The previous superintendent of notorious Loudoun County colleges district – the epicenter of nationwide unrest in academic institutions – has been indicted by a Virginia grand jury.
Scott Ziegler was fired on December 6 in a unanimous resolution by the board, shortly after a closed two-and-a-half-hour session. The board studied a damning report into the district’s dealing with of two intercourse assaults in 2021 by a male pupil sporting a kilt.
The 15-year-old boy raped his feminine classmate in a transgender-friendly toilet at Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty in Virginia in Might final yr.
The boy moved colleges, and was then convicted of sexually assaulting one other woman on the totally different college in October final yr.
Ziegler throughout a faculty board assembly denied there have been any data of the assaults – however the grand jury report earlier this month confirmed he had lied concerning the occasions.
Ziegler is now going through misdemeanor counts of false publication, utilizing his place to retaliate or threaten to retaliate towards an worker and falsely firing the identical worker, based on indictments unsealed in Loudoun County and obtained by The Washington Submit.
His spokesman, Wayde Byard, is going through a rely of felony perjury.
Loudoun County’s former college board superintendent, Scott Ziegler (left), and his spokesman Wayde Byard (proper) have each been indicted by a Virginia grand jury
Ziegler instructed the paper he meant to combat the costs towards him.
‘I’m upset that an Lawyer Common-controlled, secret, and one-sided course of — which by no means as soon as sought my testimony — has made such false and irresponsible accusations,’ Ziegler wrote within the assertion.
‘I’ll vigorously defend myself. I look ahead to a time when the reality turns into public.’
Byard has not commented.
The indictment references the 2 sexual assaults and the firing of a particular wants trainer, who complained about being assaulted by a scholar, and was in the end fired.
The indictment is seen as a triumph for Virginia’s governor Glenn Youngkin, who was elected in November 2021 after campaigning to curtail college boards and empower mother and father.
He singled out Loudoun County colleges district for example of a failing space, and sought the resignation of everybody on the board.
Requested for the governor’s response to the indictments, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter pointed to an interview the governor gave to information outlet WJLA over the weekend.
‘I do consider that a part of my job as governor, is to make the selections to shine gentle on circumstances like this,’ Youngkin instructed WJLA
‘That is what we have been elected to do, and that is precisely what’s occurred.’
Scott Smith, the daddy of one of many ladies who was attacked, and who hit headlines when he angrily protested throughout a board assembly, stated he hopes the indictment will carry down ‘the wall between LCPS and the mothers and dads of Loudoun County.’
However Smith, who reacted with fury when Ziegler stated in the course of the assembly that he had no document of any sexual assaults on the colleges, stated he desires to see additional motion.
‘That is only the start, this is not the tip,’ stated Smith.
‘Our victory will likely be brief lived if we do not get the college board to make main adjustments like step down.’
Scott Smith, whose daughter was attacked by the 15-year-old boy, stated he’s happy by the indictments however desires extra motion from the college board
Smith was dragged to the ground and arrested throughout a faculty board assembly concerning the incident and was pictured with a bloody mouth. His daughter was pinned down and raped by {the teenager} who was ‘sporting a skirt’
A report into how the college district dealt with it stated that the second assault was ‘preventable’ however denied that there was a coordinated cowl up
Scott and Jessica Smith stated they have been left devastated after discovering the teenager had a historical past, and have branded him a ‘psychopath’ and a ‘sexual predator’
Initially, Scott and his spouse Jessica requested for the boy to be given therapy for rehabilitation, fairly than going straight to jail.
However after the second incident got here to gentle, which concerned a unique woman, Smith branded the teenager as a ‘psychopath’ – warning ‘we’re going to hear about him once more’.
A particular report discovered that the second assault may have been prevented, and faculty district directors lied to oldsters in an try to cowl up the controversy over the transgender toilet coverage.
Smith additionally criticized the grand jury for failing to pin any legal blame on the college and lecturers, as a substitute simply recommending what they may do in a different way sooner or later.
Talking to Fox Information earlier this month, Smith stated: ‘They simply lie, lie, lie. I can present you the image of what he regarded like that day it is on my cellphone.
‘There was no kilt about it. I feel he determined who he was and what he was each day.
