Family of teenage girl, 15, raped in high school bathroom by ‘male student wearing a skirt’ sues woke Loudoun County Public School for $30 MILLION for ‘failed investigation and cover up of sexual assault’
The family of a teenage girl who was raped in her high school bathroom by a ‘skirt-wearing male student’ has launched a $30 million lawsuit.
Scott Smith, the victim’s father, claims that Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia failed to adequately investigate his daughter’s claims and attempted to cover up the sexual assault.
He claims a biological man, who was wearing a skirt in a women’s bathroom, raped his daughter in the girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021.
The sexual assault was one of two committed by the same student. The second took place in October 2021 at Broad Run High School in an empty classroom.
Their attacker, who was 15 at the time, was convicted of both crimes as a juvenile.
Smith’s daughter “struggled academically, emotionally and physically for the rest of the school year” and she “continues to struggle significantly,” according to the complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Scott Smith (pictured) claims Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia failed to investigate his daughter’s claims and tried to cover up the sexual assault
The attacker, who was wearing a skirt in a women’s bathroom, was charged with raping Smith’s daughter in the girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021.
A woman holds a sign as Loudoun County School Board members vote to enact Policy 8040 amid protests over the two sexual assaults in 2021
Amy Jahr sings the Star Spangled Banner after a meeting was stopped by the school board because the crowd refused to quiet down
Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler
The details of the issue have become a flashpoint in the national debate over allowing transgender students to use bathrooms, play sports and use names and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity with protests sparked at LCPS board meetings.
Yet the assaults appear to have little to do with the attacker’s gender identity, according to documents filed with the family’s lawsuit.
Teachers say he preferred and requested male pronouns, according to the report.
Dan Adams, a spokesman for the school system in the wealthy Washington suburbs, said he does not comment on pending legal matters.
A law firm’s investigation, commissioned by the school board, found ‘no evidence that the perpetrator identified as a woman or that he wore a skirt or kilt in an attempt to gain access to the girls’ bathrooms not’.
A policy that expanded access for transgender students to school facilities was not in place at the time of the assault.
The assailant and his victim agreed to meet in a Stone Bridge High School bathroom before the May assault took place, according to an investigation by a Loudoun County grand jury.
The report accused school system superintendent Scott Ziegler of lying about the May assault at a June 2021 school board meeting.
It is alleged that because Loudoun County Public Schools was considering a new bathroom policy for transgender students when the assault occurred, the superintendent lied to the public to cover up what happened.
Parents and community members attend a Loudoun County School Board meeting that included a discussion about the academic doctrine known as Critical Race Theory
Loudoun County schools have been plagued with controversy after two school sexual assaults by the same student
The details of the issue have become a flashpoint in the national debate over allowing transgender students to use bathrooms
A Loudoun County grand jury accused the school system’s superintendent of lying to the public to cover up what happened, and authorities of ignoring multiple warning signs that could have prevented an assault.
After the assault in May, the attacker was charged and barred by court order from returning to Stone Bridge. Administrators then transferred him to nearby Broad Run High School.
According to the report, teachers at both schools warned administrators of the student’s disturbing behavior weeks before each assault occurred. Even his grandmother warned the student’s probation officer, calling him a “sociopath,” according to the report.
While the school board was discussing policies on transgender students and whether they could use the restroom of their choice, a school board member asked Ziegler if the schools had a problem with sexual assault occurring in bathrooms.
Ziegler replied that “to my knowledge we have no record of assaults in our restrooms”. But emails show that Ziegler was informed of the Stone Bridge assault and sent an email to council members about it.
Ziegler later said he misunderstood the question.
The grand jury’s report accused school administrators and attorneys of stonewalling the special grand jury’s investigation. The report noted that school board members described the assailant’s attire as a kilt rather than a skirt during the first attack, something the report indicates was a coordinated effort by the school system’s legal team to change a narrative about what happened. to spread.
Ziegler was later fired by the school board. He is facing a misdemeanor charge of false publication, related to his statements during the school board meeting.