Students at multiple schools in Loudoun County, Virginia staged a walkout on Tuesday in protest of the district’s cover-up of a sexual assault case.
“Loudoun County protects rapists,” some students at Broad Run High chanted in front of the school.
Listen to Broad Run High students start chanting “Loudon County protects rapists” & shouting other messages. Clarification: The suspect in both sex assaults at 2 different high schools in Loudoun County was not charged or convicted of rape. @7NewsDC #7NewsITeam pic.twitter.com/VnoPAvl8jO
— Scott Taylor : 7 News – WJLA TV (@ScottTaylorTV) October 26, 2021
Social media posts reportedly framed the protest as a way to “show solidarity to victims of sexual violence and demand safety in our schools.” The protest follows months of controversy after members of the Loudoun County School Board and the superintendent publicly denied that there had been any sexual assault by transgender-identifying students in school bathrooms in the district, even though multiple assaults by the same “gender fluid” assailant were reported in two different Loudoun County high schools.
Here are scenes of more student walkouts at @LCPSOfficial in Loudon County. @7NewsDC ##7NewsITeam #Loudoun https://t.co/cki8Xo52X1
— Scott Taylor : 7 News – WJLA TV (@ScottTaylorTV) October 26, 2021
One of the assaults occurred in May against a teenage girl whose father, Scott Smith, was smeared as a “domestic terrorist” after he spoke up and was arrested at a school board meeting. At that same meeting, school board members claimed there was no “record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.”
“Our students do not need to be protected, and they are not in danger. Do we have assaults in our bathrooms or locker rooms regularly?” said school board member Beth Barts.
“To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Superintendent Scott Ziegler replied.
The board chairwoman Brenda Sheridan also asked if the district had “any issues involving transgender students in our bathrooms or locker rooms,” before Ziegler claimed that the predatory trans-identifying person doesn’t exist.
A Virginia judge found the teenage male, who was allegedly wearing a skirt when he entered a girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in May and was then involved in a similar incident at Broad Run High School in early October, guilty of sexual assault on Monday.
Other reports indicate that Loudoun County Public Schools failed to report multiple alleged sexual assaults in its district for years. One LCPS board member, Barts, stepped down from the board after the controversy gained conservative media attention. Others are currently the subjects of recall efforts.
Reminder: the Loudoun County superintendent who tried to cover up the rape, said they had no record of it, and said the predator "doesn't exist" has said he isn't stepping down. https://t.co/EXWnsl1IWl
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 26, 2021
