Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has pardoned a Loudoun County dad whose outburst about his daughter being sexually assaulted by a ‘transgender’ student led to him being criminally charged by the state.
Youngkin issued a statement along with his executive order pardoning the father, Scott Smith.
“Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter. Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia,” said Governor Youngkin.
“In Virginia, parents matter and my resolve to empower parents is unwavering. A parent’s fundamental right to be involved in their child’s education, upbringing, and care should never be undermined by bureaucracy, school divisions or the state,” Youngkin added. “I am pleased to grant Scott Smith this pardon and help him and his family put this injustice behind them once and for all.”
At a Board of Education meeting two years ago, Smith had become emotional upon confronting the board that had not only excused the sexual assault against his daughter, but had covered it up.
On Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, Governor Youngkin explained his decision to pardon Smith.
“In fact, I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I would pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin said. “We righted a wrong, he should have never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter and just to remind everyone, his daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school and no one was doing anything about it. And in fact, it took the election of a new governor, me and my directive to our attorney General Jason Meez, to investigate this, to uncover the fact that the superintendent had in fact covered it up and he was immediately terminated.”
“When the final report from the grand jury was issued, Mr. Smith did what any father would do,” he continued. “What any parent would do was stand up for their child. And even worse, what then happened was the perpetrator was moved to another school and sexually assaulted another young woman. This was a gross miscarriage of justice and I was so pleased to speak with him on Friday and be able to issue a full pardon for him.”
Governor Youngkin is winning a lot of good will from parents for finally seeing an elected official stand up for what is right, instead of cowering before political correctness. This is not only a win for the governor, but for justice.
