After questions were raised over how a convicted sex offender was able to work as a Northern Virginia school counselor for months after his conviction, the Chesterfield County Virginia Police Department confirmed there were problems with their efforts to notify officials of the crimes.
In a statement to News4, Records Administrator Karen Leonard explained the errors that meant that Fairfax County Public Schools was not notified about 50-year-old Darren L. Thornton’s first indictment in November 2020 for soliciting an underage prostitute. He was convicted in March 2022 and sentenced to five years suspended.
Leonard said that on Nov. 20, 2020, the sender from the police department sent a notice to two email addresses minutes apart provided by a person described only as “someone in a Fairfax County Public Schools” office.
“Today, upon further investigation, we learned that the emails did come back to that employee’s spam folder as undeliverable,” Leonard said.
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Despite his arrest, conviction, suspended sentence and placement on Virginia’s sex offender registry — in which he listed his job as self-employed — Thornton continued working at Glasgow Middle School.
Until, that is, he was arrested again in June 2022 for solicitation of prostitution in Chesterfield County. That time, police were able to successfully notify the school system of the arrest.
Virginia Department of Corrections Also Investigating: How Was Thornton Able to Say He Was 'Self Employed' in Sex Offender Registry?
The Virginia Department of Corrections confirmed to News4 that they are launching an investigation into how Thornton was able to register as self-employed in the state’s sex offender registry, despite his employment with FCPS.
"The Virginia Department of Corrections is opening a full investigation regarding this incident and the Department is prepared to take any and all necessary actions following the results of the investigation," the department said.
In addition to firing Thornton, the school district said it will petition the state to have his teaching license revoked.
Shawnna Yashar is with a group called the Fairfax County Parents Association. The group is advocating for yearly background checks and updates for school staff and a hotline to report concerns.
"There's a reporting system with all employers whenever you have some sort of concern or issue that you want to report," she said. "Parents should be able to do that, and the teachers should be able to do that. Students should be able to do that."
Gov. Glenn Youngkin released a statement on the matter that reads in part: “I have just asked our State Superintendent of Schools to make sure that the Department of Education is reiterating the hiring policies, the background check policies, that are critical to make sure that we never ever have a middle school counselor that has been arrested for soliciting sex from a minor in our school system.”
