A special grand jury in Loudoun County has indicted former Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Scott Ziegler on three misdemeanor charges, a week after issuing a scathing report detailing the school district’s misdeeds in responding to a sexual assault.
The office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who had impaneled the grand jury, announced Monday that a Loudoun county judge had ordered three misdemeanor indictments against Ziegler to be unsealed. Loudoun County Public Schools Public Information Officer Wayde Byard was also charged with felony perjury.
LOUDOUN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD FIRES SUPERINTENDENT AFTER EXPLOSIVE GRAND JURY REPORT
Ziegler was charged with one count of misdemeanor false publication, one count of misdemeanor prohibited conduct, and one count of misdemeanor penalizing an employee for a court appearance. The charges carry possible jail time of up to one year. Byard’s perjury charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Ziegler, who had served as superintendent for Loudoun County Public Schools since June 2021 after a brief stint as interim superintendent, faced widespread criticism for his response to a May 2021 sexual assault that occurred in the girl’s bathroom at Stone Bridge High School. The perpetrator of the assault was transferred to Broad Run High School, where he committed another assault in October 2021. Ziegler was abruptly fired after the special grand jury released a report last week that accused LCPS administrators of “fail[ing] at every juncture” when responding to the assaults.
The special grand jury was impaneled by Miyares at the behest of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who had vowed to investigate the school district while campaigning ahead of the November 2021 election.
In the report, the grand jury blasted Ziegler for stating at a June 22, 2021, school board meeting that, to his knowledge, there had not been any sexual assaults in school bathrooms. The grand jury said it agreed with multiple witnesses who testified that Ziegler lied at the meeting, including one who said the superintendent’s comment was a “bald-faced lie.”
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In an interview with ABC 7 News, Youngkin said he was not surprised by the special grand jury’s findings.
“The fact that it took an election, a new governor, and on Day One an executive order to get this get to get this investigated, I think, really speaks to the fact that I think the Loudoun County School Board let everyone down and didn’t do their job,” he said. “I’m so proud of the Attorney General’s Office. And I want to thank the grand jury for the extensive effort and work that they put in to illuminate what was a terrible, horrific circumstance for all Loudoun County and Virginia.”
