Gov. Youngkin Pardons Father Arrested At Loudoun County School Board Meeting

RICHMOND, NJ — Gov. Glenn Youngkin granted an absolute pardon to a parent arrested at a Loudoun County School Board meeting, officials announced Sunday.

Scott Smith had spoken at a June 2021 school board meeting in which tempers flared over state-mandated protections for transgender students. Smith said his daughter had been sexually assaulted in the school bathroom.

Smith was arrested during an argument at the meeting. Police dragged him to the ground outside, where he continued struggling and arguing with deputies, threatening to kick their teeth out, according to testimony.

He was charged with obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct. Smith was convicted of both offenses in August 2021.

Gov. Youngkin said Smith was wrongfully prosecuted and convicted.

"Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter," Youngkin said in a news release. "Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia."

In May 2021, a then-15-year-old boy sexually assaulted a girl in a Loudon County school bathroom. The boy has been convicted in that incident and a separate sexual assault at a different high school to which the district transferred him.

Smith identified his daughter as the victim of the May 2021 assault. The father claimed that the perpetrator wore a skirt and identified as genderfluid.

The case became a national flashpoint for debate regarding transgender-inclusive bathroom policies during Virginia's 2021 gubernatorial election. However, the attacker has been consistently referred to as a male and never claimed to be transgender or genderfluid.

While the Loudon County School Board had been discussing trans-inclusive bathroom policies, they weren't in place during the May 2021 assault and hadn't been passed until the following August.

During Gov. Youngkin's first day in office, the governor issued an executive order to investigate the sexual assaults in Loudoun County. Superintendent Scott Zeigler was fired last December following a grand-jury report into the districts handling of the matters.

The report claimed that Loudoun school administrators were looking out for their own best interests. However, the grand jury noted there was not a coordinated cover-up after the sexual assaults. Claims that sexual predators will exploit nondiscrimination laws to sneak into women's bathrooms by pretending to be transgender have been repeatedly debunked.

The grand jury found the school board was not at fault. The school board was kept in the dark about the first assault and learned about it from public reporting.

But the second sexual assault in October 2021 could have been prevented, the grand jury said. One month prior, two students had expressed concern that the boy responsible for the sexual assaults was making them feel uncomfortable. The students reported their concerns to their art teacher, who reported to the principal, the report says.