Education

Garland Says He Does Not Know About The Loudoun County Rape Allegations During DOJ Hearing

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• Attorney General Merrick Garland testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas questioned him on recent sexual assault allegations in Loudoun County Public Schools.
• “On October 6, a mere 15 days ago, inside Broad Run High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, a young girl was sexually assaulted,” Roy said. He asked Garland if he was “aware (that) Loudoun County prosecutors confirmed that the boy who assaulted this young girl in Broad Run High School is the same boy who wore a skirt and went into a girl’s bathroom, sodomized and raped a 14-year-old-girl in a different Loudoun County High School on May 28? Are you aware of those facts?”
• “It sounds like a state case and I’m not familiar with it, I’m sorry,” Garland responded.

Attorney General Merrick Garland testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas questioned him on sexual assault allegations in Loudoun County Public Schools.

“Attorney General Garland, do you know where Broad Run High School is?” Roy asked, to which Garland shook his head to show that he did not know.

“On October 6, a mere 15 days ago, inside Broad Run High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, a young girl was sexually assaulted,” Roy said. He asked Garland if he was “aware (that) Loudoun County prosecutors confirmed that the boy who assaulted this young girl in Broad Run High School is the same boy who wore a skirt and went into a girl’s bathroom, sodomized and raped a 14-year-old-girl in a different Loudoun County High School on May 28? Are you aware of those facts?”

“Are you aware further that the boy was arrested and charged for the first assault in July but released from juvenile detention?” Roy added.

“It sounds like a state case, and I’m not familiar with it, I’m sorry,” Garland responded.

Roy pushed further, asking more questions about the case, and Garland responded that he didn’t know the facts of the case, but he said that “it certainly sounds like I would agree” with the way Roy characterized the situation.

“Is the FBI or the Department of Justice investigating the Loudoun school board for violating civil rights under authority of, say, the Violence Against Women Act?” Roy asked.

“I don’t believe so, but I don’t know the answer to that,” Garland responded.

Roy mentioned a June 22 school board meeting, where the father of the girl who was allegedly raped, was arrested. At the same meeting, Superintendent Scott Ziegler declared, during the hearing on the district’s transgender student policy, that the district did not have any record of assaults occurring in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) restrooms.

LCPS approved Policy 8040, requiring teachers to call students by their “chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without any substantiating evidence” and allowing transgender students to participate in sports and use bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender identity.

“The victim’s mother is heard on a cellphone video telling the crowd what happened,” Roy said. “The victim’s father is seen being arrested, bloodied, this man, this arrest of a 48-year-old plumber became the poster boy for the new domestic terrorism, the Biden administration, the administration in which you serve, has concocted to destroy anyone who gets in the way.”

Roy mentioned the letter from the National School Board Association that called on President Joe Biden’s administration to use “federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation” toward school board members that “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

“Attorney General, do you believe that a father attending a meeting, exercising his First Amendment rights, and yes, getting angry about whatever lies are being told about his daughter being raped in the school he sent her to be educated in, that this is domestic terrorism, yes or no?” Roy asked.

“No, I do not think that parents getting angry at school boards for whatever reason constitutes domestic terrorism,” Garland responded. “It’s not even a close question.”

Roy continued to ask Garland questions about the case, but Garlanda insisted that he didn’t know anything about the case.

“The Justice Department has no role with respect to what curriculum is taught in the schools,” Garland said. “This is a matter for local decision making and not for the Justice Department.”