they were finally held accountable for the abuse. When is Doctor Ziegler and this board going to be held accountable?" asked Theresa Lieberman.
A total of 36 parents expressed their concerns, each restricted to one minute of speaking time alone in the room with the school board before being ushered out for the next person to comment.
None of the school board members nor the school superintendent have publicly responded to calls for their resignations.
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