- A judge found the teenage boy wearing a skirt guilty last week of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old female classmate in the girls' bathroom at their school
- Speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com, his mother, who asked not to be identified for the sake of her underage son, defended his actions
- She said his actions were that of a heterosexual, hormonal teen, who had consensual sex with the girl twice before
- 'He's a 15-year-old boy that wanted to have sex in the bathroom, with somebody that was willing,' she said
- She said her son is trying to 'find himself' by wearing a skirt one day, and pants the next for attention he 'desperately' sought
- 'First of all, he is not transgender,' she said. 'And I think this is all doing an extreme disservice to those students who actually identify as transgender'
- But she admits that her son is deeply troubled and has a history of misbehavior that included sending nude photos of himself to a girl in fifth grade
- He has also been charged with sexually assaulting another girl in October
- She insists that the public is 'twisting this just enough to make it a political hot button issue'
Speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com, the mother, who asked not to be identified for the sake of her underage son, defended his actions as that of a heterosexual, hormonal teen who, in the case of the rape, had consensual sex with the girl twice before.
'He's a 15-year-old boy that wanted to have sex in the bathroom, with somebody that was willing,' she declared, sitting in an empty kitchen in her townhouse in Loudoun County, Virginia. 'And they're twisting this just enough to make it a political hot button issue.'
The story exploded when Scott Smith, the father of the rape victim, was dragged out of a school board meeting with a bloodied mouth on June 22 after listening to school officials deny that a girl had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom after his daughter had reported the rape.
The case became the searing tip of a raging debate in Loudoun County over transgender students' rights and parents' freedom of speech.
The school board has been routinely accused of pushing an ultra-liberal agenda on kids and parents and silencing those who disagree with them.
The scandal even entered Virginia's race for governor, giving life to the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin who accused the Loudon school board of a coverup while warning, 'What tragedy next awaits our children?'
Despite his androgynous style and declaration that he's 'pansexual,' the boy's mother insisted he isn't the gender fluid boogeyman in a culture war about transgender policies.
'He would wear a skirt one day and then the next day, he would wear jeans and a t-shirt, a Polo or hoodie,' she explained. 'He was trying to find himself and that involved all kinds of styles. I believe he was doing it because it gave him attention he desperately needed and sought.'
At the same time, she concedes her son is deeply troubled, acknowledging his extensive history of misbehavior that included sending nude photos of himself to a girl in fifth grade.
She reached her own breaking point with the him in early October when he phoned her from the juvenile detention center following his second arrest.
'He asked me how I was doing, and I said, ''I'm broken, I'm shattered, you shattered me,'' the mom recalled. ''Do you have any idea what you've done to me, what you've done to your family?
'And his response was, ''No, what did I do?'' she said.
She had been his primary point of contact, with his dad living in New Jersey.
'At that point, I was like, 'You know what? I love you, I always will, I will do everything I can to always be there for you in any capacity possible,' she said. 'But I told him - 'You need to call your father for now on. Do not call me. I need to heal, and I need you to figure this out for yourself.'
That was Sunday, October 10. She did show up for his juvenile court appearance last Monday. She sat in the gallery while fuming at the boy's father who defied her wishes by showing up with his wife.
'He'd asked about bringing his wife and I said ''she's the reason you have been absent in (our son's) life. I hate her, I don't want her in the courthouse,'' she recalled telling him. 'I'm in the mix every day dealing with three probation officers, detectives, the Commonwealth and I don't know how many lawyers, and you're in your own little safety bubble in New Jersey.'
'And he didn't listen to me,' the mother told DailyMail.com, shaking her head and adding, 'They even brought a friend.'
On October 25, the teen was found guilty for the May 28 sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School. The judge 'substantiated' charges of forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio, the juvenile equivalent of a conviction.
He was sent back to juvenile detention, pending a hearing November 15 on the second case which occurred at Broad Run High School in the same county on October 6, a month after the district transferred him there.
In that incident, he allegedly pulled a girl into a classroom and inappropriately touched her.
