Nearly three weeks after The Schilling Show broke the news of a Charlottesville school bus driver’s indictment on felony, child-related sex charges, the Charlottesville Daily Progress—the region’s only daily print newspaper—remains silent on the subject.

Darrell Eugene Farley, who drove a Charlottesville City school bus over a ten-year period from 2003 to 2013, was indicted by a Rockingham grand jury on June 17 and will face trial on September 10.

Following the Schilling Show’s exclusive report, the story was picked up by WINA radio, WCHV radio, The Hook, NBC 29 TV, and the Charlottesville Newsplex television stations.

Why has the Daily Progress—a main source of news for central Virginia—refused to run a story about Farley and to publish his picture? After all, he has been accused of child-related sex crimes, and he certainly has been in direct contact with thousands of Charlottesville students over his tenure of city employment. And shouldn’t parents have the opportunity to see the face of an accused, city-employed sex criminal who may have interacted with their children?

Perhaps, the Daily Progress does not run stories on accused sex offenders? Think again. Over the past year, the paper has run many such news items—with pictures of the accused—including:

March 14, 2013: Joe Callis Leake

March 14, 2013: Charles W. Baird Jr

March 27, 2013: James E. Jessup III

May 10, 2013: Frank Louis Dorman

So, why is Darrell Eugene Farley different? For one, he works for the beleaguered Charlottesville City Schools Division, which is struggling to maintain funding and attendance amidst mediocre performance and institutional dysfunction. And the Daily Progress is loath to criticize Charlottesville Schools or related elected officials, fearful of riling the establishment Democrat political aristocracy.

Chronically over-compensated Charlottesville Superintendent, Rosa Atkins, and the largely inept Charlottesville School Board have been mum, too, but not because they were unaware of Farley. Sources deep within Charlottesville City Hall reveal that suspicions and subsequent investigations of the sex-charged bus driver began years ago. When a January shooting of a BB/Airsoft gun took place on Farley’s school bus #25, Charlottesville Schools’ officials raced to hush incident details and shield Farley from media inquiry for fear of exposing Darrell Eugene Farley’s sexual back-story.

Self-insulating stonewalling aside, inquiring minds want to know:

  • Will the Daily Progress and the Charlottesville City Schools do the right thing by publicizing Farley’s arrest and the serious sexual accusations against him?
  • Will the Daily Progress and the Charlottesville City Schools do the right thing by enlisting the public’s assistance in gathering information that could aid the investigation and prosecution of Darrell Eugene Farley?
  • Will the Daily Progress and the Charlottesville City Schools do the right thing by telling the truth about a serious, ongoing societal problem, which here has manifested itself in the person of a long-time Charlottesville school bus driver?

Or, will both entities continue to play “ostrich,” hiding a deviant public employee from an ignorant public’s eyes in hopes of protecting their own tenuous reputations?

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7 COMMENTS

  2. I can't believe people in this area haven't commented on this post yet! Are you all so apathetic about these issues? Albemarle people, you are also affected by our only daily newspaper neglecting to report things.
    Thanks Rob Schilling for caring. Out of curiosity, do you know what areas Mr Farley's bus route served? Perhaps that is the root of the publics apathy – didn't happen in their neighborhood so who cares?

  3. Hey Rob,
    I have it on excellent authority, that Mr. Farley played a key role in an incident from 2009. An incident that interestingly enough, was completely kept cloaked in a veil of secrecy, but seemingly has some bearing on the manner in which this is currently being mishandled.
    Back around Thanksgiving in 2009, there was an incident of violence that transpired at the school bus yard. It was due to a domestic dispute between the driver supervisor there, her longtime girlfriend, and the new driver with whom the driver supervisor was engaged in an extracuricular affair with. One evening, around 4:00PM, the scorned girlfriend attempted to run down both the supervisor and the new found girl friend. The reuslt was damage to three vehicles, resulting in all three being rendered a total loss. The HAZMAT team had to be dispatched in order to clean up all of the fuel and oil that was spilled across the parking lot from the supervisor’s pick-up truck which had been overturned and whose fuel tsnk was ruptured.
    Mr. Farley’s eyewitness testimony was instrumental in the resulting court case to fall in favor of the driver supervisor. The driver supervisor continued in her relationship with a subordinate, and now is raising a child with today.
    It cannot help but beg the question, would Mr. Farley’s suspected activities have been tolerated, were he not in a key position to render positive assistance to his supervisor in that incident? Did that past “favor” cloud the judgement in the current case regarding Mr. Farley’s actions. Why were the parents not informed of the domestic violence that transpired upon City property regarding personnel in direct contact with the children of this community? Why were individuals in positions of authority and responsibility allowed to keep their positions when such abhorrent activity that put lives and property at risk had taken place? Why did the destruction of three motor vehicles and the attempted murder of two individuals as well as the required response of a HAZMAT team to city property not make it into any of ther mainstream media? Where was city council and Rosa Atkins and the school boards response to this matter?
    Perhaps the two are not connected at all, however, be it true or not, the fact remains, those responsible for the safe transportation of local children in this community appear to have carte blanche in the matters of sexual deviancy and misconduct, for keeping the parents of those children in the dark.

  5. I have knowledge of alot of the cover-ups involving child Abuse,fraud and all types of criminal offences.Both Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s School employees,Boards, Agencies ect…
    The communities need to come together to stop the corruption and Malice criminal activity.

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