Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The U.S Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has finally opened an investigation into how Loudoun County Public Schools mishandled two sexual assaults at two schools.
Background: In 2021, a girl in one of the schools said that a boy calling himself transgender followed her into the girls’ restroom and sexually assaulted her. The school board, accused of covering up the crime, allowed the boy to attend a different school, where he assaulted another girl. The first girl’s father was arrested when he spoke up about it at a school board meeting.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares convened a special grand jury to investigate how Loudoun County Public Schools handled the sexual assaults. Governor Glenn Youngkin authorized the AG to look into the matter via executive order.
Loudoun County Public Schools asked a lower court to dismiss the grand jury investigation, and the court refused. The school district sought to appeal the ruling and asked the Virginia Supreme Court to file the appeal under seal. The court refused.
In the grand jury’s report (PDF), released last December, the panel said there was no coordinated cover-up, but the school board administrators were looking out for their own interests instead of the interests of the school district as a whole. The grand jury also said the sexual assaults could have and should have been prevented.
Latest: America First Legal (AFL) announced that because of their complaint, the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office has opened an investigation against Loudoun County Public Schools for mishandling the sexual assaults.
“It is paramount that our public schools enact and enforce policies to keep students safe while at school,” AFL senior advisor Ian Prior said. “A special grand jury report demonstrated that Loudoun County Public Schools woefully failed in that respect, in part because of the utter lack of a competent Title IX process. We are pleased that the Department of Education has opened an investigation into this dereliction of duty.”
Photo credit: Chris Zubak-Skees (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
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