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The Biden administration announced a trilateral campaign with the United States, Panama and Colombia Tuesday that will aim to halt illegal migration through the Darien Gap, an area of dense jungle where tens of thousands of migrants have already crossed this year.

In a joint statement, the three countries said they will launch a 60-day campaign to try and curb the flow of migrants that reached nearly 90,000 in just the first three months of this year.

"Recognizing our shared interest and responsibility to prevent the risk to human life, disrupt transnational criminal organizations, and preserve the vital rainforest, the governments of Panamá, Colombia, and the United States intend to carry out a two-month coordinated campaign to address the serious humanitarian situation in the Darién," the statement said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also met with his counterparts in Panama and Colombia on Tuesday.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NOW COSTS US TAXPAYERS $151 BILLION A YEAR, NEW STUDY FINDS

The countries will also use "new lawful and flexible pathways for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees as an alternative to irregular migration," the countries said without additional details.

The plan’s third element intends to help reduce poverty and create jobs in the Colombian and Panamanian communities, to subsequently decrease the number of people wanting to leave for the U.S.

BIDEN'S REPORTED MOVE TO DETAIN MIGRANT FAMILIES MARKS LATEST RIGHTWARD SHIFT AHEAD OF TITLE 42'S END

The announcement comes as the Biden administration awaits the end of a rule that suspended asylum-seekers entering the U.S. The end of the pandemic-related rule, known as Title 42, has some immigration officials worried a flux of migrants could head for the U.S. border, exacerbating the current migrant crisis.

With Title 42 set to expire next month, the U.S. is looking at the Darien Gap as the natural choke point to stop extracontinental migration.

According to Panama’s government, nearly 90,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in the first three months of the year. The migrants were mostly from Venezuela, Haiti and Ecuador.

BIDEN ADMIN ANNOUNCES POLICY TO LIMIT ASYLUM CLAIMS AT SOUTHERN BORDER AS TITLE 42'S END LOOMS

The figure is up from nearly 14,000 migrants during the same three-month period a year earlier.

Throughout the entire last year, nearly 250,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, used the Darien route. This set a record.

The Darien Gap is among the most dangerous portions of the long route to the U.S. borders, as migrants are often victims of sexual assaults, robberies and killings in the remote jungle. The jungle is also home to venomous snakes and rushing rivers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A Michigan couple is seeing pink as they welcomed a baby girl named Audrey in March, ending a 138-year streak of only boys being born into the family.

When Carolyn and Andrew Clark of Caledonia, Michigan, held their "gender reveal" party, they weren’t expecting any big surprises.

Andrew Clark had informed his wife before they married 10 years ago that they would not be having a girl — due to a long line of male-dominated births in his family.

WASHINGTON FAMILY WITH 6 SONS ERUPTS IN EXCITEMENT DURING GENDER REVEAL OF 7TH CHILD: ‘PURE SHOCK'

"I didn't believe him because it's a 50/50 chance of having a boy or a girl," Carolyn Clark, 36, told Fox News Digital.

"So when he told me that, I just thought he was kidding," she added.

Carolyn Clark said that the next time she saw her husband's parents, she decided to get to the bottom of the family's abundance of male births.

MISSISSIPPI COUPLE WELCOMES ‘RARE' QUINTUPLETS AFTER INFERTILITY BATTLE: ‘THE BIGGEST BLESSING’

"They told me, ‘Oh yeah, this is a real thing," Carolyn Clark said. 

"My father-in-law pulled out some family tree to show me."

Carolyn Clark said there was one name on the family tree — the person who was apparently the last girl to be born in the family. 

The family member's birth year was 1885. 

"I said, ‘This does not seem right. I've never heard of this happening before," Carolyn Clark recalled.

But there was more proof.

KENTUCKY WOMAN WITH OVER 230 GREAT-GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN MEETS GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDCHILD: SEE THE PHOTO

"My grandpa was really big into our genealogy," Andrew Clark, 34, told Fox News Digital. 

"So, he traced it back and found all the birth certificates and marriage certificates and death certificates."

And when the couple had their son Cameron, 4, it seemed that history was repeating itself, Carolyn Clark said. 

"I thought, ‘It must be true. His brothers only have boys as well, so I guess this is actually real.'"

Having all boys isn’t necessarily a point of pride in the Clark family, Andrew Clark said. 

ALABAMA BABY BORN ON SAME DAY AS MOM AND DAD: ‘1 IN 133,000' CHANCE

"It was just a crazy fact that kept occurring in our lives," he said.

