Loudoun County parents blasted the school board during its Tuesday meeting, the first to allow an audience since the board’s June 22 meeting at which the father of a high school student who had been sexually assaulted was arrested.
Community members were permitted into the board room meeting for the first time since a now-infamous incident in which Scott Smith, the father of a Loudoun County high school student, was arrested after a scuffle with law enforcement.
LOUDOUN SCHOOL BOARD TO PERMIT SPECTATORS AT MEETINGS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE SEX ASSAULT UPROAR
Smith’s daughter had been sexually assaulted in the women’s bathroom by a male student wearing a skirt. Smith says a woman at the board meeting told him she didn’t believe his daughter had been raped, precipitating the struggle.
Smith was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for his part in the incident.
Since that meeting, anyone seeking to address the board during its public comment period had to wait in a line that snaked through the hallway of the building and outside.
Now permitted inside for the entirety of the meeting, parents repeatedly applauded in support of each other as, one by one, a number of them addressed the board.
“Up is not down, left is not right, and everyone is fed up with the lies and gaslighting,” parent Kristen Tapia told the board.
A number of parents addressed the board on topics ranging from school mask policies and critical race theory to the much-publicized sexual assault incident and the district’s transgender bathroom policy. A number of parents also brought up donations made by billionaire George Soros to political candidates in the area.
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“We the people are back. We asked you, the board elected to represent us, to put down your cellphones and listen closely,” parent Erin Thomas said. “The election you claimed was our motivation is over, and we are still here. … It is time for accountability.”
