Big news came out of Loudoun County last Friday, after a jury found former Superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of using his position to retaliate against a teacher, Erin Brooks. She had cooperated with a grand jury investigation into how the district had handled sexual assaults in the district. Ziegler had been indicted by a grand jury last December, not long before he had been fired.
Attorney General Jason Miyares released a statement on Friday afternoon, noting that "Justice has finally been served in Loudoun County," noting how the situation occurred almost two years ago.
Education was a major part of Virginia elections in October 2021. The Daily Wire's Luke Rosiask, who covered the jury's verdict, had reported on Scott Smith, the father of one of the victims of a then 14-year-old boy wearing skirts who committed rape and sexual assault in bathrooms throughout the school district. Rosiak's report added context to how Scott had been arrested that June at a school board meeting that got out of hand, as Smith had been reacting to the school board's coverup of his daughter's rape. Smith has since been pardoned by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA).
Sexual assaults also occurred in the classroom, though.
As Rosiak's report details about this case:
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — A jury of six women and one man on Friday found ex-Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of using his position to retaliate against a teacher for cooperating with a grand jury investigating how the district handled sexual assault.
After a four-day trial plus a day of deliberations, the jury found that Ziegler wrongfully fired a teacher who had disclosed to Virginia investigators about mishandling of sexual assault in her classroom. Ziegler was convicted of using his official position to retaliate against someone for exercising their rights, and acquitted of punishing someone for testifying to a jury, both misdemeanors.
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Prosecutors appointed by Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, said that after they began investigating the school district’s coverup of a bathroom rape, they spoke with Brooks, who disclosed an unrelated instance of mishandling of sexual assault by school administrators. Brooks was then fired by Ziegler for cooperating with the special grand jury.
Out of all of LCPS’ 15,000 teachers, Brooks was singled out for firing by Ziegler at a school board meeting in June 2022, prosecutors said. Ziegler told board members he fired Brooks for giving private information to a conservative activist, and for giving private information to the grand jury, school board member John Beatty testified.
Ziegler’s alleged claim that Brooks had given information to a conservative activist turned out to be false, and it would be illegal to punish her for telling the truth to a jury she’d been subpoenaed by, prosecutors argued.
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Ziegler, who was wearing earrings and nail polish, did not testify at trial.
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Prosecutors laid out a devastating timeline of retaliation against Brooks, who was trying to get administrators to do something about the fact that a student with intellectual disabilities was grabbing the genitals of her and her teaching assistant Laurie Vandermeulen dozens of times a day, while making crude motions with his tongue. Administrators offered the educators a piece of cardboard called “no-no hands,” and told them to hold it in front of their groins. They also offered to buy them dog groomer aprons to wear to “slow down penetration,” they said.
At a loss for what to do, Vandermeulen asked a frequent speaker at school board meetings, Ian Prior, to read a letter to the school board expressing that there were two teachers who were being sexually assaulted in class and needed help.
Vandermeulen also sent a record of the assaults she was facing to her personal gmail after fearing a coverup was afoot, which Ziegler’s attorney initially tried to portray as “smuggling” private information, but ultimately failed to show that Vandermeulen violated any policy.
On March 22, 2022, principal Diane Mackey gave Brooks a glowing evaluation. That night, Prior made the speech, which contained no identifying information about the student, the teachers, or even the name of the school. Prior didn’t know any details about the student and Vandermeulen asked him not to use any names. He only said that teachers had filed a Title IX complaint on a certain date that he hoped the school board would look into.
Mackey saw the school board speech and the student was moved out of Brooks’ classroom the next day, but Brooks became the target of ruthless animus from school administrators.
Soon after, Brooks asked Mackey for a day off to testify to the grand jury, and Mackey demanded to see the subpoena. Ziegler asked HR whether Brooks was a probationary employee, meaning she would be easy to fire. Mackey spoke to Ziegler about Brooks, then falsely testified to the grand jury that she had not, she acknowledged this week, chalking it up to a memory error. Mackey also spoke about Brooks to Falconi, the attorney who prosecutors said was Ziegler’s “right-hand man.”