Still, every time someone in the family was having a baby, there was always a glimmer of hope that the child would be a girl.

"Even when we were biting into the cookie for our gender reveal, we were just expecting it to be blue," Carolyn Clark said. 

The Clarks invited their family over to bite into cookies to reveal whether they'd be welcoming a boy or a girl. 

Carolyn Clark said she, her husband and their loved ones were in "utter shock" when they learned the streak would be broken (SEE THE VIDEO at the top of this article).

NEW JERSEY GRANDMOTHER GOES VIRAL FOR RANKING HER 10 GRANDKIDS: ‘JUST BE CAREFUL’

"My sister-in-law and I were always saying, 'There has to be a girl at some point, whether it's us or maybe our boys will have a daughter at some point.' So when we bit into [the cookie], I looked at her like, ‘Is this pink?’ And she freaked out."

Carolyn Clark said she wondered if Audrey’s birth might pave the way for future Clark girls.

KENTUCKY WOMAN WITH OVER 230 GREAT-GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN MEETS GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDCHILD: SEE THE PHOTO

"We were happy either way," she said. 

"We just wanted a healthy baby and it was just the icing on that cake that it was a girl. Andrew’s brother and his wife are wanting more kids," she said — and added that she hoped it "gives my sister-in-law hope that it can be done."

Before little Audrey was born, the Clarks had suffered a miscarriage, which is why the couple has called their brand-new daughter a "rainbow baby."

A rainbow baby is a baby born after a loss due to miscarriage, infant death, stillbirth or neonatal death, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

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"Rainbow babies are considered ‘miracle’ babies due to the powerful impact they can have on helping parents heal after a loss," the organization wrote on its website.

Carolyn Clark had been scheduled to be induced on March 16, but Audrey had other plans and arrived on the morning of the 17th — St. Patrick’s Day. 

"We just thought that was super special that she is our rainbow baby, and she came on the day of celebrating luck," mom Carolyn Clark said. 

"So, she’s kind of our lucky charm."

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Country music singer John Rich said he pulled cases of Bud Light from his Nashville bar as part of a boycott against the Anheuser-Busch brand for partnering with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney in a polarizing promotional campaign.

"The customers decide. Customers are king," Rich said Monday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "I own a bar in downtown Nashville. Our number one selling beer up until a few days ago was what? Bud Light. We got cases and cases and cases of it sitting back there. But in the past several days you’re hard-pressed to find anyone ordering one. So as a business owner, I go, hey if you aren’t ordering it, we got to put something else in here. At the end of the day, that’s capitalism. That’s how it works."

The beer maker ignited a firestorm earlier this month when it celebrated Mulvaney's "365 Days of Girlhood," by sending Mulvaney custom-made cans featuring the influencer's face. Mulvaney said the cans were her "most prized possession" on Instagram with a post featuring "#budlightpartner." A video then featured Mulvaney in a bathtub drinking a Bud Light beer as part of the campaign.

BUD LIGHT’S PACT WITH TRANS ACTIVIST DYLAN MULVANEY SPARKS OUTRAGE, PRAISE

The announcement was met with a hefty amount of criticism, with some Twitter users describing the ad campaign as the latest attempt to push gender propaganda. Many mocked Bud Light over the partnership. Kid Rock even used several Bud Light cases for target practice in a viral video echoing calls to boycott the brand.

Rich, the founder of Redneck Riviera, a popular bar and restaurant in Nashville, asked his Twitter followers last week to weigh in on replacement suggestions after pulling Bud Light from his bar.

BUD LIGHT PARTNERS WITH TRANS ACTIVIST DYLAN MULVANEY FOR MARCH MADNESS: 'THIS ISN'T A PARODY'

"It's their right to market it however they want. They’re making a bet [that] this is going to sell more product," Rich said. "…What's happening, Tucker, is people who have been loyal to brands for decades and decades are finding it hard to stay loyal to them, so they start hunting down other brands that they can support. There are tons of up-and-coming American brands out there that people are flooding to, kind of like mine."

Bud Light's vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, seemingly defended the controversial marketing move in a recent interview with the podcast "Make Yourself At Home," where she said she was inspired to update the "fratty" and "out of touch" humor of the beer company with inclusivity. 

"I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,'" Heinerscheid said. 

The beer company also defended the partnership. 

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"Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics. From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public," an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told Fox News.

 Fox News' Alexander Hall contributed to this report. 

