The male high school student at the center of the high-profile sexual assault cases at two Virginia high schools was sentenced Wednesday to a “locked residential program” and must register as a sex offender.
The student’s assaults gained national media attention after it was revealed the Loudoun County school board allowed the student to attend a different school after having committed the first assault — only to commit a second assault at the new school, prompting accusations of a cover-up.
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WJLA reported Wednesday that the judge in the case, referring to the teenager’s psychological reports, said, “You scare me. What I read in those reports scared me and should scare families and scare society.”
A “locked residential program” is a type of program offered by a residential psychiatric facility in which patients are under constant supervision.
The teenager’s first assault, which occurred in the girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School while the offending student was wearing a skirt, put the national spotlight on Loudoun County after the female victim’s father, Scott Smith, was arrested at a school board meeting following a struggle with law enforcement.
Smith claimed a woman had come up to him while he was speaking to the school board against the adoption of a transgender bathroom policy to say she didn’t believe his daughter had been assaulted, precipitating the scuffle.
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The image of Smith’s arrest made national headlines and became a defining image of parental pushback against school boards, even making its way into congressional hearings. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for his role in the struggle, but the role the school board played proved to be instrumental to the Virginia gubernatorial campaign that saw Republican Glenn Youngkin emerge victorious over Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Youngkin and Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares have vowed to investigate the county schools’ handling of the assaults. The pair will be sworn into office on Saturday.
WJLA reported that an independent review of the school district’s handling of the assaults was recently completed. However, district officials have refused to release the results, citing attorney-client privilege.