In May, Mackey wrote a negative evaluation and letter to Ziegler recommending that she be fired. Ziegler used the letter the same day to have her fired, suggesting he was waiting on it.
Prosecutors said the year-end evaluation of Brooks showed that school officials had “fabricated” the allegations retroactively to justify Ziegler’s desire to fire her, given that she had a stellar record and had been named Special Ed Teacher of the Year the prior year.
The evaluation focused squarely on the student who was the subject of the trial, saying she had failed to manage his behavior and failed to implement “plans” like the cardboard. It, and Ziegler’s attorney, suggested that Brooks had caused the student to sexually assault her by making him frustrated by refusing to give him an iPad.
The year-end evaluation posed a major timeline problem for the defense: The student never set foot in Brooks’ classroom in between her glowing March evaluation and negative May one. Yet the May one was full of allegations involving her handling of the student that were absent from, or outright contradicted by, the earlier evaluation.
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Sentencing for Ziegler, who could face up to 12 months in prison and/or a $2,500 charge for this misdemeanor charge, will take place on January 4. Another trial will take place in February, though, for a separate charge, this time to do with the boy wearing skirts.
The unnamed boy who was found guilty or reached a plea deal for the various charges, was spared jail and instead sentenced to probation and time in a treatment center. He will have to register as a sex offender when he is 18-years-old.
A month after his January 4 sentencing, Ziegler will face a separate trial on a final misdemeanor charge that was at the core of The Daily Wire’s 2021 story: His false statement at a school board meeting that there had been no sexual assaults in LCPS restrooms–part of a screed denigrating parents who were concerned about a transgender policy being discussed–when in fact he knew that a skirt-wearing boy had anally raped a ninth grader in the girls bathroom just weeks prior.
Smith had been charged by the county's embattled, Soros-backed Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj, who sought jail time for the father. Smith was sentenced to 10 days in jail, though the sentence was suspended, contingent on a year of good behavior.
She and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) also supported one another. McAuliffe had been elected in 2013, and ran again in 2021, since the state constitution prevents governors from running for back-to-back terms.
That Youngkin had been governor to be able to grant Smith his pardon depended not only Republican candidates in 2021 rising to the challenge to properly address the issue, but the shameful handling from Democrats, especially McAuliffe.
As Guy's post alludes to, and as Townhall has covered at length, McAuliffe indeed "sneeringly dismissed" concerned parents and residents.
In response to Youngkin's rally from October 19, 2021 calling for an investigation into Loudoun County, McAuliffe's Communications Director Christina Freundlich sent a statement to The Hill's Julia Manchester claiming in part that "Glenn Youngkin's entire campaign has been based on Donald Trump's divisive conspiracy theories, and tonight we saw more of the same--angry Trumpian conspiracy theories and constant threats against public school funding."
Guy, also last December, reminded how Barack Obama, at a rally supporting McAuliffe, went with a tactic that "was a bad look at the time, but "was even worse look in retrospect."
Just as Loudoun County was in the news in the months leading up to crucial 2021 statewide elections, so it is again in 2023. Not only did Youngkin emerge victorious against McAuliffe, but Miyares was also elected in 2021, as was Lieutenant-Governor Winsome Earl-Sears, all Republicans. Although the Democratic-controlled state Senate was not up for reelection, the House of Delegates was, and enough of Youngkin's fellow Republicans rode his coattails to victory, resulting in the party taking control back of the House of Delegates.
Exit polling showed that education was a major to issue to Virginia voters, and that Youngkin won those voters.
It's never an off-year for elections in Virginia, but this year looks to be particularly crucial. This time the Senate is up for reelection, as is the House of Delegates, where Republicans could lose or expand their majority. Youngkin could very well have completely united--or completely divided--government for the remainder of his term.
Youngkin has been working hard to elect more Republicans at the state level, which including a push for early voting, through the Secure Your Vote Virginia initiative. Early voting began on September 22. Election Day is November 7.
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