During Thom Clement’s three decades in education, there was never a hint of impropriety. When he retired from Fairfax County Public Schools in July 2006, he was a well-liked and well-respected principal and former teacher.
He opened Bull Run Elementary and served as its leader for seven years.
Before leaving that school, he was feted by both students and parents. Teachers, staff and alumni hosted a dinner in his honor, and the SCA and PTA had his picture carved into a granite plaque which still adorns the school lobby.
And sixth-grade teacher John Kelly expressed the sentiments of his colleagues when he said about Clement, “It's hard to see him go because he's an administrator good at his job — and a good friend, as well.”
Tuesday afternoon, however, shockwaves spread through the community as local residents learned that Clement, 62, of Little Rocky Run, had been arrested by Virginia State Police and charged with sexually assaulting a minor.
His arrest stemmed from a complaint received in February by Virginia State Police Special Agent J.B. Root at state police headquarters in Culpeper County. Police say a boy told them that Clement reportedly sexually assaulted him in October 2009 while they were on an overnight camping trip at Burke Lake Park.
The boy was 9 at the time of the alleged incident, and Clement led a Scout group at his church. He was taken into custody last Thursday, May 23, and charged with two counts of felony aggravated sexual battery of a minor. He was released Tuesday, May 28, from the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on $20,000 bond and has a June 24 court date.
State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller declined to identify the county in which the boy lives and said the reason he didn’t report the alleged incident to authorities until February is “part of the ongoing investigation.” She said police are also seeking any other possible victims who might have been molested by Clement.
“At this time, this is the only victim we have evidence of,” she said. “But the potential [for other victims] in these circumstances is there, so we’re asking anyone with information about this incident, or who may have been victimized by him, to come forward and contact police.”
Special Agent Root may be reached at 540-829-7744. The state police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Culpeper Field Office is doing the investigating, but the case will be prosecuted in Fairfax County’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Clement began his 31-year career in education — 28 of them with FCPS — in 1975 as a middle-school teacher in Loudoun County. He joined Fairfax County Public Schools three years later, teaching fourth, fifth and sixth grades for the next 14 years. And he taught at Union Mill Elementary when it opened in 1986.
He then was a resource teacher in the Area IV administrative office before becoming assistant principal of London Towne Elementary in 1989. Afterward, beginning in 1991, he served as principal of Canterbury Woods Elementary for eight years. And on Feb. 1, 1999, he became the first principal of Bull Run Elementary.
He and his wife — a former elementary-school librarian — have been married 33 years and have four grown children.