Loudoun County superintendent fired after grand jury report on sex assaults

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Loudoun County Public Schools has fired Superintendent Scott Ziegler one day after a grand jury report blasted the district's handling of two sexual assaults by the same student.

The school board in Virginia voted unanimously during a closed-door meeting Tuesday to fire Ziegler, Wayde Byard, a spokesman for the school board, confirmed to WTOP.

"Let me say this as clearly as possible: Dr. Ziegler needs to be fired," said Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall before the meeting. "I'm saying to my colleagues on the school board, 'Fire the superintendent.'"

Ziegler, who was interim superintendent at the time of the assaults, will be paid his $323,000 annual salary, as well as vehicle, health and retirement compensation for the next year.

The grand jury report, released Monday, claimed administrators at the Northern Virginia school district "failed at every juncture" to protect students, focusing on their own interests instead.

"We believe that throughout this ordeal LCPS administrators were looking out for their own interests instead of the best interests of LCPS. This invariably led to a stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability both to the public and the special grand jury," the report said.

The report was the result of an investigation into sex assaults at two different high schools last year by the same male student. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Department confirmed a sexual assault occurred in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in May of 2021 by a boy wearing a skirt. The same 15-year-old boy was transferred to Broad Run High School where the sheriff's department said he committed another assault five months later.

The grand jury did not issue indictments in its report and said there was no "coordinated cover-up" between the school and members of the school board.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said his office plans to continue the grand jury's work and "is considering all options."

"It is apparent that the Loudoun County School Board failed to provide proper oversight, accountability and transparency on the superintendent and their staff precisely at a time when the victims needed them the most," Miyares said in a statement Wednesday.

Randall said Ziegler is responsible for both his actions and inaction in response to the assaults.

"We had a young woman violently raped, and another one assaulted," Randall said. "This was, for all intents and purposes, on his part, a cover-up."