Shortly after a student was killed in a fatal accident involving a school maintenance vehicle, the board for Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) held a closed-door safety training for staff in which dozens of actors simulated parents unleashing “terrorist activity,” according to a report.
Nick Minock, a reporter for Washington, D.C., area outlet ABC7, posted on X that the controversial Virginia school board hired 30 actors to portray Loudoun County parents in a mock terror attack scenario.
Minock wrote that the actors filled the seats like parents normally do during school board meetings, but then broke out into a frenzy of screaming, running and yelling. One parent in the scenario was supposed to have a gun. Staff were instructed to run, hide and fight, according to ABC7.
A spokesperson for the LCPS told Fox News Digital that the meeting was “held in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA),” which they said, “authorizes a public body to go into closed session to discuss various topics, including plans related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure, or the safety of persons using such facility.”
The spokesperson clarified that “the School Board does not consider parents terrorists.”
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Minock said that one of the actors was supposed to portray a parent by the name of “Mr. Smith.”
In 2021, a dad by the name of Scott Smith was arrested during a school board meeting for disorderly conduct after he erupted over the handling of an investigation into the sexual assault of his then 15-year-old daughter by a transgender-identifying male student at Stone Bridge High School. Smith has since been pardoned by former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican.
Further, according to ABC7, during the training, Board Chair April Chandler referred to parents as “agitators” and “disrupters” in reference to 2025 school board meetings in which parents expressed outrage over LCPS suspending two high school boys over another transgender locker room issue. The boys were suspended for 10 days from the same high school, following a Title IX sexual harassment investigation after they were filmed by a transgender-identifying female expressing discomfort about her using the male locker rooms.
The parental terror attack training session came just hours after another student at Stone Bridge High School was killed in an accident involving an LCPS maintenance employee and vehicle, according to the outlet.
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According to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, Calina Yu, 20, was struck at an intersection near the school on Jan. 13. The office said Yu was struck by an LCPS maintenance vehicle being driven by a school employee. Yu was pronounced dead at the scene.
In response to Minock’s report, a spokesperson for LCPS told Fox News Digital that the board announced the closed session “to discuss matters of public safety” on Jan. 9.
The spokesperson said, “This meeting was held in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA), which authorizes a public body to go into closed session to discuss various topics, including plans related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure, or the safety of persons using such facility.”
The spokesperson said that “pursuant to applicable Virginia law, the School Board’s motions to go into closed sessions customarily track the VFOIA language of the permissible topic that will be discussed in such meetings.” They said that the motion to go into closed session stated included the language, “Discussion of plans to protect public safety as it relates to terrorist activity or specific cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities and briefings by staff members, legal counsel, or law-enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or a related threat to public safety.”
“Given VFOIA’s language for this permitted topic, we can understand the potential for confusion. But as you can see, the reference to terrorist activity likely came directly from the Code of Virginia related to the permitted topic,” the spokesperson said, adding, “It is common practice for public bodies to review safety and security protocols on a regular basis with law-enforcement and other safety and security officials, which would fall under this topic.”
The spokesperson concluded that “while we cannot further comment on the specifics of the closed session, we can affirm that the media accounts … are misleading and inaccurate.”
Another local outlet, the Loudoun Times-Mirror, reported that Chandler responded to the accident by saying, “I want to express my deepest condolences to the family and the entire school community who are grieving at this time,” adding, “We grieve with you.”
LCPS follows a policy called “Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students,” or Policy 8040, implemented in 2021, that mandates students who identify as transgender be addressed by their preferred pronouns, participate in sports and activities of their self-identified sex, and access facilities of their identified sex.
The Trump Justice Department has filed a lawsuit accusing LCPS of violating the constitutional rights of the two students who were suspended. The DOJ alleges that LCPS’ application of Policy 8040 requires students and staff to “accept and promote gender ideology” regardless of religious beliefs. The case is ongoing.
Chandler did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
