Loudoun County: $30M Lawsuit Over Sexual Assault Negligence

The family of a sexual assault victim in Loudoun County is suing the school district for $30 million, alleging that the victim faced academic, emotional, and physical struggles throughout the school year and continues to grapple significantly. A grand jury report, released in December, criticized the district for prioritizing its interests over the students’ well-being in its response to the sexual assaults, stating that LCPS failed at every stage.

Loudoun County School Scandal: Lies, and $30M Lawsuit

The report highlighted a lack of openness, transparency, and accountability on the part of LCPS, condemning then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler for denying knowledge of the May assault at a June 2021 school board meeting. Despite Ziegler’s public statements that the transgender student involved did not exist, emails revealed that he had informed school board members of the assault on the day it occurred.

Senior district officials, according to the report, privately linked the first assault to LCPS’s transgender policy. An investigation by a law firm later commissioned by the school board found no evidence supporting the perpetrator’s identification as female or efforts to gain access to girls’ bathrooms through clothing. The law firm’s December 2021 report disclosed that teachers had warned administrators about the attacker’s behavior before each assault, and even the student’s grandmother had labeled him a “sociopath” to his probation officer.

The law firm accused Ziegler of lying about the May assault at the June 2021 school board meeting. The grand jury and the law firm criticized LCPS for not adequately responding to the assaults, with the law firm’s report noting a lack of outreach to the victim and her family.

Following the grand jury report, the school board terminated Ziegler’s employment, and he was recently found guilty of retaliatory firing related to the district’s handling of the sexual assaults. The U.S. Department of Education initiated an investigation earlier this year into LCPS’s response to the sexual assaults.