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It’s been over a year since Enes Kanter Freedom last played in an NBA game, but the 11-year NBA veteran remains in the public eye as he continues to advocate for human rights across the world. 

Kanter Freedom will be presented with the inaugural Riverton, Utah, "Mayor’s Freedom Award" on Wednesday for exercising his freedom of speech as he continues to speak out against human rights abuses in China and other countries around the globe. 

He’ll return to the state where his NBA career began in order to be presented with the award, nearly 12 years after being drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. 

"Utah plays a very important role in my life because I got drafted by the Utah Jazz and played there [for] three and half years," Kanter Freedom told Fox News Digital. "And while I played for the Utah Jazz, the whole city, the whole state, really took me in. They pretty much became my family. 

ZION WILLIAMSON RULED OUT FOR NBA'S PLAY-IN TOURNAMENT, HAS NOT PLAYED SINCE EARLY JANUARY: REPORT

"To get an award in Utah definitely means a lot to me," Kanter Freedom continued. 

April 12th, 2023, will also be known as "Enes Freedom Day" in the city of Riverton. 

"Not only is he a phenomenal athlete, a great basketball player, but at the same time, he’s just a champion," Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs told Fox News Digital. "He’s an ambassador for freedom of speech. And he comes at it from a vantage point that so many of us don't really fully appreciate because we’ve always had the First Amendment here. But in Turkey, his home country, he hasn’t had that."

Staggs said the award promotes citizens being "ambassadors for freedom of speech and being able to speak up to injustice." 

"We are strong, ardent supporters of our constitution and our Bill of Rights here in the city of Riverton," Staggs added. "And as mayor, this is something I want to be able to highlight and demonstrate the importance for our youth and for all of our citizens." 

NBA ALL-STAR TO FULFILL MANDATORY MILITARY SERVICE IN FINLAND DURING OFFSEASON: ‘WE TAKE PRIDE IN IT’

Kanter, who recently had a $500,000 bounty placed by Turkey on him for his capture, has long spoken out against human rights abuses in his home country. 

But in October 2021, as a member of the Boston Celtics, Kanter Freedom turned his attention toward China, calling the leader of the Chinese Communist Party a "brutal dictator" as he advocated for an independent Tibet. 

He did so by wearing custom sneakers after Kanter Freedom said he had a conversation with a Chinese concentration camp survivor. 

"I wanted to do it in a very colorful, unique way," Kanter Freedom said. "Because when I was a kid I used to watch NBA games all the time, and the first thing I was looking at was the shoes. 

"So, I decided to reach out to artists from around the world and come up with this idea for putting all the struggles, all the tortures of everything, on the shoes and go out there and play basketball."

It garnered immediate backlash for the NBA, with the Chinese streaming service Tencent pulling Celtics games off of Chinese media. 

The NBA’s business with China is estimated to be roughly $5 billion, according to a May 2022 report by ESPN.

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Kanter Freedom says he was pressured by the National Basketball Player Association to stop wearing the shoes, to which he eventually relented.

In a way.

In Boston’s next game, Kanter Freedom wore a different pair of custom shoes, this time with the message "Free Uyghur" written on them. 

"They called me after the game [the NBPA] and said ‘You’re a liar. You lied to us.’ I said, ‘I did not lie to you. I did not wear Free Tibet shoes. I just wore Free Uyghur shoes.’"

Kanter Freedom would continue his campaign throughout the first few months of the 2021-22 season, calling out Nike, the NBA, and superstar LeBron James for turning a blind eye toward China's human rights abuses. 

In February 2022, Kanter Freedom was traded by the Celtics to the Houston Rockets where he was quickly waived. 

He has not played in the NBA since and tells Fox News Digital that no team has reached out to him or his agent to inquire about his services. 

"Of course, everybody knows I am being blackballed by the NBA for the things that I stand for," Kanter Freedom said.

During the 2020-21 season, Kanter Freedom averaged a double-double with the Portland Trail Blazers, scoring 11.2 points and grabbing 11 rebounds per game.. 

At 30 years old, Kanter Freedom still has the desire to play basketball, but believes he won’t be granted another opportunity. 

"I’m healthy, I love basketball. I can play [for] another five years," he said. "Another five, six years. Of course, I love basketball. I would like to continue playing basketball, but everyone knows it’s not going to happen. 

After he started speaking out against China, Kanter Freedom was told by his agent that if he continued, he would never receive another NBA contract. 

But Kanter Freedom chose to continue speaking out for the innocent. 

