A concerned mother in Virginia has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
asking the Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) District to release documents after the latter said it would take $36,000 to retrieve records on sexual assault cases in the district.
Michelle Mege from the Loudoun County district requested for access to "all communications, including press releases, statements, emails, or other correspondence in any format within the LCPS possession" dated between May 1 to October 18, in which the words "sexual assault" and "rape" were used.
Breitbart reported that Loudoun County Public Schools public information officer Wayde Byard responded by saying that the district had about 100,065 "potential documents" related to the request and that the hourly rate for reviewing such documents is $72.15. Byard noted, "Retrieving these documents would take a half hour's work by the supervisor of information technology at a cost of $36.08."
Byard added that reviewing these documents will cost $200 per hour and is estimated to take about 500 hours. He explained that the public information officer can take on the task for the rate of $72.15 per hour. He concluded, "Loudoun County Public Schools estimates it would cost $36,111.68 to fulfill this request."
Loudoun County Public Schools has been at the center of controversy since reports of its teachers rising up against its transgender policies and a male-born student sexually assaulting a female student in the girls' bathroom made national headlines. Loudoun County Board of Supervisors member Juli Briskman also stoked the fire when she called concerned parents who were against the county's alleged sexual assault cover up and critical race theory or CRT curriculum as "alt-right." This was in response to concerned parent group Fight For Schools (FFS) filing to recall the school board chair Brenda Sheridan in November.
Fight For Schools founder Ian Prior told Fox News, "The fact that there are potentially 100,000 documents responsive to this request is extremely concerning. But it is equally concerning that Loudoun County Public Schools would put up a $36,000 roadblock in front of parents trying to find out the extent of sexual assaults occurring in our schools, especially since LCPS has not been reporting those sexual assaults to the state as is required by law."
According to Loudoun Now, the Loudoun County School Board opened its meeting room doors to spectators for the first time since June 22, during which a parent raised his concerns over the school's transgender policies, which allowed biologically male students to access girls' restrooms, where his daughter was sexually assaulted by a biologically male student who dressed as a girl. The boy allegedly identified as "gender fluid" and was accused of the same crime in another school.
Since the incident, more parents came forward to speak out against the school district, signing up in advance for a chance to speak to the school board members.
In early November, Loudoun County Public Schools announced that it contracted a Fairfax County law firm to review the administration's handling of the sexual assault cases at Stone Bridge and Broad Run high schools.
