Who Knew What When in Case of Teacher Accused of Sexual Battery?

An ongoing battle is roiling the most famous (and infamous) Central Virginia county over the sexual assault of students and “who knew what, and when?”

Ever since 37-year-old Albemarle County school teacher and appointed trans-issues counselor Michael J. Swiney was indicted on seven counts of felony aggravated sexual battery, three felony counts of indecent liberties, and one felony count of attempted aggravated sexual battery involving students, the finger-pointing and backside-covering have become quite a spectacle.

The most recent developments are Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney W. Lawton Tufts’ statement in court that he had reason to “question the trustworthiness of the school division.” This was followed by a letter sent by the chairwoman of the School Board, Dr. Rebecca Berlin, demanding that Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley meet with the board to “clarify practices.”

During the latest school board meeting, Dr. Kate Acuff, a rising star in the Virginia Democratic Party, said that she had been told by the now-dismissed superintendent, Dr. Matthew Haas, that a staffer was on administrative leave and that police were involved. She went on to admit that it did not occur to her to ask anything further regarding the matter, nor did she feel the need to tell any other members of the school board. Never mind the parents that she supposedly represents.

But wait, there’s more.

According to documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act filings, there is a documented report to the school board of allegations against Mr. Swiney a year earlier. In this case, from March 2025, the county’s Title IX coordinator, Erin Stone, told the school board that “corrective action was taken by the school and CPS (Child Protective Services) and ACPD (Albemarle County Police Department) were contacted out of an abundance of caution (and both similarly declined to open cases).”

In a letter dated June 17, 2026, she reiterated that series of events, adding that “none of us including (redacted) considered the conduct she described to (Principal Joe) McCauley and me in March 2025 to be sexual assault or harassment, so it was appropriately not opened as a Title IX case.”

The documents include a letter to Swiney from McCauley dated March 25, 2025, encouraging him to have more open windows and doors when talking with students and possibly to include other adults in those meetings.

What they cannot seem to produce is any record of that report to CPS or the Albemarle County Police Department.

The aforementioned Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Tufts stated in the bond hearing for Swiney, “they did not report to law enforcement, and they did not report to CPS.”

Being in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, he would have access to those records, if they existed. But why wouldn’t they?

Dr. Berlin points to the review being conducted on behalf of the board by the law firm Harman Claytor Corrigan & Wellman to resolve this discrepancy.

Now a bipartisan group of county residents has launched a legal petition seeking the removal of Dr. Acuff from office for her actions after this case came to her attention.

She was there in March 2025, but when Superintendent Haas came to her in January of this year, she said that it didn’t occur to her to ask whether the two cases were connected. Or anything else for that matter. Not to mention mentioning it to the other school board members.

Was she asked not to? Was it because Mr. Swiney was handling the position of “trans counselor” at his elementary school and it would look bad politically for the promoters of this agenda?

The coalition of parents also points out that after Swiney’s arrest, the school board met to decide whether to ask for Superintendent Haas’ resignation. Dr. Acuff simply left the meeting midway and never returned, leaving the parents of her district with no voice during this important discussion.

Could there be a connection between these meetings with Dr. Haas?

Maybe the law firm’s investigation can find that out as well.

So what happens next?

Under Virginia Code § 24.2-233, in order to get a judicial hearing on the removal of an elected official, first a “petition must be signed by registered voters in the district the official serves, equal in number to at least ten percent of the total votes cast in the last election for that office.” In the November 2025 election for the Jack Jouett School Board seat, there were 4,759 votes cast. Therefore, the coalition will need to gather at least 476 signatures to file the petition with the circuit court, which would then review the matter.

It doesn’t sound like they will have a hard time getting the signatures, but we will let you know.

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