The father of a Virginia pupil sexually assaulted in her highschool rest room has been pardoned after his arrest two years in the past protesting a faculty board assembly turned a flashpoint within the conservative push to extend parental involvement in public training.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin introduced on Fox News Sunday that he had pardoned Scott Smith of his disorderly conduct conviction stemming from the June 2021 incident. The episode featured prominently all through the gubernatorial marketing campaign that yr for Youngkin, who has made assist for the so-called “parents’ rights” motion a cornerstone of his political model.
“Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter,” Youngkin stated Sunday in a press launch. “Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia.”
According to Loudoun Now, Smith threatened to kick out the enamel of deputies who dragged him away from a Loudoun County School Board assembly over state-mandated protections for transgender college students. The native information outlet reported that he’d argued loudly, clenched his fist and sworn at a lady whereas demanding solutions over the dealing with of his daughter’s assault.
In an announcement launched Sunday, Smith vowed to pursue authorized motion towards Loudoun County Public Schools and proceed preventing “for parents and their children.” The district didn’t instantly reply to a telephone name and e-mail requesting a response.
A trial was scheduled this fall over Smith’s enchantment of the disorderly conduct conviction and a circuit court docket choose had already tossed one other cost of obstructing justice. Smith advised WJLA that his pardon marked a “bittersweet moment.” He hoped the justice system would absolve him of wrongdoing with out the “offramp” of a pardon.
“What happened to me cannot ever happen to another American again,” Smith stated in an unique interview posted Sunday.
The teenager convicted of assaulting Smith’s daughter was later discovered responsible of forcibly touching one other classmate at a close-by college the place the perpetrator was allowed to attend courses whereas awaiting trial in juvenile court docket. The case galvanized conservatives nationwide when studies unfold that the scholar — who was assigned male at start — wore a skirt through the first assault.
Youngkin’s administration has since rolled again protections for transgender college students. Model insurance policies posted final fall by the Virginia Department of Education say college students use of loo and locker amenities must be primarily based on organic intercourse and that minors have to be referred to by the identify and pronouns of their official data, until a mum or dad approves in any other case.
The fallout got here final December for the Northern Virginia college district within the Smith case. The board fired its superintendent after a particular grand jury accused him of mendacity concerning the first sexual assault. The grand jury’s scathing report accused the varsity system of mishandling the teenage perpetrator and stated authorities ignored a number of warning indicators that would have prevented the second assault. Administrators didn’t sufficiently talk the chance posed by the scholar to the brand new college, in accordance with the report.
The grand jury discovered a “stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability” however no proof of a coordinated cover-up.
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