Loudoun County Superintendent fired after report shows sexual assaults were mishandled


A woman sits with her sign during a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021. - Loudoun county school board meetings have become tense recently with parents clashing with board members over transgender issues, the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) and Covid-19 mandates. Recently tensions between groups of parents and the school board increased after parents say an allegedly transgender individual assaulted a girl at one of the schools. Earlier this month US Attorney General Merrick Garland directed federal authorities to hold strategy sessions in the next month with law enforcement to address the increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in the nation's public schools. This in response to a request from the National School Boards Association asking US President Joe Biden for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism. (Photo by Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman sits with her sign during a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 7:11 PM PT – Thursday, December 8, 2022

Loudoun County School Board has fired Superintendent Scott Zeigler after the special grand jury investigated the handling of two sexual assaults.

A report was released on Monday by a special grand jury which was based on the Loudoun County Public School District’s handling of two sexual assaults that were committed by the same student on school grounds.

The report also revealed that the district was more interested in their own best interests instead of its students and that the school system had “failed at every juncture.”

Last year at a school board meeting, the father of one of the victims had accused the district of covering up his daughter’s sexual assault. After the incident, the suspect was transferred to a different school, where again he assaulted a girl and ended up facing charges in both cases.

The father was arrested and convicted in a District Court of two misdemeanors because of his outburst. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and subsequently appealed his convictions in Circuit Court, where his case was thrown out.

At the board meeting, Zeigler had denied the assault, and said that “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”

The report resulted in Zeigler’s dismissal. It also included eight recommendations for the district to increase school safety, transparency, and communication.





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