Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced his pardon of Loudoun County’s Scott Smith. Smith was convicted of disorderly conduct for confronting the local school board over his daughter’s sexual assault by a skirt-wearing boy.
Youngkin made the announcement on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream, saying he had signed the pardon on Friday. The pardon is for Scott Smith, who was convicted of disorderly conduct in August 2021 after he erupted at school board members over their handling of an investigation into his daughter’s attack.
“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin said. “We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter.”
“His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it,” he continued adding that the school superintendent has “covered it up.”
Smith’s daughter was sexually assaulted in a restroom at Stone Bridge High School by a biological male said to have been wearing a skirt.
“Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which is stand up for their child,” Youngkin said. “This was gross miscarriage of justice.”
This was precisely the right action on Governor Youngkin’s part. But one has to ask, “What happens next?”
Speaking as the father of four daughters myself, I can only say that, in my opinion, Scott Smith actually showed considerable restraint. His arrest and conviction were a miscarriage of justice, one that Governor Youngkin has now set straight—in part.
But it must not stop there.
Scott Smith was arrested in August 2021, then convicted of disorderly conduct, for showing up at a Loudoun County school board meeting demanding to know what was being done about the skirt-wearing boy who had assaulted his daughter in a Stone Bridge High School girl’s restroom. That, to my thinking, is not unreasonable; were I in his position, I would have been breathing fire and spitting nails. Smith did not assault anyone; he was not armed, nor did he engage in any physically threatening manner. He spoke forcefully and demanded answers. Any father would have done the same.
It’s important to know that the boy who assaulted was moved to Stone Bridge High after being found responsible for another sexual assault at Broad Run High School, following which he was transferred to Stone Bridge High. This boy is and has been a serial sexual predator, hiding behind the hyper-sensitive protective attitudes towards “transgender” youths in order to commit his outrages. After this came to light in December 2022, a grand jury accused Loudoun County school board members of “intentional institutional amnesia.” Loudoun County Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler was fired after these events came to light.
Scott Smith, then, is redeemed from a conviction that never should have happened; this was a blatant act of institutional intimidation by Loudoun County officials. But where are the charges for these officials? Where is the criminal conspiracy charge? Is this not, at least, obstruction of justice? What about restitution for the damage to Scott Smith’s life and livelihood?
Evil must be answered for. Justice must be done.
Governor Youngkin’s pardon of Scott Smith was an act of justice. Delayed, perhaps, but made right in the end. But justice has not yet been fully done in Loudoun County.
You can read the entire text of Governor Youngkin’s pardon here.
