Analysis

Washington Post Covers Loudoun County Rape Story, Fails To Provide Context

   DailyWire.com
A woman sits with her sign during a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The Washington Post finally got around to covering the sexual assault allegations at a high school in Virginia, first revealed by The Daily Wire.

The Post downplayed the context surrounding the allegations and the father of the victim’s arrest, including the transgender policy that was being discussed at the school board meeting the night of his arrest.

The Daily Wire reported on Monday that Scott Smith “became the poster child for what the National School Boards Association has since suggested could be a form of ‘domestic terrorism’: a white blue-collar male who showed up to harangue obscure public servants on his local school board.”

Smith’s attorney, Elizabeth Lancaster, told The Daily Wire that “If someone would have sat and listened for thirty seconds to what Scott had to say, they would have been mortified and heartbroken.”

More from The Daily Wire:

Minutes before Smith’s arrest, the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) superintendent lectured the public that concerns about the transgender policy were misplaced because the school system had no record of any assault occurring in any school bathroom.

Then a woman wearing a rainbow heart shirt – a left-wing community activist – told Smith she did not believe his daughter, he says. His rage reached a boil and he had a heated exchange of words with the woman. A police officer, there to keep the peace in the meeting, pulled on his arm. Smith yanked it away.

Smith was arrested for the incident and announced a plan to sue the school district earlier this week.

At the center of the allegations is the claim that the boy who allegedly attacked Smith’s daughter and another girl at a different school, reportedly wore a skirt to school the day of the incident and identified, per Smith, as “gender fluid.” The Post noted that the school’s transgender policy, which allows students to use the bathroom they claim confirms their gender identity, was not in effect when Smith’s daughter was assaulted. But Smith was present at the board meeting on June 22nd, he said because that was the meeting where the transgender bathroom policy was discussed.

Smith, who was not on the list of speakers for that meeting, was moved to anger when LCPS Superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed that there was no record of an assault occurring in a school bathroom. The school board ultimately shut down the meeting after law enforcement declared it an “unlawful assembly.”

The Post did not explain this context in its report on the alleged assaults, instead attempting to downplay Smith’s concerns. The outlet said the parents of the victim released a statement claiming the boy who was charged with sexual assault is “gender-fluid” and that their daughter was assaulted in a girl’s bathroom. The Post made sure to note that those “details have not been confirmed by authorities.”

The Post said it did not name Smith to avoid inadvertently identifying the victim in the case, and also said a spokesperson for the family “declined to speak to The Post on Thursday.”

As The Daily Wire has reported, the fallout from the allegations has resulted in one school board member’s resignation as well as an apology from the LCPS superintendent, who said he misunderstood a question about potential bathroom sexual assaults.

This article has been revised to clarify that the suspect reportedly identifies as “gender-fluid.”

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