A dad who faced jail for protesting about his daughter’s rape by a transgender student at a Virginia high school has been pardoned by the state governor Glenn Youngkin.

A dad who faced jail for protesting about his daughter’s rape by a transgender student at a Virginia high school has been pardoned by the state governor Glenn Youngkin.

Scott Smith was given a 10-day suspended sentence for disorderly conduct after he was dragged out of a school board meeting for protesting about the Stone Bright High School student, who went on to attack another girl.

Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler was later sacked after a damning grand jury investigation found he ignored complaints and covered up what the school knew about the May 2021 attack on Smith's daughter.

The father was left beaten and bloodied after he was ejected from the Loudoun County School Board meeting in June 2021

‘Mr Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which is stand up for their child,’ Youngkin told Fox News Sunday.

‘I spoke with Mr Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday.’

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin said ‘Mr Smith did what any father would do' as he issued a formal pardon

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Smith’s daughter was pinned down to the floor and assaulted by the boy inside a restroom stall, with a teacher later testifying that she saw two pairs of feet but did not interfere.

The boy was still at large three hours after the assault during which time Principal Tim Flynn tried to get a no-trespass letter against Scott, who had arrived at the school.

The male student, who was wearing a skirt on the day of the attack, was allowed into the bathroom because he told staff he identified as female.

He was only arrested two months later, but still went on to sexually assault another girl, at a different school, Broad Run High School, on October 6. By then Smith had tried to alert parents at the June meeting of the Loudoun County School Board, but been met with a wall of denial from governors.

Officials reiterated that the school's gender-fluid bathrooms - where the rape took place - were not problematic, and Smith was thrown out and arrested by police, when he refused to leave.

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The girl's mother, Jessica, said the family was pressured to remain silent about the incident, and had no idea their daughter's attacker had been allowed back in school.

'We were silenced for many months,' Jessica Smith told DailyMail.com, 'We were told not to say a word that could jeopardize our daughter's case.'

She only learned of his troubled past when DailyMail.com revealed that in fifth grade the boy had sent nude photos of himself to a female classmate, prompting an investigation but no arrest.

Smith was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He said he tried to contain himself after teachers falsely asserted they had not received reports of sex assaults in the girls' toilets

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The boy had also been repeatedly suspended for fist fights and other misbehavior. 'There should have been more done to help, not a coverup,' Jessica said.

A special report found that the second assault could have been prevented, and that school district administrators lied to parents in an attempt to cover up the controversy over the transgender bathroom policy.

'This invariably led to a stunning lack of openness, transparency, and accountability both to the public and the special grand jury,’ it concluded.

'There were several decision points for senior LCPS administrators, up to and including the superintendent, to be transparent and step in and alter the sequence of events leading up to the October 6 BRHS sexual assault.

'They failed at every juncture. We also believe the October 6 abduction and sexual assault of a female student at Broad Run High School could have, and should have, been prevented.'

And the case became the searing tip of a raging debate in Loudoun County over transgender students' rights and parents' freedom of speech, with further angry disruption of school board meetings. 

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Last year the teen was found guilty for both assaults and was remanded in custody at a juvenile rehabilitation center. But the 15-year-old was not required to register as a sex offender leaving Smith and his wife Jessica furious at the ruling.

'My wife and I are not just heartbroken about today's ruling, we are quite frankly mad at how the justice system and the Loudoun Commonwealth's attorney have let down both our daughter, as well as the other victims of his predatory actions,' Smith said in a statement.

'The person who committed these horrible crimes against these young women will now, due to the errors of the county prosecutor, not have to bear the permanent shame at being known as a lifetime registered sex offender, as he had been originally sentenced.

'We are now concerned, more than ever, that this change in his legal status may put other parents’ daughters at risk of physical harm in the future.’

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Gov Youngkin said school had ‘covered it up’, and told Fox that parents must have the final say over their children's education.

‘We righted a wrong. He should've never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter.’

‘His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it.

‘This was a gross miscarriage of justice.’