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Man arrested at Loudoun County school board meeting says officials covered up his daughter's rape
Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Man arrested at Loudoun County school board meeting says officials covered up his daughter's rape

Amid heated debate over controversial transgender-affirming policies in Virginia's Loudoun County this summer, school officials concealed that a ninth-grade girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a gender-fluid male student in a bathroom, the Daily Wire's Luke Rosiak reported.

The girl's father, Scott Smith, was arrested during a raucous June 22 school board meeting that shut down public comment from incensed parents who came to protest critical race theory and proposed transgender policies. Smith was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after he had an argument with a woman for whose daughter Smith's wife had been a Girl Scout leader.

Smith's arrest was captured on video and went viral, calling national attention to parent protests at school board meetings. The National School Board Association cited his arrest in a letter to the Biden administration requesting that the Department of Justice classify threats and intimidation from angry parents as "domestic terrorism."

Telling his side of the story publicly for the first time, Smith told the Daily Wire that he had been provoked by the woman, who said she did not believe his daughter, and by Loudoun County school officials who had covered up the alleged sexual assault.

The Daily Wire reported that while juvenile court records are sealed, Smith's attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, said 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 15-year-old daughter was attacked in a school bathroom.

Smith says that the boy wore a skirt when he entered the girls' bathroom and allegedly attacked his daughter.

After the alleged attack, the administration called Smith to come to the school and told him it would handle the incident "in-house." When he began to make a scene, as any outraged parent would, he says the school called police officers on him and it was only after he managed to avoid getting arrested that he convinced police to escort his daughter to the hospital to have a rape kit administered.

A records request from the Daily Wire confirmed that a report titled "Offense: Forcible Sodomy [and] Sexual Battery" was filed matching the date and location of the alleged assault.

Later that day, the school principal sent an email to the community informing them of "an incident in the main office" that required a police presence. "There was no threat to the safety of the student body," the principal wrote. He offered counseling services for any student who was upset by Smith's behavior but made no mention of the alleged assault.

"LCPS washed their hands of this," Smith told the Daily Wire, adding that the incident was only taken seriously because of the sheriff's office.

A spokeswoman for Loudoun County Public Schools said, "Any information related to student information is confidential under state and federal laws regarding student privacy."

According to Smith's attorney, the suspect made self-incriminating statements during an interview with prosecutors and a conviction is "expected imminently, likely in the form of a plea deal to a charge of felony aggravated sexual battery."

School officials never publicly acknowledged the incident even as the district debated adopting policies that would permit transgender students to use bathrooms that matched their self-declared gender identity.

During the June school board meeting, school officials told parents minutes before Smith's arrest that concerns about transgender students in bathrooms or locker rooms were a "red herring" and that there were no records of assaults occurring in bathrooms. They did not inform the public of the alleged assault against Smith's daughter, which was reported to police three weeks before.

Smith stood there and listened as members of the school board lectured the public about how there were no issues involving transgender students and that "if a crime or violation of the rules were committed, that would be investigated and dealt with to the full extent of the rules or the law."

Members of the public were permitted to speak, and while many parents voiced their opposition to critical race theory and transgender policies, other speakers who supported the transgender policies accused them of being hateful.

One woman who attended, a left-wing activist named Jackie Schworm, confronted Smith and his wife Jess, demanding to know which side they were on. Jess, a Girl Scout troop leader, had mentored Schworm's daughter as part of her troop.

The Daily Wire reports that the confrontation between Smith and Schworm, which led to Smith's arrest, unfolded as follows:

Schworm was at the June 22 school board meeting, wearing a shirt with a rainbow heart on it. As a Girl Scout troop leader, Jess had mentored Schworm's daughter. Smith and Jess said Schworm sought them out in the crowd, demanded to know which side they were on, then berated them that they were wrong. "Jess, who is this?" Smith asked his wife.

"I thought she was my friend," Jess replied.

Smith tried to tell her what happened to his daughter, he said. "And she looks me dead in the eyes and says 'that's not what happened.'"

Schworm noticed that Smith was wearing a shirt with the name of his plumbing business on it, "And she goes 'Oh… I'm going to ruin your business on social media,'" he said.

"You're a bitch," Smith told her, video shows. A police officer monitoring the tension-filled exchange pulled on Smith's arm, he yanked it away, and soon, Smith and the officer were wrestling. Other officers pinned Smith to the ground, bloodying his lip in the process, as Smith uttered, "I can't breathe."

Jess cried out, in words lost in the chaos: "My child was raped at school, and this is what happens!"

Smith was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

During an interview with the Daily Wire, Schworm made contradictory statements denying that she had an argument with Smith (an argument that was caught on video) and also made "repeated comments" about Smith's daughter's "mental stability."

She also repeatedly brought up that Smith was convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 days in jail.

The arrest and the subsequent negative media coverage of Smith has taken an emotional toll on the family. Smith told the Daily Wire he had to install temporary fencing around his house to keep news reporters away. On social media, Smith was mocked for his physical appearance and demonized for his arrest.

Buta Biberaj, Loudoun County's progressive top prosecutor, personally appeared in court to prosecute the case against Smith. The Daily Wire noted that Biberaj was elected on a platform opposed to "mass incarceration" but sought to put Smith in jail for misdemeanor charges.

Meanwhile, the 15-year-old male suspect who allegedly attacked Smith's daughter has not yet been convicted and is accused of sexually assaulting another girl at a different school.

On Oct. 7, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office announced that "a teenager from Ashburn has been charged with sexual battery and abduction of a fellow student at Broad Run High School."

"The investigation determined on the afternoon of October 6, the 15-year-old suspect forced the victim into an empty classroom where he held her against her will and inappropriately touched her," police said.

The Daily Wire reported that the suspect is the same male student who allegedly assaulted Smith's daughter.

Prosecutors in Loudoun County have reportedly moved the date the suspect was expected to plead guilty to assaulting Smith's daughter from Oct. 14 to Oct. 25., so that both cases could be handled together.

The Loudoun County School Board approved the policy permitting transgender students to use whatever bathroom they wish on Aug. 11. Parents were never told about the alleged assault of Smith's daughter until the Daily Wire's report was published late Monday evening.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that the Daily Wire's report was published on Monday evening, not Sunday.

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