Virginia school counselor remained in job 20 months after arrest

By The Associated Press
August 21, 2022 | 2:52 PM

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A counselor for Virginia’s largest public school system kept his job for more than a year and a half after his arrest on charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that 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, 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.

Breaking the silence around suicide: A Virginia mother shares thoughts on prevention

By Kate Ryan
September 1, 2026 | 4:22 AM

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and Betsy Stephenson, an Alexandria, Virginia, resident and a mother who lost her son to suicide, wants people to talk about it. "By not talking about suicide, we are not going to make it go away. In fact, I think that we could inadvertently give it a little more power than it deserves," she told WTOP. One of the things that Stephenson wants families to know is that people who are struggling can appear to be doing well. "You can be very high-functioning as a depressed person or an anxious person," she said. "You can be connected socially. You can be doing well at school or work. You can be making plans, smiling, laughing, engaged, but still be struggling deeply, you know, cosmically, inside."

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