Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pardoned a father in Loudoun County who protested at a school board meeting after his daughter was sexually assaulted by a male student claiming to be “gender fluid.”
Scott Smith was convicted of disorderly conduct in August 2021 after protesting at a June 22, 2021 school board meeting in response to his daughter’s assault. The assault happened inside a girl’s bathroom at Stone Bridge High School by a then-14-year-old male dressed in a skirt on May 28, 2021.
“We are in contact with him and I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I would pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter and just to remind everyone, his daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school and no one was doing anything about it.”
“His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it,” the Virginia governor continued, calling the conviction a “gross miscarriage of justice.” (RELATED: Loudoun County Superintendent Who Covered Up Sexual Assaults Gets $28,000 Raise Amid Investigations)
Youngkin said Smith “did what any father would do” in this type of situation and accused the superintendent of covering up the incident.
Smith and his family pursued legal action against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) in October 2021 over the assault and his arrest at the school board meeting. The LCPS board first denied it had knowledge of the May 28 incident, but emails later showed Superintendent Scott Ziegler informed board members of the incident.
The male accused of sexually assaulting Smith’s daughter was found guilty of the charges brought against him over the incident in October 2021. The judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to show he committed a forcible assault. A Loudoun County judge later removed the teen from the sex offender registry in January 2022, reportedly devastating the Smith family.