FCPS to investigate how a convicted sex offender was hired at Glasgow

Fairfax County Public Schools has hired a consultant to prepare an in-depth report analyzing how a convicted sex offender was able to work at Glasgow Middle School, Superintendent Michelle Reid told Glasgow families at an Aug. 25 meeting.

Darren Thornton was hired as a counselor at Glasgow in 2020 – after he had been arrested in Chesterfield County, Va., for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

A Virginia statute requires law enforcement agencies to notify superintendents in other jurisdictions when an employee is arrested for Class 1 misdemeanor.

Related story: Glasgow counselor fired for sex offense

That didn’t happen here. Someone at Chesterfield County Public Schools had sent an email to former FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand, but it went to the wrong address and the matter fell through the cracks.

“It is clear that as a school division, we have made a mistake,” Reid said. The third-party report, to be released Sept. 9, “will include action steps to ensure this never occurs again.”

When a member of the community said this was the second time in two and a half years that an adult at Glasgow was arrested for a sex offense, Reid said she didn’t know about the prior incident.

A 60-year-old substitute teacher at Glasgow was arrested in January 2020 for inappropriate contact with three students.

With regard to the Thornton incident, Reid said it’s unclear what happened after the emails from Chesterfield bounced back to that community’s police department. What is clear is that FCPS was never notified about the arrest of Thornton in 2020, his subsequent bench trial, or his conviction.

“The system should never rely on one email or phone call,” Reid said. There needs to be a statewide policy to ensure school officials are informed. As people move around from one school system to another, “our systems of accountability are not as robust as they should be.”

The investigation will review the personnel hiring and monitoring processes within FCPS, accountability checks after someone is hired, the role of the FCPS security office, the Virginia Department of Education’s licensure process, and national accountability policies for when employees move from state to state.

Related story: Substitute teacher arrested for taking indecent liberties with students

Reid also asked the FCPS Human Resources department to check every employee’s background report and search for prior arrests.

Reid met with Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis Aug. 25, who informed her the police will notify her office, the FCPS school security department, and the security staff at the affected school whenever there are similar incidents.

She said she didn’t learn about the problems with Thornton until after he was arrested again, in June 2022. At that point, he was fired but he had stopped coming to work in March. According to a Glasgow parent, students who came to him for counseling were not told he had left the school.

Reid said Glasgow will follow up with students who might have been affected. There will be a five-minute meeting with each student.

“I hope this doesn’t become a Glasgow problem,” said Mason school board member Ricardy Anderson. This could have happened at any Fairfax County School. “Communication is key. When only one person is contacted, and the email bounces back, how are we supposed to know?”

“Our most important concern is the safety of the children,” said Reid. “We are owning what went wrong, fixing it, notifying the community, and establishing new systems of accountability. We’re going to do whatever we can to rebuild trust and to be transparent.”