Loudoun County Schools Bear Weight of Blame in Student Sexual Assault – NBC4 Washington

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Loudoun County public school administrators looked out for their own interests rather than the best interests of the school district throughout their handling of two sexual assaults by the same high school student, a special grand jury found.

A 14-year-old student sexually assaulted a student at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021, but was cleared to transfer to Broad Run High School, where he abducted and sexually assaulted another student in October 2021. The teenager was more later convicted in juvenile court.

The assaults have drawn public attention, in part because the student who was convicted of both attacks is a biological male who wore a skirt during one of the attacks, playing into a national debate over how schools should treat transgender students and whether they should be allowed to use bathrooms different from their biological sex.

The grand jury appointed by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released its findings Monday after a months-long investigation into the school system’s handling of sexual assault.

In its report, the grand jury said Loudoun County Public Schools “bear the brunt of the blame” for the second sexual assault and allowed the boy to be transferred from Stone Bridge High School to Broad Run High School after the incident. May assault.

School officials demonstrated a “staggering lack of openness, transparency and accountability” to the public and the grand jury, according to the report.

“There were several decision points for the senior administrators of the LCPS, down to and including the superintendent, to be transparent and intervene and change the sequence of events leading up to the October 6, 2021 BRHS sexual assault. They failed at each moment,” the report states.

The report also accuses School System Superintendent Scott Ziegler of lying about the assault during a school board meeting in June 2021, after the first assault.

As the school board debated policies governing transgender students and whether they could use any restroom they wanted, a school board member asked Ziegler if schools had a problem with sexual assaults happening in restrooms.

Ziegler replied that to my knowledge, we have no record of assaults in our toilets. But the emails show that Ziegler had been informed of the Stone Bridge assault and had in fact sent an email to board members informing them of the incident.

According to the report, teachers at both schools warned administrators about the student’s disturbing conduct weeks before each assault. Even the student’s grandmother spoke up and warned the student’s probation officer, calling her grandson a sociopath,” according to the report.

Two weeks before the first assault, a teaching assistant wrote an email to another teacher and administrator noting that the boy had been sitting on the girls’ lap during study hall and seemed to have difficulty listening and speaking. keep his hands to himself.

Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey reports on a court hearing on the future of a special grand jury investigation into how Loudoun County Public Schools handled two cases of sexual assault involving a teenager.

The grand jury said it believed the second sexual assault at Broad Run “could and should have been avoided.”

“A remarkable lack of curiosity and buy-in to operating in silos on the part of LCPS administrators is ultimately to blame for the October 6 incident,” the report states.

There was no coordinated cover-up between officials, however, and school board members were deliberately withheld information regarding the incidents until the Oct. 6 sexual assault, the grand jury found.

“(W)e are pleased that the special grand jury’s thorough investigation found no evidence of criminal conduct by anyone within the LCPS, and that no indictment has been filed against following this long process,” school board chairman Jeff Morse said and vice-chairman Ian Serotkin said in a statement.

Grand Jury Recommendations for Loudoun County Public Schools

In its report, the grand jury made many recommendations for the school system and the school board going forward:

Increase transparency and foster better communication Review its transfer process and establish a protocol that requires more vigorous communication between principals, school administration, faculty, special resource officers and, where appropriate, the Commonwealth Attorney , juvenile court authorities and the sheriff’s office More involvement of the LCPS Director of Safety and Security in situations that threaten the safety and security of students, faculty and staff Tightened policies regarding the types of applications that students are allowed to download to their school devicesRevisit Gaggle, the system used by schools to monitor student conversation for security reasonsLimit the extent to which school board members invoke attorney-client privilegeImprove communication, cooperation and coordination between organizations anisms in cases of criminal conduct involving students, faculty, and staff Strengthen avenues of support and defense for faculty and staff when faced with difficult scenarios that could cause anger or impede learning

“This extensive use of the grand jury special investigative process has, however, produced a report containing several criticisms of CPS employees and processes within the division that are quite serious. We place this on the agenda of our next board for immediate discussion to consider these recommendations and take action as determined by the full board,” reads the school board’s response to the report.

“Unlike corporate executives, school board members act on behalf of the public for which they are elected,” the jury said in its report. “Attorney-client privilege should be invoked when necessary to protect legitimate privacy issues that impact the operations of the LCPS and LCSB. It should not be used as a shield that hampers transparency, accountability and openness, particularly with regard to the operations of a public body.”

During its investigation, the grand jury said it was “struck by the lack of communication between the LCPS, the LCSO, the Court Services Unit and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.” A “memorandum of understanding” between the school system and the sheriff’s office outlines procedures for creating a threat assessment team, but no threat assessment of the student involved in the assaults has “ever been considered, let alone undertaken, by the SBHS or the BRHS”. the jury said in the report.

Miyares assembled the grand jury after Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, on his first day in office, issued an executive order requesting an investigation by the attorney general’s office.

“It’s a damning indictment of a — of people who weren’t proactive, who weren’t forthright and, according to the jury, a supervisor who misled the general public,” said Monday Miyares to News4.

Miyares would not say whether or not criminal charges might result from the investigation, although the grand jury did not recommend any criminal charges in its report.

“The grand jury remains in place. I’ll let the general public speculate, but our work continues,” he told News4.

In light of the grand jury investigation, the LCPS must commit to “transparency, accountability and communication,” Miyares said.

Northern Virginia Bureau reporter Drew Wilder speaks with Scott Smith, the parent of a teenager who was sexually assaulted at a Loudoun County high school.

Youngkin and Miyares, both Republicans, had criticized the school board during their successful 2021 campaigns. They said the board was not transparent in how it handled the case as it revised its guidelines on policies governing transgender students.

Youngkin said Monday he was satisfied with the grand jury report.

Today’s report is an important step towards accountability and I applaud the AG for their initiative, he said in a tweet.

Lawyers for the Loudoun County School Board have previously argued that Miyares violated Virginia’s constitution when he created the grand jury to investigate another government agency. But Virginia Deputy Attorney General Steven Popps told the judge, “The school board is not above the law.

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld a July ruling by a circuit court judge who denied the school board’s request for an injunction to restrain the grand jury from proceeding.

Parents of both victims have previously said they want the special grand jury to complete its work.

“We’re in the fight until the very end, you know. I mean, it’s got to come out,” Smith said.

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