After the school board and then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler were accused of covering up back-to-back sexual assaults in 2021, a law firm was hired to investigate the failings. Last week, the school board voted 6-3 to keep the report secret citing legal concerns.
Ziegler was fired late last year after a grand jury indicted him, leaving only the school board members to answer to accusations they lied to parents, too.
Victoria Cobb of The Family Foundation says the Loudoun County School Board is playing a “shell game” with information the public has a right to know, especially in light of what happened there.
“Everyone knows how poorly this was handled,” she says of the 2021 incidents, “and they have a right to know what kind of changes are going to result from the independent investigation."
Behind the scenes, parents were unaware a skirt-wearing male student had sexually assaulted a female student in a restroom at Stone Bridge High. That incident was known by Superintendent Scott Ziegler, and by the school board members, but Loudoun County Schools was considering a transgender-friendly policy at the time so the assault was covered up.
Ziegler, in fact, assured concerned parents at the time their kids were safe.
Even worse, instead of being kicked out, the same male student was transferred to a second high school where he assaulted a second female there.
The truth only came out when a parent named Scott Smith demanded to speak at a June 2022 school board meeting, where he was dragged away by police officers in handcuffs.
A video of Smith’s violent arrest went viral, and an exclusive story by The Daily Wire explained his anger: His daughter was the first assault victim.
Last week, when the school board voted to hold the report, Smith called them “scumbags” and “liars” as he walked out in frustration.
Cobb tells AFN she is not surprised if more parents vote with their feet and remove their children from Loudoun County Schools in light of the cover-up and school board’s vote to hold the report.
“But I'll tell you this: We do know that this school board has an election in the fall,” she says. “And parents are also going to vote when they go to that ballot box and can choose new school board members."
