LEESBURG, Va. (DC News Now) — The results of an independent investigation looking into sexual assaults in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) were finally made public.
The investigation looked into how LCPS reacted to two sexual assaults by the same student in two separate schools just months apart.
A judge unsealed the report, which was the culmination of work done by the Blankingship & Keith law firm, during a pre-trial motion hearing in the case of indicted former Superintendent Scott Ziegler.
Ziegler is currently facing three misdemeanor charges stemming from the special grand jury investigation into the 2021 assaults.
Loudoun County Public Schools hired the firm to conduct the internal investigation in November 2021, and the report was finalized in January 2022. However, the report was not initially made public; the school board recently voted to keep it private in February 2023, citing “attorney-client privileges.”
The report gives a new perspective on mistakes the school board made in the handling of the cases, in addition to details of the assaults, background on the perpetrator and the relationships between him and his two victims.
The three conclusions the report came to:
- LCPS should not have unduly delayed its Title IX complaint investigation process after the Stone Bridge HS incident, despite the direction to that effect from the Sheriff’s Department.
- It would have been beneficial for LCPS to have conducted a threat assessment of the student responsible after the Stone Bridge HS incident, although it would not necessarily have prevented the Broad Run HS incident.
- LCPS appears to have taken an overly narrow view of its Title IX obligations in this matter.
- “This overly restrictive view of Title IX appears to have bordered on the theoretical and was undertaken without the benefit of any information about what had happened,” the report reads.
The report said, “LCPS did not take any steps to address the investigation until almost three months after the [first] incident.”
The document also contained information on the student’s transfer from Stone Bridge High School to Broad Run High School.
Scott Smith, who has shared publicly that he is the father of one of the victims, said he was pleased that the report was made public.
“It clearly shows how both the Loudoun County School and the sheriff’s department screwed up very badly and dropped the ball and did not communicate with one another,” he said.
Smith, who was later arrested and charged with disorderly conduct at a school board meeting, was recently pardoned by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Attorney General Jason Miyares, who empaneled the special grand jury that indicted Ziegler and LCPS spokesperson Wayde Byard (who was acquitted earlier this year), wrote in a statement that the release of the report is a “victory for transparency, accountability, and parents everywhere.”
Ziegler and his legal team are attempting to get the charges against him dismissed. The hearing for that motion is set for September 21.