‘I’ve seen proof since that, sadly, my spouse and I we fought very onerous to get this little one therapy after which proof revealed to us after the truth that this children a psychopath.
‘He is a sexual predator and sadly, have been going to listen to about him once more.’
The report discovered that Landon County Public Faculties directors have been ‘looking for their very own pursuits’ as a substitute of the curiosity of the college.
It went on to say: ‘This invariably led to a surprising lack of openness, transparency, and accountability each to the general public and the particular grand jury.
Amanda Shallant (pictured) spoke throughout a faculty board assembly final week as she held an indication that learn: ‘LCPS protects rapists’
Superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed on June 22 that he’d acquired ‘no report’ of a sexual assault within the college loos. On Might 28, the day it occurred, he despatched this electronic mail to colleagues confirming that it had been reported. ‘This afternoon, a feminine scholar alleged {that a} male scholar sexually assaulted her within the restroom’
‘There have been a number of resolution factors for senior LCPS directors, as much as and together with the superintendent, to be clear and step in and alter the sequence of occasions main as much as the October 6, 2021 BRHS sexual assault.
‘They failed at each juncture. We additionally consider the October 6 abduction and sexual assault of a feminine scholar at Broad Run Excessive Faculty may have, and will have, been prevented.’
The boy was nonetheless at giant three hours after the assault, and through that point Principal Tim Flynn tried to get a no-trespass letter towards Smith, who arrived and was upset about what occurred to his daughter.
The varsity board has been routinely {accused} of pushing an ultra-liberal agenda on children and fogeys and silencing those that disagree with them.
Dozens of fogeys attended rallies and conferences with the college board to voice their issues over the allegations and canopy up
An arrest warrant was issued two months later for 2 counts of forcible sodomy, and the coed was launched and transferred to Broad Run Excessive Faculty. He had beforehand been attending Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty, pictured
Letters have been despatched out to households providing counseling companies to those that may have been affected by the commotion brought on by Scott however didn’t point out the sexual assault.
Ziegler, his deputy superintendent, and his chief of employees have been made conscious the boy had sexually assaulted a scholar.
An arrest warrant was issued two months later for 2 counts of forcible sodomy, and the coed was launched and transferred to Broad Run Excessive Faculty.
He solely acquired a verbal warning, regardless of earlier stories that the coed allegedly behaved inappropriately towards ladies in his class.
The scholar went on to seize a feminine scholar who walked him to class, placing her in a chokehold till she could not breathe after which sexually assault her at his second college in October.
The boy, who DailyMail.com will not be naming as a result of they’re a minor, was defended by his mom.
Talking to DailyMail.com in November final yr, she stated: ‘He is a 15-year-old boy that needed to have intercourse within the toilet, with any person that was prepared.
‘And so they’re twisting this simply sufficient to make it a political scorching button challenge.’
Regardless of his androgynous fashion and declaration that he is ‘pansexual,’ the boy’s mom insisted he is not the gender fluid boogeyman in a tradition conflict about transgender insurance policies.
Scott added that he hopes that the report shouldn’t be the tip of the matter, saying: ‘I hope that the grand jury has not executed their responsibility simply but and there’s extra tooth in it’
The report stated that there was a ‘beautiful lack of openness, transparency, and accountability each to the general public and the particular grand jury’
A particular report discovered that the second assault may have been prevented, and faculty district directors lied to oldsters in an try to cowl up the controversy over the transgender toilet coverage
‘He would put on a skirt in the future after which the subsequent day, he would put on denims and a t-shirt, a Polo or hoodie,’ she defined.
‘He was looking for himself and that concerned every kind of types.
‘I consider he was doing it as a result of it gave him consideration he desperately wanted and sought.’
A spokesman for the Loundoun County Faculty District stated in a press release: ‘In a information launch on January 15, 2022, Lawyer Common Miyares alleged that LCPS’ lined up a sexual assault on college grounds for political achieve.
‘To the very best of our data, this allegation was not true, and, after conducting an eight-month investigative course of, throughout which it had the power to interview any LCPS worker, Board member, and every other people past the LCPS group it deemed related, and through which it had entry to just about any LCPS document that was not in any other case legally privileged, the Particular Grand Jury neither cited any proof to assist this severe allegation nor made any such conclusion in its Report.’
