Virginia dad arrested at school board meeting: Daughter was raped in bathroom by boy in skirt

Scott Smith, the Loudoun County, Va. parent who was arrested during a June school board meeting on transgender policy, says that his daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy in a skirt in a school bathroom.

Prior to his arrest at the June 22 school board meeting, Smith said that his ninth-grade daughter was raped on May 28 in a girl's bathroom at Stone Bridge High School by a boy wearing a skirt, according to The Daily Wire.

"The person that attacked our daughter is apparently bisexual and occasionally wears dresses because he likes them," Smith told the news outlet.

While juvenile records are sealed, The Daily Wire learned from Smith's attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, that a boy was charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio, related to an incident at the school that day. 

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office declined to release records to the news outlet related to Smith, but confirmed in response to their public records request that a report with "Offense: Forcible Sodomy [and] Sexual Battery" at Stone Bridge High School on May 28 exists.

Then on Oct. 6, at Broad Run High School, a 15-year-old boy allegedly forced a fellow student "into an empty classroom where he held her against her will and inappropriately touched her," the sheriff's office announced in a press release. The Daily Wire learned from a government official that it was the same boy who had allegedly raped Smith's daughter at the other high school.

The news outlet's reporter, Luke Rosiak, tweeted that the boy had been "quietly transferred" to a new school following the May 28 assault.

Smith and his wife, Jess, weren't told about the repeat offense by the prosecutors, who had previously said the suspect was under house arrest, but they received confirmation of the second incident from the boy's probation officer and the Special Victims Unit detective, according to The Daily Wire.

The suspect was originally expected to plead guilty on Oct. 14 following a plea agreement, but Jess learned from the prosecutors that it was moved to Oct. 25 to deal with both charges.

"We can confirm a May 28, 2021 case that involved a thorough 2-month-long investigation that was conducted to determine the facts of the case prior to arrest," the sheriff's office told Fox News on Tuesday. "This case is still pending court proceedings. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is not able to provide any documents that pertain to a pending case." The news outlet received confirmation from the sheriff's office that the case involved sexual assault. 

The sheriff's office did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News on Wednesday.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) released a statement on Wednesday following a Loudoun County School Board meeting Tuesday evening, where many parents demanded that LCPS Superintendent Scott Ziegler resign after the district allegedly covered up the two sexual assaults, The Daily Wire reported.

"Loudoun County Public Schools is aware of the media and social media reports concerning alleged sexual assaults at two of our high school campuses," the statement read. "While LCPS takes privacy seriously and cannot reveal details concerning the actions of any specific student, we do want to clarify our investigative process.

"Principals are legally required to report to the local law enforcement agency any act, including sexual assault, that may constitute a felony offense under Va. Code § 22.1-279.3:1 That process was followed with respect to these allegations.

"Loudoun County Sheriff's Office was contacted within minutes of receiving the initial report on May 28. Once a matter has been reported to law enforcement, LCPS does not begin its investigation until law enforcement advises LCPS that it has completed the criminal investigation. To maintain the integrity of the criminal investigation, law enforcement requested that LCPS not interview students until their investigation is concluded. LCPS has cooperated and continues to cooperate with law enforcement."

The statement also noted that "LCPS is prohibited from disciplining any student without following the Title IX grievance process" and that it "has complied and continues to comply with its obligations under Title IX.

"School Board members are typically not given details of disciplinary matters," the statement continued. "The board may be obligated to consider long-term suspensions or expulsions and must ensure that students have not been deprived of due process. Consequently, members of the Loudoun County School Board were not aware of the specific details of this incident until it was reported in media outlets earlier this week. We are unable to locate any records that indicate that Scott Smith had registered in advance to speak at the June 22, 2021 board meeting."

The LCPS statement conflicts with Smith's account. Smith said the school told him the day of the attack on his daughter that the incident would be handled in-house and that the sheriff's office was called by the school only after he had made a scene.

An email from the school principal that day reported "an incident in the main office area today that required the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to dispatch deputies to" the school and claimed, "There was no threat to the safety of the student body," according to The Daily Wire.

At the June 22 school board meeting on transgender policies, Ziegler said, "To my knowledge, we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms," according to the news outlet.

Following that and Smith's contentious exchange with a "parent-activist" after he tried to explain what had happened to his daughter at the school, he was arrested, he told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" on Tuesday.

The school board approved the transgender policies on Aug. 11, after having sent Smith a letter prior to the vote notifying him that he was banned from the school board building, according to The Daily Wire.

Smith told Laura Ingraham that he had been advised to stay quiet during the legal process "in order to get justice for my daughter." But after he received confirmation of the alleged second offense, he recounted, "I basically said that's it. I won't stay quiet anymore."