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Loudoun County Parent Group Collects Signatures To Oust School Board Members

“From violating open meetings law to ignoring the school board's code of conduct to neglecting to keep our children safe, all for her activist causes, Sheridan has been nothing short of a disaster as the so-called leader of Loudoun County Public Schools.”

   DailyWire.com
US-EDUCATION-SCHOOL School board member of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Brenda Sheridan looks at her laptop durning a public school board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021. - Loudoun county school board meetings have become tense recently with parents clashing with board members over transgender issues, the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) and Covid-19 mandates. Earlier this month US Attorney General Merrick Garland directed federal authorities to hold strategy sessions in the next month with law enforcement to address the increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in the nation's public schools. This in response to a request from the National School Boards Association asking US President Joe Biden for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism. (Photo by Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Contributor
Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Contributor via Getty Images

Parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, have collected the necessary signatures to begin the process of pushing several school board members out of their positions, as well as create a petition to expel chairwoman Brenda Sheridan from the school board. 

The group is called “Fight For Schools,” and its executive director, Ian Prior, said the “chairwoman, Brenda Sheridan has overseen and personally contributed to a complete breakdown in trust between the community and the Loudoun County School Board. From violating open meetings law to ignoring the school board’s code of conduct to neglecting to keep our children safe, all for her activist causes, Sheridan has been nothing short of a disaster as the so-called leader of Loudoun County Public Schools.”

“Let this serve as a message to the rest of the board and Superintendent [Scott] Ziegler: if you thought that this was all about an election, then you have once more failed to properly judge the resolve of your constituents,” Prior added. “We’re still here and we’re not going anywhere.”

The Washington Examiner reported:

County parents associated with the political action committee Fight for Schools announced to the board at its Tuesday meeting that they had compiled over 2,000 signatures to remove Loudoun County school board Chairwoman Brenda Sheridan. They also revealed they had enough signatures to initiate legal action to remove Vice-Chairwoman Atoosa Reaser and board members Ian Serotkin and Denise Curbo.

In an email to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, Sheridan said that “citizens of the Sterling District elected me in 2011, 2015 and 2019 … My election was a mandate from those who came to the polls — three times — to choose me as their representative. Tuesday’s filing is the result of a fraction of those citizens signing a petition, whether they voted or not.”

She pressed that she “will see this process through.”

As Newsmax reported, “Virginia law requires those seeking to remove elected officials to collect signatures totaling at least 10% of the votes cast in the previous election and file a petition, which then initiates court proceedings where a judge or jury decides if the official is removed.”

Parents have been upset with the school district over the teaching of critical race theory and its push for transgender policies, a movement which heavily contributed to the recent win of Republican candidate for Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin. 

The deep problems with the school board have been heavily highlighted by reporting revealing that Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) “may have covered up a sexual assault in a bathroom at one of its high schools — a move that ultimately put other students at risk,” per The Daily Wire. 

As The Daily Wire exclusively reported, Scott Smith alleged that a boy wearing a skirt went into a girls’ bathroom at a local high school where he sexually assaulted Smith’s ninth-grade daughter. “The same teen reportedly sexually assaulted another female student last month, after he was transferred over the bathroom incident to another school within the district,,” The Daily Wire noted.

“Juvenile records are sealed, but Smith’s attorney Elizabeth Lancaster told The Daily Wire that a boy was charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio, related to an incident that day at that school,” The Daily Wire reported.  

Smith was arrested after attending a school board meeting where the topic of a transgender policy was raised. At the meeting, the superintendent said that concerns about the policy were misplaced since the school system had no record of any assault occurring in any school bathroom.  

Smith has said he was then confronted by a left-wing community activist who told him she didn’t believe his daughter. A police officer pulled on his arm, and Smith yanked it away, which led to an altercation. “Before he knew it, Smith says, he was hit in the face, handcuffed, and dragged across the floor, with his pants pulled down. Images of the incident were splashed on televisions and newspapers across the world,” The Daily Wire noted.

The Smith family also announced last month they are pursuing civil action against Loudoun County Public Schools under the provisions of Title IX after the publication of The Daily Wire’s blockbuster report, alleging that Loudoun County Public Schools covered up the sexual assault.

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