NBA HALL OF FAMER SAYS MAVERICKS ‘MISSING A LEADER’ AS DALLAS TRIES TO KEEP PLAYOFF HOPES ALIVE

"After air, water, and food, I think that freedom is the most important thing for human beings," Kanter Freedom said. "And you don’t realize how important it is until someone comes and takes it away from you. In my home country [of] Turkey, you tweet something against the government, you’ll be tortured and raped and be in jail for the rest of your life. 

"The American people should feel very blessed to be in a country like this. Where you have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of protest, and freedom of movement. So, don’t take it for granted." 

After being presented with the award at a press conference on Wednesday, Kanter will conduct a basketball skills camp at Riverton High School with between 100–120 kids in attendance. 

"He’s a great athlete, he started his career here in Utah, but really it isn’t for his athletic prowess that he’s being recognized," Staggs told Fox News Digital. "It has to do with his commitment, his ambassadorship if you will, for freedom of speech. 

"We’ve kind of entered this era of wokeness, and political correctness and ideology, and you see that some speech seems to be protected and free while other speech is met with really stark condemnation," Staggs continued. "I really hope that as a result of this, the citizens can really be thoughtful and engage in speech, differing types of speech, and really think for themselves and understand why some things are so protected right now and others are not." 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NBA and NBPA for comment and had not heard back by the time of publication. 

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A truck carrying toxic soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in February, overturned Monday afternoon in Columbiana County, officials said.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said the commercial vehicle was hauling 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil along Route 165, near Waterford Road, when it crashed and overturned, according to the report. Nearly half of its contents spilled onto the roadway.

The driver, later identified as Phillip Falck, 74, of McDonald, Pennsylvania, suffered minor injuries from the crash. He was cited for operating a vehicle without reasonable control, FOX 8 Cleveland reported.

His tractor-trailer veered off the right side of the highway when it fell into a ditch and struck a utility pole. It then overturned onto its right side, causing approximately 20,000 pounds of toxic soil and other waste collected from the site of the train derailment to spill onto the nearby area, the Highway Patrol said.

SEE IT: EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT POSTS PHOTOS OF RESIDUE ON WALLS, SAYS HOUSE 'REEKS' OF CHEMICAL SMELLS

A local fire department responded to the scene as well as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, who assured residents there is no threat to public health. 

Route 165 was closed at state Route 617 in Mahoning County and at state Route 14 in Columbiana County, the Ohio Department of Transportation said. The roads have since been reopened, FOX 8 reported

The soil removal is part of the massive recovery effort underway in East Palestine after the Ohio city suffered one of the worst train derailment-turned-environmental disasters in U.S. history over two months ago.

The initial derailment of the general merchandise freight train 32N took place on the night of Feb. 3. The train was traveling along the eastbound Norfolk Southern Railway when about 50 Norfolk Southern train cars derailed.

The train had approximately 20 cars carrying hazardous material, 11 of which derailed into the ground and nearby creeks and rivers.

EAST PALESTINE TRAIN DERAILMENT SITE WORKERS ARE GETTING SICK, UNION SAYS

Norfolk Southern is overseeing and paying for the cleanup and environmental damage caused by the fiery train derailment. So far, over 5,500 tons of contaminated soil have been removed from the area, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

More than 9 million gallons of wastewater have also been removed from the derailment site, state officials previously said.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported three weeks after the Feb. 3 disaster that the spilled contaminants killed an estimated 44,000 fish – mostly small ones.

The removal process remains active and the contents are being hauled to hazardous waste storage sites in Ohio and other states.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testified before Congress last month and apologized for the impact the derailment has had on the area. The railroad also announced it is working on creating a long-term medical compensation fund for victims.

EAST PALESTINE TRAIN DISASTER: FORMER NORFOLK SOUTHERN ENGINEER BLAMES REDUCED SAFETY PROTOCOLS

The federal government has taken legal action and filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over the environmental damage caused by the derailment.

This year alone, train derailments have been recorded in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Alabama, Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas, Washington and Arizona.

Five empty Norfolk Southern train cars derailed in Pittsburgh on April 8.

Officials say five freight train cars derailed in Ayer, Massachusetts, on the morning of March 23. The cars were carrying sealed containers of trash and recycling material, the Ayer Fire Department said.

"There were no reported injuries to the crew, no hazardous materials involved, no leaks or spills of any freight and no impacts to the environment," railway operator CSX said in a statement. "CSX personnel are responding as the incident occurred on a line jointly owned with Norfolk Southern."

