Virginia: Fairfax County School Employed Counselor Despite Felony Pedophilia Conviction
Fairfax County Public Schools counselor Darren Thornton continued to be employed and enjoy access to underage kids following his conviction.
A Northern Virginia middle school counselor was employed by Fairfax County Public Schools for a whopping five months after he was convicted of a crime of pedophilia in suburban Richmond’s Chesterfield County. In a press release made this week, Fairfax County Public Schools announced they’d fired the counselor, yet protected his identity and claimed to have been previously unaware of his felony sex crime charges and conviction.
Newly-fired Glasgow Middle School counselor Darren Thornton was convicted in March of this year on felony charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Chesterfield County, Virginia, having been indicted for the crime in November of 2020. All the while, Fairfax County Public School officials claim they were unaware of Thornton’s troubling criminal charges, even as the seemingly rampant employment of sexual predators in public schools became a focal point of local and national politics.
Though Fairfax County Public Schools protected the identity of the convicted counselor in a public statement made at the time of his firing, concerned citizens and local media outlets quickly pinpointed the culprit as Darren Thornton. According to court documents from Chesterfield County in suburban Richmond, Thornton was arrested on November 19th, 2020, and charged with the felony solicitation of a minor for sex.
After a string of continuances in his felony case, Thornton was convicted on March 11th of this year and continued to be employed by Fairfax County schools for over 5 months.
During the period of time between his arrest and firing, Thornton even appeared in several promotional videos celebrating Fairfax County’s Glasgow Middle School, which have since been scrubbed from the internet. Additionally, his profile on the Fairfax County Public Schools website has been erased.
https://nationalfile.com/virginia-fairfax-county-school-employed-counselor-despite-felony-pedophilia-conviction/