Israel Christopher Flores Ortiz — an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who snuck into this country in 2024 — was just sentenced to 360 days in jail for sexually groping nine different teenage girls in the hallways of Fairfax High School in Virginia. One of those girls was thirteen years old. And before you ask, yes, this adult man was enrolled as a high school junior the entire time.

But don’t worry, folks. His public defender Jamie Hospers told the judge it was just “butt-grabbing” and asked for a sentence of nine days. One day per victim. Like a bulk discount on sexual assault. What a deal!

We need to back up here because every single layer of this story is worse than the last.

Flores Ortiz came into the United States illegally. Nobody stopped him. He was then enrolled in a public high school in Fairfax County, Virginia — one of the wealthiest, most “educated” counties in America. A county that prides itself on its progressive school board policies and its commitment to “inclusion.” And apparently that inclusion extends to putting adult illegal immigrants in classrooms full of fifteen-year-old girls and hoping for the best.

He was accused by a dozen girls. A dozen. These girls reported that Flores Ortiz was reaching between their legs and groping them during passing periods in the hallways. Between classes. In the middle of a crowded American high school. This wasn’t some dark alley. This was happening right under the noses of teachers, administrators, and security staff who are supposedly there to keep these kids safe.

So who exactly was being protected here? Because it sure wasn’t the girls.

Flores Ortiz was convicted on April 9th of nine counts of misdemeanor assault and battery. Misdemeanor. Let that word roll around in your brain for a second. A man who serially groped teenage girls — one of them barely a teenager — and the charge is a misdemeanor. Same category as shoplifting a pack of gum or jaywalking across a busy street.

The defense — and I’m using that word very loosely — argued that Flores Ortiz thought he was pulling a “prank.” That’s the legal strategy they went with. “Your Honor, my client didn’t realize that grabbing thirteen-year-old girls between the legs wasn’t hilarious.” And his lawyer had the absolute audacity to stand up in a courtroom and describe serial sexual assault of minors as “butt-grabbing” and request nine days in jail. Nine days. You’d get a harsher sentence for an expired parking meter in some of these Virginia counties.

Judge Melinda VanLowe, to her credit, wasn’t buying it. She told Flores Ortiz that his victims “were not having fun when you were grabbing them.” Which is probably the understatement of the century, but at least she noticed.

She sentenced him to 360 days. Sounds like a real number, right? A whole year. Until you learn he’s already been sitting in jail and gets credit for time served — meaning he’ll actually spend about 140 more days behind bars. Then he gets two years of probation and he’s a free man.

So let’s do the math. Nine victims. Multiple assaults. At least one girl who was thirteen years old. And this guy is going to be out of jail before Christmas. Merry Christmas, Fairfax County! Your daughters are safe now — for about four months.

(Can you imagine being one of these girls’ parents? Sitting in that courtroom watching a lawyer describe what happened to your daughter as a “prank”? How those parents maintained their composure is beyond anything we could manage.)

Here’s the part that should make every American furious. This entire situation was preventable. Every single second of it. Flores Ortiz should never have been in this country. He should never have been enrolled in that school. He should never have been walking those hallways. Nine girls would have gone to school and come home without being assaulted by an adult man if the immigration system had done its one job.

But we don’t enforce the border. We don’t verify ages or legal status before stuffing people into public schools. And when something goes horribly wrong — as it inevitably does — the justice system treats it like a minor inconvenience.

Fairfax County spent the last decade making sure every classroom had the right pronoun poster on the wall and every kid knew which bathroom to use based on their feelings. They had school board meetings about Critical Race Theory and equity audits and culturally responsive teaching. But somehow, in the middle of all that progressive utopia, nobody thought to ask why a grown man from El Salvador was sitting in a classroom full of American teenagers.

That’s the priority list in these places. Pronouns? Urgent. Protecting girls from predators? We’ll get to it.

Flores Ortiz will serve his 140-ish days. He’ll do his probation. And then what? Is ICE going to deport him? Is anyone going to make sure he doesn’t end up in another school, another county, another state? Or does he just disappear into the system like a million others before him?

We already know the answer. And that’s the real crime here — not just what one man did to nine girls in a Virginia hallway, but the fact that every institution that was supposed to prevent it shrugged its shoulders and looked the other way. The border. The school system. The courts.

Nine girls. Nine victims who had to sit in a courtroom and listen to a lawyer call what happened to them “butt-grabbing.” And the guy who did it will be out before the next school year starts.

Welcome to Fairfax County, where the priorities are as backwards as the justice system.