Another locomotive train derailment in Jasper, Alabama, on April 8. Eleven train cars were involved, but they were not carrying toxic materials, Norfolk Southern said in a statement.

"During the derailment, the locomotive rolled onto its side and as a result spilled some diesel fuel and engine oil," the railroad said Sunday. "Norfolk Southern crews have responded and have been working through the night on cleanup, and all of the involved cars have been cleared from the track."

FIVE EMPTY NORFOLK SOUTHERN TRAIN CARS DERAIL IN PITTSBURGH

Authorities say a train hauling ethanol and corn syrup derailed on March 30 in Raymond, Minnesota. The train had 22 cars derail, including about 10 that were carrying ethanol.

A Canadian Pacific train derailed in a rural area outside Wyndmere, North Dakota, on March 26.

Canadian Pacific spokesperson Andy Cummings said 31 of the 70 cars on the train derailed. He said four of the cars were carrying liquid asphalt and two were filled with ethylene glycol.

Another car carrying propylene was punctured and released some vapor, Cummings said.

Union Pacific officials said last month 13 cars came off the tracks in McPherson, Kansas.

Two of the derailed cars leaked alcohol, but officials said the spill was swiftly contained.

"There is no reason to have cause for concern," McPherson Fire Chief TJ Wyssmann said. "The product did get into a tributary and we quickly, with some assistance, got the tributary (contained) ... So we stopped that product from getting into Wolf Creek or further from the actual site of the incident."

Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state last month. 

The derailment in western Arizona included cars that were carrying corn syrup, while the one along Padilla Bay in Washington sent most of the 5,000 gallons of spilled diesel fuel toward a berm and a waterway.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a heroine on the Left, does not like the ruling by a Texas judge directing the FDA to stop the approval of an abortion pill that was greenlit by the agency more than two decades ago. 

Her solution: simply ignore it. Those are her words. 

Now there are serious questions to be raised about the order by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee and opponent of abortion who would freeze the approval of mifepristone while a lawsuit challenging its safety winds its way through the courts. The Biden Justice Department has appealed.

How can a drug that’s been safely used by many Americans since 2000 suddenly be deemed unsafe? Wouldn’t that destroy the ability of the FDA or any other regulatory agency to make well-grounded decisions? 

TRUMP DEFIES JUDGE WITH NEW ROUND OF STINGING ATTACKS ON PROSECUTORS

But the idea that politicians can choose to blow off court rulings they don’t like is just as dangerous, since it would – not to overstate things here – totally undermine the rule of law. 

"That’s a pretty stunning position," CNN host Dana Bash told the New York congresswoman when she made the remarks Sunday.

AOC is hardly the only Democrat slamming the Texas decision. In fact, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, in his own CNN sitdown, would not rule out ignoring the court order, saying "everything is on that table." And Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, told CNN’s morning show yesterday that she agrees with taking no action on the ruling. 

The South Carolina lawmaker, clearly worried about the fallout from taking too hard a line on restricting abortion, said: "This is an issue that Republicans have largely been on the wrong side of. We have, over the last nine months, not shown compassion towards women."

Regardless of your views on abortion, we have a judicial system that has worked pretty well since Marbury v. Madison. If you don’t like a court ruling, try to get it overturned, countersue or work to elect politicians who would name judges that share your values. I don’t see how "ignore it" is a viable option.

AOC argued in the interview that she does "not believe that the courts have the authority over the FDA that they just asserted, and I do believe that it creates a crisis." 

Ocasio-Cortez insisted there was ample "precedent" for the executive branch to shrug off lower-court rulings, saying Donald Trump had done that very thing on lower court orders to fully restore DACA, the law protecting the dreamers that he was moving to abolish. The Supreme Court in 2020 blocked Trump’s plan on a 5-4 vote. But in that case the issue was resolved by the courts. 

Even if Trump had engaged in slow-walking during the court fight, how does it help AOC’s case to say, well, the other side does it too? Such logic would lead to both parties feeling emboldened to ignore unfavorable court rulings. 

AS EXPECTED, TRUMP INDICTMENT ALL ABOUT FALSIFYING RECORDS – FOR HUSH MONEY

At the same time, an Obama judge in Washington state ruled in favor of preserving the status quo for medicated abortions in the 17 states where it is now legal. So now we have dueling rulings, and this is clearly headed for the highest court. 

