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 Facebook/Beth Barts

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — A liberal school board member in Virginia who supported allowing male students to enter female bathrooms will resign from her position effective November 2 following a controversy over the cover-up of an alleged rape by a skirt-wearing male student in a female bathroom.

This was not an easy decision or a decision made in haste. After much thought and careful consideration, it is the right decision for me and my family,” Beth Barts posted in her Facebook group, where she regularly wrote updates about Loudoun County School Board business. “I am grateful to have had a role in empowering students to achieve academic and personal success in supportive and most importantly inclusive school environments.”

“Our students do not need to be protected, and they are not in danger. Do we have assaults in our bathrooms or locker rooms regularly?” Barts said during a June 22 school board meeting. 

Superintendent Scott Ziegler said there had not been an assault in a bathroom, which turned out to be false. A parent, Scott Smith, attempted to alert attendees and the board that his daughter had been a victim of a bathroom rape. Instead, police arrested him after he had an altercation with another parent. 

The National School Board Association used Smith as an example of a parent who acted similarly to a “domestic terrorist” in a letter asking the FBI to investigate parents who protested policies such as teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mask mandates. 

Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj prosecuted Smith.

Smith does not have to serve jail time as long as he stays out of further trouble for one year, the Daily Mail reported. 

The 15-year-old student accused of criminal sodomy moved to a different school and allegedly molested another girl. 

School board censure, history of inappropriate social media use

Parents and community members have wanted Barts to step down for months after a number of controversial statements and actions. 

She participated in a group of Loudoun County citizens who created a list of parents and other activists opposed to Critical Race Theory. “I wanted to share that I’m very concerned that the (anti-) CRT movement for lack of better word is gaining support,” Barts wrote in one post. 

“Secret communications reviewed by the Daily Wire do not offer any evidence of racism by the group’s targets, or even attempt to,” the conservative news site reported on the Facebook group. “Their opponents were apparently those who objected to, sought to debate, or were even simply ‘neutral’ about ‘critical race theory,’ (CRT) a radical philosophy opposed by many liberals and conservatives but increasingly embraced by governments.” 

Barts’ social media activity led to a censure from her fellow board members in March. 

“Following a more than two-hour closed session held virtually, the School Board voted 7-0 to publicly reprimand Barts for her social media postings deemed to expose elements of the board’s private deliberations and to spread misinformation,” Loudoun Now reported.  

“The School Board finds that School Board member Beth Barts did violate School Board policy 1030 Code of Conduct for School Board members in failing to put student interests first, failed to show respect for fellow board members and staff in the spirit of harmony and cooperation … failed to welcome and encourage active cooperation of Loudoun County residents and the district,” the censure said, according to Loudoun Now.  

Barts also “failed to work in the spirit of teamwork in service to the community. And that this board does not condone the behavior of School Board member Beth Barts and does hereby publicly censure her.”