A father who was jailed for protesting the rape of his daughter by a transgender student at a Virginia high school has been pardoned by state Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Scott Smith was given a 10-day suspended sentence for disorderly conduct after he was dragged out of a school board meeting for protesting the Stone Bright High School student who then allegedly attacked another girl.
Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler was later fired after a scathing grand jury investigation found he ignored complaints and covered up what the school knew about the May 2021 attack on Smith’s daughter.
“Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do: stand up for their child,” Youngkin told Fox News on Sunday.
“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday.”
Scott Smith, pictured with his wife Jessica, faced possible prison time for protesting the rape of his daughter at Stone Bright High School in Pennsylvania
The father was left beaten and bloodied after being ejected from the Loudoun County School Board meeting in June 2021.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said: ‘Mr. Smith did what any father would do’ as he formally pardoned
Smith’s daughter was pushed to the ground and attacked by the boy in a bathroom stall, with a teacher later testifying that she saw two pairs of feet but did not intervene.
The boy was still at large three hours after the attack. During that time, Principal Tim Flynn attempted to obtain a trespassing letter against Scott, who had arrived at the school.
The male student, who was wearing a skirt on the day of the attack, was allowed into the bathroom because he told staff he identified as female.
He wasn’t arrested until two months later, but on October 6 he went on to sexually assault another girl at a different school, Broad Run High School.
By then, Smith had tried to warn parents at the June Loudoun County School Board meeting, but was met with a wall of denial by governors.
Officials reiterated that the gender-fluid bathrooms at the school — where the rape occurred — were not a problem, and that Smith was. thrown out and arrested by the police when he refused to leave.
The girl’s mother, Jessica, said the family was pressured to keep quiet about the incident and had no idea their daughter’s attacker had been allowed to return to school.
“We were silenced for months,” Jessica Smith told DailyMail.com. “We were told not to say a word that could jeopardize our daughter’s case.”
She only learned of his troubled past when DailyMail.com revealed that the boy had sent nude photos of himself to a female classmate in fifth grade, prompting an investigation but no arrest.
Smith was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He said he tried to restrain himself after teachers falsely claimed they had not received reports of sexual abuse in the girls’ bathroom.
The 15-year-old was previously a student at Stone Bridge High School, where he was accused of raping a female classmate in the girl’s bathroom
The boy had also been repeatedly suspended for fistfights and other misconduct.
“More should have been done to help, not a cover-up,” Jessica said.
A special report found that the second attack could have been prevented, and that school district administrators lied to parents in an attempt to cover up the controversy over the transgender bathroom policy.
“This invariably led to a stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability, both to the public and the special grand jury,” the report concluded.
“There were several decision points for senior LCPS administrators, up to and including the Superintendent, to be transparent and intervene and change the sequence of events leading up to the October 6 BRHS assault.
“They failed at every turn. We also believe that the Oct. 6 kidnapping and sexual assault of a female student at Broad Run High School could and should have been prevented.”
And the case became the flashpoint in a raging debate in Loudoun County over the rights of transgender students and parents’ freedom of expression, with further angry disruption of school board meetings.
Last year, the teenager was found guilty of both assaults and was taken into custody at a youth rehabilitation center.
But the 15-year-old was not required to register as a sex offender, leaving Smith and his wife Jessica furious at the ruling.
“My wife and I are not only heartbroken over today’s ruling, we are, quite frankly, angry at how the legal system and the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Loudoun have failed both our daughter and the other victims of his predatory actions resigned,” Smith said. a statement.
“The individual who committed these terrible crimes against these young women will now, as a result of the prosecutor’s errors, not have to bear the permanent shame of being known as a lifelong registered sex offender, as he was originally convicted.
“We are now more concerned than ever that this change in his legal status could put other parents’ daughters at risk of physical harm in the future.”
Gov. Youngkin said the school had “covered it up” and told Fox that parents should have the final say in their children’s education.
‘We have corrected a mistake. He should never have been prosecuted here. This was a father standing up for his daughter.”
“His daughter was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom, and no one did anything about it.
“This was a gross miscarriage of justice.”