A leftist member of the Loudoun County school board resigned her post Friday, just days after a disturbing report broke detailing an incident of alleged sexual assault.
Beth Barts, first elected to Loudoun County Public Schools in 2019, is officially leaving the board Nov. 2. Parents opposed to critical race theory and LCPS’ polices on transgenderism have been highly critical of Barts.
“This was not an easy decision or a decision made in haste,” she wrote in a letter released Friday afternoon. “After much thought and careful consideration, it is the right decision for me and my family.”
In a Facebook post, which includes her full resignation letter, Barts added:
I am grateful to have had a role in empowering students to achieve academic and personal successes in supportive and most importantly inclusive school environments. I am especially proud to have participated in helping steer the Loudoun County Schools System through the uncharted waters of educating students throughout a global pandemic.
Her departure comes amid a great deal of tension between parents and LCPS, as well as a shocking report detailing an incident involving a male student who has been charged with sexual assault at two different school campuses, CBN News reported.
Scott Smith, a local parent, said his ninth-grade daughter was sexually assaulted May 28 inside a bathroom in Stone Bridge High School by a male who entered the girls’ restroom wearing a skirt. On July 8, a 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with forcible sodomy.
Barts claimed on Facebook members of the school board “were not aware of the specific details of this incident until it was reported in local media earlier this week.”
Nevertheless, when Smith raised the issue at a June school board meeting, he was arrested and subsequently charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. At the assembly, the father shared concerns over allowing students to use restrooms that correspond not with their biological sex but with their chosen gender identity.
“If someone would have sat and listened for 30 seconds to what Scott had to say, they would have been mortified and heartbroken,” explained Smith’s attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, according to The Daily Wire.
Following the report, more than 60 parents showed up at a school board meeting this week, where they called for the immediate resignation of the LCPS superintendent, Dr. Scott Ziegler.
The superintendent acknowledged in a statement released Friday that the district’s current procedures for addressing sexual assault cases are inadequate, WUSA-TV reported.
“I want to acknowledge that our processes and procedures were not adequate to respond to these recent events,” he said. “It has become clear that our administrative procedures have not kept pace with the growth we have seen in our county.”
Ziegler’s admission comes after the May incident as well as an allegation made by a female student at Broad Run High School on Oct. 6. She told a school resource officer from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office that she had been forced into a room, held against her well, and inappropriately touched. Two days later, on Oct. 7, a 15-year-old was arrested and charged with sexual battery and abduction.
All of this comes as outraged parents have raised their voices against the Loudoun County school board, which approved Policy 8040: Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students in August.
The policy states district faculty and staff “shall allow gender-expansive or transgender students to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their consistently asserted gender identity without any substantiating evidence, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent educational record.” Students are also allowed to use the bathroom and locker room “that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity.”
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