A week after the release on Dec. 5 of a damning special grand jury report on the handling of two student sexual assaults by Loudoun County Public Schools officials, criminal charges were filed on Monday.
Ex-superintendent Scott A. Ziegler and LCPS spokesman Wayde B. Byard were indicted by the grand jury.
It was formed by Attorney General Jason S. Miyares who commissioned it at the request of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who had been highly critical of LCPS bathroom policies while campaigning last year. One of the assaults occurred in a bathroom.
The indictments, unsealed in Loudoun Circuit Court on Monday, accused Ziegler of false publication, conflict of interest/prohibited conduct and penalizing an employee for a court appearance, all misdemeanors. The indictments occurred on June 14 and Sept. 28. Byard was indicted on Sept. 28 on a charge of felony perjury.
Ziegler was hired in 2019 by LCPS and was named superintendent in 2021. He was fired on Dec. 6 after the report concluded Ziegler lied when he said at a June 22, 2021, school board meeting that he had no knowledge of any records of sexual assaults occurring in school bathrooms. The report said Ziegler was aware that a girl had been assaulted in the bathroom of Stone Bridge High School on May 28, 2021 — texts from the boy show he arranged to meet the girl in the bathroom — when Ziegler made the statement at the meeting.
After the Stone Bridge assault, the student was transferred to Broad Run High School, where a second sexual second assault occurred on Oct. 6, 2021. On Jan. 19, the student was found guilty of abduction and sexual assault and sent to a residential treatment center. The student entered a no-contest plea over the second assault.
The false publication indictment said Ziegler made the June 22, 2021, statement knowing that it was "false and untrue." The conflict of interest/penalizing an employee concern a former Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School special education teacher who is suing the school board and Carter Principal Diane Insari Mackey, seeking up to $1 million in damages.
The ex-teacher says she was repeatedly groped by a fifth grade student in February. The boy is developmentally disabled and non-verbal, according to the lawsuit documents. The Loudoun Times-Mirror hasn't named the ex-teacher because she says she is a sexual assault victim.
The woman said in legal filings that school administrators “repeatedly dismissed and ignored” her complaints and allowed the alleged assaults to continue. At a June 7 board meeting, the woman said administrators were conducting a “smear campaign” against her because of comments made at a March 22 board meeting by a public speaker who criticized the way the district handled alleged sexual assaults of staff. However, LCPS is accusing the former teacher of leaking confidential information about the student in emails, according to legal filings in the civil case.
The penalizing an employee indictment said she was "unlawfully discharged" from her job on June 7. The conflict of interest/prohibited conduct indictment said Ziegler used his public position to "retaliate or threaten to retaliate" against the woman who has also filed a compliant with the Virginia Office of Civil Rights.
Attorney John C. Whitbeck Jr., who represents the woman, said it was unclear what effect Ziegler’s indictment would have on his client’s lawsuit. However, he said it was an “extraordinary” to have a superintendent criminally charged over an employment matter.
“It remains to be seen how the school board wants to handle dealing with this lawsuit,” he said. "[But] it certainly is not favorable to them that part of the basis for the lawsuit is now also part of the criminal matter.”
Byard, hired in 2000, was formerly a reporter and assistant managing editor at The Winchester Star. He couldn't be reached on Monday, but LCPS Communications Director Joan Sahlgren said in an email that he was placed on paid leave. Byard and Zielger are scheduled to appear in court at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
Board members didn’t reply to emailed questions from the Times-Mirror on Monday, but a news release said they plan to address the grand jury’s recommendations at the Legislative and Policy Committee hearing at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. It precedes the full board meeting at 6:30 p.m. “The Board will consider policy-related and process improvements to implement to further ensure the safety and care of all LCPS staff and students and restore trust within our community,” the release said.
Loudoun4All, a liberal group supportive of LCPS policies and teaching on race and sex that have drawn fire from conservatives, said in a news release that it was ambivalent about the indictments. The group said it’s grateful that “real problems” at LCPS are being revealed so they can be dealt with.
“However, we are dismayed at the way information was (and continues to be) intentionally twisted to confuse the roles of the school board and LCPS administration in order to place blame on the school board for political purposes,” the statement said. “This misinformation makes it far harder for the public to understand the real issues, and therefore makes it harder for those issues to be addressed.”
Loudoun4All also called for the resignation of Loudoun County Sheriff Michael L. Chapman over his office's handling of the case. The report said the Sheriff’s Office was slow to charge the assailant over the first assault and its communication with LCPS was poor.
However, Fight for Schools, a conservative group that accuses LCPS of indoctrinating students with liberal values, was unequivocal in its praise of the indictments. Ian Prior, the group’s executive director, credited conservative parents who’ve been highly critical of Ziegler and the school board.
“Those parents repeatedly took slings and arrows from the media, local elected officials, and others in their own community for speaking truth to power,” Prior said. “Despite that, they never backed down.”
Board of Supervisor Michael R. Turner, D-Ashburn, said in an interview that the indictments show “nobody is above the law." Turner, whose district includes about 89% of Stone Bridge students and 15% of Broad Run students, said the investigation is about upholding the law.
“That said, we don't try court cases in the media," Turner said. “Everyone's presumed innocent until proven guilty. Let the facts play out and the rule of law prevail.”
Supervisor Sylvia R. Glass, D-Broad Run, said in a written statement that the victims and their families are in her prayers.
“I hope as the school board and the interim superintendent continue to examine how internal people and policies failed to safely operate at LCPS, that they will not stop solely at the indictments and recommendations from the special grand jury,” said Glass whose district includes 85% of Broad Run’s students and 3% of Stone Bridge’s students.
Reporter Amena H. Saiyid contributed to this story.
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