Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sunday he is pardoning an angry father protesting Loudoun County schools’ handling of his daughter’s sexual assault.
Scott Smith, a plumber who erupted at a rowdy school board meeting on June 22, 2021 — reportedly unleashing a profanity storm — was arrested and later convicted of disorderly conduct.
“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I would forgive him, and we did on Friday,” Youngkin told “Fox News Sunday.”
“We are correcting the mistake. He should never have been charged here. This is a father standing up for his daughter.”
Smith claimed her daughter, then in ninth grade, was sexually assaulted by a local boy wearing a skirt in a Stone Bridge High School bathroom — and the school informed her it was conducting an internal investigation into the attack.
But minutes before Smith’s arrest during a school board meeting, Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler insisted “we have no record of any assaults occurring in our restrooms,” the Daily Wire reported.
Ziegler also argued that “predatory transgender students or people do not exist” – a denial that infuriated Smith.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that he has pardoned Scott Smith, the father who was arrested while protesting Loudon County schools’ handling of his daughter’s sexual assault.Daniel Sangjib Min/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Smith was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after he yelled at a Loudoun County School Board meeting on June 22, 2021.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
“Her daughter was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom, and nobody did anything about it,” Youngkin said, arguing the superintendent “covered it up.”
The disaster sparked national outrage, especially among conservatives. A second attack with the same suspect was reported later in 2021.
“Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which was to stand up for their child,” Youngkin continued. “This is a gross miscarriage of justice.”
Smith claims that her daughter was sexually assaulted in a Stone Bridge High School bathroom by a male biology student wearing a skirt.REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Youngkin called Smith’s conviction a “gross miscarriage of justice.” 7News
The teenage suspect, who was hit with two counts of forcible sodomy, was later found guilty of all charges.
The suspect was sentenced to a residential treatment facility and placed on the sex offender registry.
The governor — now running for a competitive off-year state legislative election — has made himself a champion of parents’ rights in education.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
