Virginia Attorney General-Elect Commits To Investigating Sexual Assaults In Loudoun Schools

Virginia’s Republican Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares said during a press conference Thursday that he plans to investigate Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and the recent sexual assaults that took place on its campuses.

“Do you plan to investigate Loudoun County Public Schools and the recent sexual assaults that have happened there?” a journalist asked during the press conference.

“Yes,” Miyares responded.

A ninth-grade girl was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt who entered a girls’ bathroom at LCPS’ Stone Bridge High School on May 28. The same suspect allegedly committed another sexual assault just a few months later at a different school.

Juvenile court prosecutors told the first victim’s father that the suspect was under house arrest at his mother’s townhouse, but on Oct. 6, a 15-year-old boy was charged with sexual battery and abduction at LCPS’ Broad Run High School for forcing a girl into a classroom, where he inappropriately touched her, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Miyares also said he plans to push for legislation, which was discussed on the campaign trail, that allows his office to take over when chief law enforcement officers think the state’s prosecutors are not sufficiently doing their job.

Miyares added his support for “a bill that would essentially say if the chief law enforcement officer in a jurisdiction, either the chief of police or the sheriff, makes a request, because the commonwealth’s attorney is not doing their job, then I’m going to do their job for them.” More, he clarified that he is thinking “specifically” about “some of the so-called social justice commonwealth attorneys” who have been elected “particularly in northern Virginia.”

Miyares said Virginia has seen some “pretty horrific cases” that have been made public where state prosecutors have failed to do their job. He said that he wants to bring victims back to the forefront of the process based on his own experience as a prosecutor.

Miyares expressed frustration about the focus on perpetrators, saying “I think the victims have been forgotten.” In particular, he said that “when prosecutors are making plea deals on child rape cases, over the objection of the family, I have a serious problem with that. So, we’re going to have a legislative fix on that.”