The saga garnered worldwide attention as details were leaked. Irate parents accused the district of a coverup, questioning how a teen with a pending rape case was allowed to stay in the district to commit another sex crime.
The first victim's father Scott Smith, meanwhile, blasted trans bathroom rules that he said allowed a 'gender fluid' boy to enter the bathroom and rape his daughter, fanning a national debate over transgender bathroom policy.
From rape to sentencing: Timeline of teen boy in skirt
May 28: Teen, 15, wearing a skirt allegedly rapes female classmate in girl's bathroom. She reports it to the principal. Superintendent Scott Ziegler sends an email to colleagues confirming that it had been reported
June 22: Scott Smith, the father of the rape victim, was dragged out of a school board meeting with a bloodied mouth and arrested after listening to school officials say no one had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom after his daughter had reported the rape
July 6: Detectives call the boy's mother to report his imminent arrest. She drives him down to the station herself and he spends the next couple weeks at the juvenile detention center in nearby Leesburg
October 6: The 15-year-old changes schools and allegedly drags another a girl into a classroom and inappropriately touches her. Police are called and he is arrested the same day
October 25: Teen is found guilty for the May 28 sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School. The judge 'substantiated' charges of forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio, the juvenile equivalent of a conviction
October 26: Students stage a walkout of their classrooms in a show of 'solidarity' for the victim. Some stood in front of their school, chanting: 'Loudoun County Protects Rapists!'
November 15: Skirt-wearing teen will be sentenced
It wasn't long before stories about the teen's past began to surface and spread among parents and activists who were demanding to know what else the district may have covered up.
One involved an incident from fifth grade, when the boy was 11 and sent nude photos of himself to a female classmate. Sources told DailyMail.com that police got involved but that the girl's parents decided against pursuing charges, so long as the district kept him away from their daughter.
The mom confirmed the account, but snapped, 'What the f**k does that have to do with anything?'
She said the politics surrounding the case has gotten out of hand.
'What are they trying to do?' she asked. 'Did they hire an investigator to dig up everything and ruin him for the rest of his life?'
The mother made no secret of the fact her son had been repeatedly suspended for misbehavior, including fist fights with classmates.
'He's been a challenging child his whole life, which I've dealt with myself,' the mother said. 'My son's gone through multiple forms of counseling and therapy, resources here, at school, friends, family. It's been 15 years of hell trying to get him to do better and be better.'
Born in New Jersey, her son was just a baby when she and the father split. She packed up and left for Virginia in late 2007.
She enrolled her son in elementary school in Fairfax County before moving to Loudoun County. She described him as a smart kid who took several AP classes but didn't do much homework and earned average grades.
He'd frequently act out, she said, and she'd do her best to dissect each incident with him.
After he sent the lewd photos in fifth grade, the mom said, 'I walked him through every message exchange, photo exchange, and broke it down.
'I was like, 'Okay, this is what you sent,' she recalled telling him. 'What were you thinking? What were you hoping to get out of this?' and then I'd be like, 'This is not respectful. I did not raise you to be like this.'
The boy would spend Christmas with his dad in New Jersey. After Christmas 2018, she said, 'He came back more defiant than usual' and asked to live with his father and stepmom. He spent the next year-plus in the Garden State. It was during that period that he started having sex at age 13, the mom said.
In June 2020, he moved back in with his mom. The next year, his world imploded.
The rape happened the afternoon of May 28, the Friday before Memorial Day.
His victim admitted they'd previously had sex in the bathroom and that they'd arranged to meet there again at lunchtime.
According to her testimony, he followed her into a stall, where she told him she was not in the mood for sex, but he threw her on the floor and forced her to perform sex acts.
'He flipped me over,' she reportedly said in court. 'I was on the ground and couldn't move and he sexually assaulted me.'
He only stopped, she said, when someone else walked in.
She reported it, and the investigation began.
Later that same day, the boy's mom was summoned to the school, where they told her there'd been an incident involving her son.
She wasn't given details and left the school without knowing what he'd done.