Which brings up another point: why should a federal district judge be able to issue a nationwide injunction? Shouldn’t the authority be limited to that district? That only encourages forum-shopping. If you file a case in Amarillo, you get Kacsmaryk, because he’s the only federal judge there. AOC complained about "deeply partisan" judges and said the courts are "now going rogue." Are there no partisan judges on the other side, such as when SCOTUS was issuing liberal rulings on abortion and civil rights a half century ago? What about when the John Roberts court, in 2015, legalized same-sex marriage? 

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The stakes are extremely high. For decades, getting an abortion meant going to a clinic, perhaps encountering protesters, even as conservative states passed restrictive new laws. Now the availability of mifepristone means universal access, although there are legal battles to come over whether the pills can be mailed across state lines or within states banning abortion in the post-Roe era.

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But turning a blind eye to controversial court rulings only makes things far worse. 

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The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is opening an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools over accusations that the district failed to adequately address reports of sexual assault at two of its schools.

The probe comes after the department received a letter in January from the America First Legal Foundation (AFLF) regarding concerns that the Northern Virginia school district did not respond appropriately to students' claims of sexual assault as required by Title IX.

"This is about protecting students from sexual assault, and sexual harassment," AFLF Senior Advisor Ian Prior said, according to Fox 5 DC. "And it's important that the politics are taken out of this, and they do a thorough investigation to make sure that these problems are remedied."

Prior's daughters attended school in Loudoun County Public Schools before he moved them to a different school.

LOUDOUN COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT SCOTT ZIEGLER FIRED AFTER GRAND JURY REPORT ON HANDLING OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS

The DOE's Office for Civil Rights will probe whether the district failed to respond as required by Title IX to two assaults, committed by the same student, in 2021.

An LCPS father accused the district at a June 2021 school board meeting of covering up his daughter's sexual assault after a biological boy wearing a skirt raped her in the girls' bathroom in May of that year. The father, Scott Smith, claimed the district had attempted to cover up his daughter's assault to push its controversial transgender bathroom policy that had sparked parental protests at district school board meetings. The policy had not yet been implemented at the time of the assault.

"The U.S. Dept. of Education now declaring that it will investigate LCPS for potential Title IX violations is meaningless," Smith said in a statement to Fox 5 DC. "It’s like the National School Board, who branded me a domestic terrorist, saying that they are going now to investigate the harm put upon my family — it’s biased, and the only result that the USDOE will come to is that Loudoun did everything right, in order to protect it from truth and reason."

Smith's mention of the National School Board Association (NSBA) is in reference to a letter the organization wrote to the White House in September 2021 requesting federal assistance to deal with violence and threats from parents protesting at school board meetings across the country that the organization likened to "a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes." Attorney General Merrick Garland then issued a memo directing the FBI to address threats against school officials. The NSBA later apologized for the language used in its letter.

"You have to question why now, over a year later, that suddenly the federal government is interested in this problem," Smith's statement continued. "Is it to root out wrongdoing or is it actually to make an effort to protect the wrongdoer, the Loudoun County School Board, that adopted the harmful left-leaning policies that the federal government actively agrees with regarding the education of our children? Any investigation by the federal department of education is an absolute farce, and any conclusions it may come to as completely untrustworthy."

LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEAR ‘BRUNT OF BLAME’ FOR PREVENTABLE SEXUAL ASSAULT FINDS VIRGINIA GRAND JURY

After the sexual assault in May, the suspect was transferred to different school in the district and assaulted another girl in October 2021. The suspect faced charges in both cases and was found guilty of the first sexual assault.

A grand jury report released in December said the district was looking out for its own interests over the best interests of its students in its handling of the sexual assaults, emphasizing that LCPS "failed at every juncture."

The report said LCPS displayed a "stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability, both to the public and to the special grand jury" about its response to the sexual assaults. The report also condemned then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler for denying at the June 2021 school board meeting that he had any knowledge of the May assault.

Ziegler had said at the board meeting that "the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," and, to his knowledge, "we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms." However, on the day of the assault on May 28, Ziegler informed school board members in an email that the assault had been reported.

The school board fired Ziegler days after the grand jury report.

According to emails outlined in the report, senior district officials had privately met to discuss the first assault and linked it to LCPS's transgender policy, which allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.

LCPS released a statement Monday saying that it "has received a Notification of Complaint from the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and will duly assist OCR in this process." 

"The staff and administration of LCPS remain committed to making student safety and welfare the Division’s highest priority. As this investigation relates to matters concerning student privacy, we will not comment further at this time," the statement continued.

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