Sex offender was employed as Va. school counselor for 20 months after arrest
Chesterfield County VA August 21 2022
A counselor for the state’s largest public school system kept his job for more than a year and a half after his arrest in Chesterfield County on charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Virginia has processes in place to prevent sex offenders from working in K-12 schools, but it’s unclear at which point in the process there was a breakdown.
Darren Thornton, 50, who also previously worked for Hanover County schools, was arrested in an undercover chat operation in Chesterfield in November 2020. At the time, he was employed by Fairfax County Public Schools as a school counselor.
Authorities in court documents said Thornton chatted with an undercover officer and set up a meeting for sexual acts. The officer told Thornton she was 17, and Thornton agreed to meet up with her, according to chat transcripts included in court documents. He showed up to the apartment and was met by police, authorities said.
Thornton was convicted on March 11 and sentenced to five years, court documents show. But the court suspended the sentence on the conditions of good behavior, following the law and paying court costs.
Thornton also had to register with the Virginia State Police as a registered sex offender. The database lists him as living in the 1300 block of Wentbridge Road in Richmond. From fall 2006 to spring 2020, he was a school counselor and boys varsity basketball coach for Hanover schools.
Thornton in June 2022 was arrested in another online chatting operation on charges of solicitation of prostitution and frequenting a bawdy place.
In brief phone calls with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Thornton said he was set up by police in the two undercover chat operations and that police do not tell the exact truth about what happened. He did not elaborate.
According to state law, an arresting agency is required to report anyone charged with a felony who is known to be, or discovered to be, a school employee to their school superintendent.
Chesterfield police spokeswoman Elizabeth Caroon said the department’s records indicate the Fairfax school system was notified of Thornton’s November 2020 arrest the following day, and again when Thornton was arrested this June.
But when contacted by The Times-Dispatch last month, Fairfax schools spokeswoman Julie Moult said Thornton was still employed by the school division.
Man who died after jumping into Appomattox was Fort Lee Army captain
Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle said he could not recall a similar circumstance.
“We take [educator misconduct] very seriously,” Pyle said. “Back in 2008, it was the [VDOE] that strongly pushed for legislation to tighten reporting requirements around educator misconduct, and that’s when the requirement was placed on law enforcement to inform employing school divisions of the arrests of teachers.”
Since 2000, the state has taken more than 400 actions against teacher licenses, and the majority of those cases involve educator misconduct, according to Pyle.
“Any given year, we have more than 100,000 teachers in our system so it’s a small fraction, but one case is one too many,” Pyle said.
Thornton’s staff page was deleted from the school system’s website on the afternoon of July 28 after The Times-Dispatch began inquiring about the case.
Henrico teen gets 8 years in shooting death of his girlfriend, but circumstances remain in dispute
Helen Lloyd, also a Fairfax schools spokeswoman, declined to make school division officials available for interviews or to answer questions about the safety processes.
On Thursday, Fairfax Superintendent Michelle Reid sent a message to families addressing the issue and said the division “took immediate steps to dismiss the employee” as soon as she and the School Board knew of the situation.
It is not immediately clear where the breakdown of communication happened, and Fairfax district officials declined to answer questions. The school system counted 178,636 students last year, according to state data.
Reid was appointed to her post in April and began the job July 1. She follows former Superintendent Scott Brabrand, who now serves as the executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. Brabrand was not immediately available for an interview on Friday afternoon.
Reid said in the message to families that she initiated a comprehensive, independent investigation by outside counsel into the circumstances surrounding the situation.
“There is no higher priority than the safety of our students and, on behalf of the school board and myself, I want to make this very clear: this entire situation is unacceptable from any perspective. We are deeply concerned about how this happened in one of our schools,” Reid said in the message. “I want to assure you that we are doing everything possible so this cannot happen again. I am committed to keeping you updated on this issue.”
Thornton’s next court date for his June arrest is Sept. 27 in Chesterfield District Court.