So she took her son to a nearby library where she sat him down on a bench to ask.
'And so, I got his side of the story,' the mom said. 'At that point, I was like, okay, well this is going to be a sh*tstorm.'
The teen told his mother about his past 'hookups' with the girl and noted that on May 28, they were planning to get together again in the bathroom.
But that day, she was sick. He told his mom that he'd accompanied her to the bathroom earlier in the day to make sure she was okay.
'He said she wasn't feeling well that day and that was the reason they entered the bathroom a first time that day,' the mom told DailyMail.com. 'He was worried about her, asked her how she was feeling, touched her forehead, brought water for her.'
According to the son, they talked about having sex later in the day.
'He'd mentioned something about hooking up with her, said they'd discussed it that day and that she was wishy-washy, was like, yeah, 'maybe, I still don't feel well, we'll see,' the mom recalled.
He followed her into the bathroom a second time that afternoon.
'It started with, 'Are you feeling okay' and her responding that she was feeling much better than this morning,' she said, relaying her son's account. 'And he advanced.'
He depicted the rape as an accident, telling his mother he didn't mean to insert himself in her anus and was surprised when it caused her pain.
'He said he was intending for vaginal and it ended up for 10 seconds as anal,' the mom recalled.
'He knew she was in pain,' she said. 'He said,' 'Are you okay?'' She said that hurt. And he's like, what kind of pain?'
She believed her son's version of events.
'He was showing genuine concern,' she said.
Then she proceeded to berate the girl, expressing doubts even after a judge found her son guilty.
'If I was in a position where I was about to be raped, I would be screaming, kicking, everything,' she said. 'You're 15. You can reasonably defend yourself. You're not just going to sit there and take it. And so, because there wasn't a presence of a fight, he felt it was okay to keep going.'
She said the girl didn't immediately report it. First, the two went to study hall where she told a girlfriend what happened, the mom said. The girlfriend became furious and confronted him. He in turn confronted the victim, asking what she'd said. A short time later, she went to the principal's office to report the rape.
The boy's mother accompanied him back to school the following Tuesday. She said it was then that the principal broached another subject - her son's gender identity. He was wearing a skirt at the time of the attack.
'The principal of Stone Bridge was trying to delicately tap dance the sensitive situation,' she told DailyMail.com. 'So I was like, ;'Alright, can you please just ask the question you want to ask?';
'That's when he was like, ';Oh, well, what does he identify as?;' she recalled.
'He identifies as male,' she replied.
'Oh, we never knew that,' he told her. 'And I said, ;'Did anybody ever ask?;'
Gender identity would later become a central issue in the public sphere as conservative activists singled out her son as an example of why transgender bathrooms are dangerous.
She found it disturbing, and offensive.
'First of all, he is not transgender,' she told DailyMail.com. 'And I think this is all doing an extreme disservice to those students who actually identify as transgender.'
She said that while her son was indeed wearing a skirt, he doesn't identify as a girl, and it wasn't just some disguise to slip into the girl's bathroom.
'He would wear a skirt one day and then the next day, he would wear jeans and a t-shirt, a Polo or hoodie,' she explained. 'He was trying to find himself and that involved all kinds of styles. I believe he was doing it because it gave him attention he desperately needed and sought.'
It wasn't until July 6 that the detective called the boy's mother to report his imminent arrest. She chose to drive him down the station herself. He spent the next couple weeks at the juvenile detention center in nearby Leesburg, where she spoke with him each day by phone and twice a week via Skype.
After his release in late July, she spent weeks trying to work on his behavior.
'We worked hard through reading books and digging through baggage and, you know, addressing whatever demons he may hold towards his father, towards me, towards life, you know, to get him to do better and to be better,' she told DailyMail.com. 'We spent the whole summer, every day. I mean, 15 years of his life, breaking down the incident and breaking down respect and consideration with women.'
Mother of skirt-wearing teen who raped girl says he identifies as boy
Speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com, the 15-year-old teen's mother, who asked not to be identified for the sake of her underage son, defended his actions.
