A Virginia school board faced furious parents for the first time in five months after a sexual assault controversy saw the public meetings abruptly shut down to spectators.
Loudoun County Public Schools allowed members of the public to watch on again as it held its school school board meeting on Tuesday night.
Parents repeatedly applauded each other as they got up to address the school board, the Washington Examiner reported.
“Up is not down, left is not right, and everyone is fed up with the lies and gaslighting,” parent Kristen Tapia told the board.
The meeting marked the first time members of the public were permitted to be in the room after chaos broke out in June when the father of a student who was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom got up to defend his daughter.
The volatile meeting ended with the dad, Scott Smith, being arrested and dragged out amid a scuffle. Smith had said someone at the meeting told him they didn’t think his daughter had been raped.
The sexual assault ignited a political firestorm and the Loudoun County school board meetings made national headlines after Smith was branded a domestic terrorist.
The male student has since been found guilty of the sexual attack at Stone Bridge High School earlier this year.
Ever since that June meeting, the school board had been making those who wanted to address the board during public comments wait in a line outside the room.
After being invited back in on Tuesday, parents addressed the board on a range of issues, including the assault, mask policies and critical race theory.
One parent also referenced Virginia’s recent gubernatorial election during which Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off an upset and defeated Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
“We the people are back. We asked you, the board elected to represent us, to put down your cellphones and listen closely,” parent Erin Thomas said.
“The election you claimed was our motivation is over and we are still here … It is time for accountability.”