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Virginia AG To Subpoena Internal Report On Loudoun Rape Coverup, GOP Boots School Board Chair For Hiding It

After the rape, Loudoun's school board put a nominal Republican in charge, but he didn't behave much differently than the Democrats.

   DailyWire.com
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has moved to subpoena Loudoun County Public Schools for an internal report they commissioned investigating their handling of a rape by a skirt-wearing boy in a girls bathroom, the latest in a series of moves by his office that could bring northern Virginia’s school districts, which have openly flouted the Republican administration, to heel.

The school system withheld the report, which they paid a law firm to write, despite its stated purpose being accountability. After The Daily Wire broke the story of the rape coverup and its most far-left member resigned, the board selected a moderate Republican, Jeff Morse, as its chairman — perhaps in an attempt to fend off criticism that the board’s commitment to leftist politics had led to a rape coverup and subsequent sexual assault of a second girl.

However, Morse joined Democrats in voting to continue to conceal the report. On Friday, the Loudoun County Republican Committee voted to censure and cut ties with Morse as a result.

The same day, the D.C. area’s ABC affiliate reported that Miyares had filed a motion for a subpoena for the report, which could show what LCPS knew about the rape and its aftermath. If the self-commissioned report amounts to a whitewash, it could also provide an interesting contrast to the results of a special grand jury probe commissioned by Miyares, which found egregious problems.

All of the then-school board members, Republican and Democrat, knew or should have known that then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler was lying when he told the board that he had no record of any assaults in bathrooms. Just weeks prior, Ziegler had sent an email to the board letting them know of the May 2021 bathroom assault, though it did not provide details.

None of the board members raised the issue in the moment — during a meeting where the board and superintendent were trying to dismiss parents’ criticism that a pending transgender bathroom policy could pose safety issues.

Morse was first elected to the school board in 2011, during a time when Loudoun was largely Republican, but when very few paid attention to school boards. Parent activists say many people who ran for school boards during that era, attaching themselves to whichever political party was most convenient, have not served as effective watchdogs against the politicization of schools.

When Republicans Glenn Youngkin and Miyares won their races for governor and attorney general shortly after the rape coverup was exposed by The Daily Wire, the pair called for an investigation into the school system. The school system repeatedly fought cooperating with the special grand jury that was convened, a report issued by the grand jury found.

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The grand jury released a fact-finding report that found egregious problems, including that a teacher walked into the bathroom during the rape and saw two children in one stall, but did nothing, and that even after the student was charged with rape, the school knew the rapist was harassing other girls, but merely had him write on a piece of paper that he would stop.

Yet when it was released, a joint statement attributed to Morse and Democrat vice chairman Ian Serotkin seemed to celebrate that the school system had escaped accountability, saying, “We are pleased that the Special Grand Jury’s extensive investigation found no evidence of criminal conduct on the part of anyone within LCPS, and not a single indictment was filed as a result of this lengthy process.”

The statement was embarrassing to the officials because the report, in fact, specified that the grand jury’s work was not over, and the next day, Ziegler and the school system’s spokesman were indicted.

The Loudoun GOP’s censure of Morse faults him for all of these actions, saying, “Mr. Morse had foreknowledge of criminality by the LCPS Administration regarding both the existence and truthfulness of public communications related to the ongoing events.”

“The Loudoun County Republican Committee hereby formally censures and rescinds all endorsements of Mr. Morse. Such rescission includes immediate removal of all public statements of support towards Mr. Morse by the LCRC and prohibits Mr. Morse from any future verbal or written communications, statements, or affirmations of Republican support,” it said.

“LCRC is a staunch advocate for the rights and protections of all children… Student and parental rights are preeminent over those of all government institutions,” it continued. “Be it ordered, that… all mentions of Mr. Morse on the LCRC’s public-facing website be removed and archived with this notice of censure.”

Morse did not return a request for comment.

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