Former superintendent Scott Ziegler is facing misdemeanor counts of false publication, using his position to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against an employee and falsely firing the same employee, according to indictments unsealed in Loudoun County. Schools spokesman Wayde Byard is facing a count of felony perjury.
Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, declined to offer details about the alleged conduct that led to the charges, since the case is pending. Miyares convened the special grand jury.
Both Ziegler and Byard are scheduled to make initial appearances in a Loudoun court Tuesday afternoon.
In an emailed statement Monday, Ziegler rebuked the grand jury’s investigation.
“I am disappointed that an Attorney General-controlled, secret, and one-sided process—which never once sought my testimony—has made such false and irresponsible accusations. It appears clear to me that this process was and is aimed at advancing a certain political agenda,” Ziegler said.
Byard did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Several additional spokespeople for the Loudoun district also did not respond to requests for comment.
The indictments come a week after the same grand jury issued a scathing report criticizing Loudoun County schools and other officials for their handling of a pair of sexual assaults committed by a male student in May and October 2021 at two high schools. The second assault occurred after the student was transferred to a new high school.
Loudoun schools fired Ziegler after the report was made public, and the school board is set to meet Tuesday to discuss additional response to the report.
The grand jury’s actions against the Loudoun school district are drawing praise from parents and activists across the political spectrum — and mark a triumph for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Youngkin won the governor’s office largely by campaigning on education, advocating for more parental control of school lessons and the eradication of sexually explicit content. He often targeted Loudoun, lambasting the district’s handling of the two sexual assaults and its policies allowing transgender students to access school activities and facilities matching their gender identities.
Opponents of similar bathroom policies in Virginia and nationwide latched onto the Loudoun assaults, arguing the district’s bathroom policy enabled the May 2021 assault, which took place in a women’s bathroom, although the policy did not go into effect until months later. There is also no evidence the male assailant is transgender. The grand jury found that the student was wearing women’s clothing at the time of the May assault, and that the encounter began as a consensual meet-up arranged ahead of time on a messaging platform.
One of Youngkin’s first actions in office was to issue an executive order commissioning the investigation of Loudoun schools that led to the grand jury report and indictments. The governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictments Monday.
It is difficult to say precisely which events and actions each of the indictments, some of which are very short and vaguely worded, are referencing.
At least one of the indictments issued Monday looks to be directly related to the school district’s handling of the sexual assaults: the indictment against ex-superintendent Ziegler for “false publication.” That indictment says that Ziegler, “on or about June 22, 2021, did unlawfully, knowingly, and willfully [make a] false and untrue statement, knowing the same to be false or true … with intent that the same shall be published, broadcast, or otherwise disseminated” in violation of Virginia law.
This indictment likely refers to events that took place at a June 22, 2021 school board meeting at which Ziegler was asked by a board member whether Loudoun had any records of sexual assaults taking place in bathrooms. At the time, Ziegler was well-aware that the first of the two assaults, in May 2021, had occurred in a bathroom — but he answered no.
The grand jury called Ziegler’s statement a lie in its report. Ziegler has since said that he thought the board member was asking specifically whether Loudoun had any records of transgender or gender-fluid students assaulting other students in bathrooms.
The other two indictments against Ziegler, however, refer to incidents separate from the two sexual assaults. Those indictments take the ex-superintendent to task for unlawfully firing — and using “his public position to retaliate” against — a former special education teacher in the district, Erin Brooks.
Brooks sued the school district in June, alleging officials retaliated against her for reporting sexual assault by a student, according to news reports. She charged in her suit that, starting in February 2022, a special education student began “grabbing her breasts, buttocks, and pubic area dozens of times each day” — but that school officials “did nothing to stop the assaults from occurring.”
Brooks ultimately filed two Title IX complaints about the student’s behavior. Not long afterward the school district opted not to renew her contract. Brooks alleges in her suit, which is ongoing, that the school district’s failure to reemploy her amounted to retaliation for reporting the assault.
Loudoun school officials have alleged that Brooks “improperly distributed school records” in pursing her Title IX complaints, a charge Brooks denied.
In response to Monday’s indictments, Brooks’s lawyer John Whitbeck wrote in a statement that his client is “grateful to Attorney General Jason Miyares and his staff for their work in these matters.”
Brooks “looks forward to continuing to pursue her civil claims against the Loudoun School Board in light of these developments,” Whitbeck added. Whitbeck said Brooks is currently waiting for the Office of Civil Rights of the Virginia Attorney General’s office to complete its investigation into the civil rights complaint she filed, and that he expects court dates will be set after that probe finishes.
The reason for the indictment against school spokesman Byard is unclear. The indictment says that Byard, “on or about August 2, 2022, after having been lawfully administered an oath, did feloniously and willfully swear falsely on such occasion touching any material matter or thing” in violation of Virginia law.
It is possible this indictment refers to a moment in Byard’s testimony before the grand jury during its investigation of the school district’s handling of the two sexual assaults.
Parents celebrated the grand jury’s handing down of charges Monday.
Loudoun4All, a progressive parents’ group that seeks to promote racial justice and equity in the school system, wrote in a statement that, although “it is difficult to comment on the charges against Dr. Ziegler and Wayde Byard without further details, [we are] grateful that real problems in LCPS are being unearthed so they can be addressed.”
Ian Prior, a Loudoun father, former Trump administration official and co-founder of parents’ rights educational group Fight For Schools, wrote in a text that he is “beyond pleased” with the indictments.
“We also must recognize the parents of Loudoun County who have stood up for years highlighting the arrogance, incompetence, and gross neglect of [school] leaders,” he wrote.