Virginia schools superintendent fired post grand jury report on mishandling of two bathroom assaults

The report said Loudoun County Public Schools responded to the probe with "obfuscation, deflection, and obvious legal strategies designed to frustrate the special grand jury's work."
A woman sits with her sign during a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on October 12, 2021.
By Madeleine Hubbard

The Loudoun County School Board has fired Superintendent Scott Ziegler after a grand jury released a report criticizing officials in the Northern Virginia school district for mishandling two sexual assaults by the same student. 

The board fired Ziegler on Tuesday evening, Fox News reported. The previous day, a grand jury issued a report finding administrators "were looking out for their own interests instead of the best interests of LCPS" and "failed at every juncture."

Loudoun Grand Jury Report

The report, ordered earlier this year by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin specifically condemned Ziegler for his comments in June 2021 after a biological boy assaulted a girl in the women's restroom in May of that year.

He said "the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist" and "we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."

The second girl was assaulted in October 2021 after the student was transferred to another school in the district.

The report said the school system responded to the probe with "obfuscation, deflection, and obvious legal strategies designed to frustrate the special grand jury's work."