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In Fairfax County, Virginia, a wave of anger and concern has swept through the community after a 19-year-old undocumented immigrant was accused of inappropriately touching female students at a local high school. The incident has left parents questioning the safety of their children while at school.
“As a parent, it’s terrifying,” expressed Stacy Langton, a concerned mother. “When I send my daughters off to school, I trust they are in a safe environment. This situation proves otherwise, and I can’t imagine any parent who wouldn’t be deeply upset at the thought of their daughters being potentially assaulted between classes.”
The accused, Israel Flores Ortiz, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who entered the United States in 2024, has been arrested. He faces nine counts of assault and battery, with allegations of groping students in the hallways during class transitions.
In an image released by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, Israel Flores Ortiz is shown in a mugshot taken in March 2026, following his arrest for the alleged offenses at the high school.
Langton, who has two daughters attending the school, shared her immediate concern. “I asked my senior if she knew about the incidents, and she replied, ‘Yes, Mom, everyone is talking about it.’ This isn’t something any parent wants to hear about their child’s school environment.”
“That was very alarming, and then I called my ninth grader into the room and I said, ‘Were you guys touched by the perpetrator?’ And they said, ‘No,’ thank God. But they did know all about it, and they have friends who are amongst the 12 victims,” she continued.
Langton, a well-known activist in the area who protested pornographic books in county schools in 2021 in what became a cultural flash point that helped boost former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to electoral victory, said that parents, including those she knows to be liberal, are “very, very angry” about the situation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The reaction from other parents is, you know, anger,” she said. “My phone blew up last Saturday. As soon as the story broke, I started getting inundated with text messages going, ‘Oh my goodness, did you know about this? Isn’t this where your daughters go to school?’”
She also blames a Virginia policy that allows “English Learners” to remain in public schools up to age 22.
“The biggest problem with this situation — it isn’t political, OK?” Langton said. “This is a public safety issue. This is a problem for every single parent in the school whether you’re a Democrat, whether you are an Independent or whether you are a Republican. This is a public safety issue and every single parent’s daughters are at risk because of this policy.“
A Supreme Court case called Plyler v. Doe, decided in 1982, paved the way for illegal aliens to attend public schools, establishing that prohibiting the practice violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The amendment says that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
A Fairfax County school bus sits in a depot in Lorton, Virginia, July 22, 2020. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Despite the allegations against Flores Ortiz, Langton praised the school for its handling of alleged crimes. She noted that once the victims reported what had happened, the school resource officer began an immediate investigation, eventually leading to the charges.
Fairfax County Public Schools did not return a Monday request for comment, but did address the situation last week.
“While Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is unable to comment on specifics due to federal and state privacy laws, we prioritize student and staff safety and we fully investigate any time someone shares that an incident has occurred at school, or that they do not feel safe at school,” the district said in a statement. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners who continue to work swiftly and thoroughly when there are safety concerns in our schools. The safety of all FCPS students and staff remains a top priority.”