by Eric Lendrum
The Biden Administration’s Education Department (ED) announced its intention to investigate the controversial Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) district over its mishandling of two sexual assault cases by the same culprit at two different schools.
According to the Daily Caller, the investigation will be led by the ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The case revolves around a male student who used the school’s extremely loose “transgender” policy to identify as a girl by wearing a skirt, and thus was allowed to use the women’s restrooms without hindrance. He then went into a restroom at the Stone Bridge High School in May of 2021 and raped a female freshman.
However, LCPS decided to cover up the incident due to it taking place during “Pride Month,” fearing the backlash that the failure in the district’s “transgender” policy would garner. Instead, the student was quietly transferred to another school in the district, Broad Run High School, where he sexually assaulted another female student in an empty classroom in October of 2021. Only after the second incident was he finally charged with a crime, and ultimately was convicted in juvenile court.
In 2022, a nine-member grand jury in Virginia determined that LCPS had “dropped the ball” by failing to inform parents about the incidents, and that the district had instead decided to cover up the incident due to “privacy concerns” for the suspect.
“LCPS administrators were looking out for their own interests instead of the best interests of LCPS,” the report declared. “This invariably led to a stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability both to the public and the special grand jury.”
The grand jury’s report led to the firing of LCPS Superintendent Scott Ziegler, who was then indicted on three misdemeanor charges and one felony charge of perjury.
The OCR investigation comes after the legal watchdog group America First Legal (AFL) filed a formal complaint in January accusing LCPS of violating Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972 by not taking proper action against the assailant after the first sexual assault.
“It is paramount that our public schools enact and enforce policies to keep students safe while at school,” said Ian Prior, a senior adviser for America First Legal. “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.”
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Bathroom Signs” by pxfuel.
