A newly-verified picture of the Loudoun County Public Schools rapist, and a letter from the sheriff, raises fresh questions about the honesty of Superintendent Scott Ziegler in his handling of the now-notorious bathroom rape.
The picture shows the teen wearing a skirt and a girls’ blouse designed to expose cleavage, striking a feminine pose and standing in front of a rainbow flag. His hair is tied in a bun, and he is wearing a choker necklace that says “kitten” as well as rainbow socks.
A spokeswoman for the family of his victim confirmed to The Daily Wire that the boy pictured is the person who was ultimately found responsible of the ninth-grader’s rape in a girls’ bathroom at school, and that he was wearing the same feminine blouse during the assault. The assailant previously acknowledged in court that he was wearing a skirt during the rape.
Here is a picture of the "not trans" 15 year old who committed multiple sexual assaults, including in the girls' bathroom, in Loudoun County, wearing a "kitten" choker with rainbow socks and standing in front of an array of LGBTQ flags. (via Daily Mail) pic.twitter.com/bshqAwSWEN
— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) November 2, 2021
LCPS officials did not tell the public, report it to the state on mandatory statistics, or remove the student from school after the May incident. On June 22, weeks after the rape, the school board discussed a proposed policy that would allow transgender students to use girls’ bathrooms. To address parents’ concerns about safety, school board member Beth Barts asked Ziegler whether there was a history of bathroom or locker room assaults.
Ziegler responded that there were no bathroom assaults of any sort on record. Barts replied that she was confused because there was a well-known locker-room incident several years prior among male athletes.
After The Daily Wire revealed the rape and cover-up, Ziegler apologized, saying — despite Barts’ clarifying follow-up in the moment — he mistakenly thought the question referred only to incidents “involving transgender and gender-fluid students”:
Board Member Barts asked a question about discipline incidents in the bathrooms that I wrongly interpreted as incidents involving transgender and gender-fluid students… I regret that my comments were misleading and I apologize for the distress that error caused families. I should have asked Board Member Barts clarifying questions to get to the root of her question, rather than assuming what she meant. I will do better in the future.
But the picture raises questions about whether Ziegler’s apology for one misleading statement was, itself, dishonest. The picture shows a person who was the epitome of the type of person parents concerned about the mixing of genders in bathrooms would consider gender-fluid. In other words, even if his explanation were true, he seemingly still should have included the May 28 incident.
Because the student was not removed from LCPS in-person learning, he was able to commit another sexual offense against a different girl, this time in a classroom at a different school, on October 6. He was later found responsible in court for both incidents.
The picture was originally posted in a story in the Daily Mail, but was quickly removed without explanation. That story involved an interview with the boy’s mother, in which she said that “he’s been a challenging child his whole life.”
His mom told the Daily Mail that the boy had gone into the bathroom with the victim in the morning to help her because she was sick, and then again a few hours later, when he demanded sex. In court, he said he accidentally performed anal sex in addition to vaginal after his watch got caught on his skirt.
“He said, ‘Are you okay?’ She said that hurt. And he’s like, ‘what kind of pain?'” the mother said.
After the girl reported the rape to school officials, Principal Tim Flynn became highly interested in getting a characterization of the boy’s gender identity from the mom. “What does he identify as?” Flynn said, the mom recounted.
“He identifies as male,” she responded.
“Oh, we never knew that,” the principal allegedly replied.
The day of the incident, Flynn wrote a misleading email to the school community saying police were there to deal with a disruptive parent — the victim’s father — not a sexual assault, and said the student body’s safety was not in jeopardy.
“He’s not transgender,” the mother told the Daily Mail, saying he was “pansexual” and describing a pattern of behavior that sounds like those of a gender-fluid person: “He would wear a skirt one day and then the next day, he would wear jeans and a t-shirt, a Polo or hoodie… He was trying to find himself.”
After police investigated the incident, the student was arrested on July 9. A court ordered him not to return to Stone Bridge High School. But LCPS was planning on having him return anyway. Douglas Fulton, LCPS director of school administration, said that Title IX, a federal statute banning discrimination based on sex, meant he could not be disciplined because “LCPS could not conduct an investigation or determine disciplinary action until the law enforcement action was completed,” the rapist’s mother said.
LCPS had still not transferred him by the time the new school year started. He missed the first 10 days of school before he was placed at nearby Broad Run High School. Only weeks later, on October 6, he offended again.
In Ziegler’s apology statement, he also blamed Title IX. But that, too, runs into problems of fact. The federal government is clear that “Although a school division may need to delay temporarily the fact-finding portion of a Title IX investigation while the police are gathering evidence, once notified that the police department has completed its gathering of evidence (not the ultimate outcome of the investigation or the filing of any charges), the school division must promptly resume and complete its fact-finding for the Title IX investigation.”
The July 9 arrest seemingly meant LCPS would have had nearly two months to conduct an investigation and discipline in the rape case before the new school year started. Under no interpretation of Title IX was the school required to wait until a conviction to begin its own investigation.
Perhaps to that end, the school district seemed to suggest that it might not have known he had been arrested. On November 5, Ziegler wrote to Sheriff Mike Chapman complaining of “what may be inaccurate information that was shared at the Board of Supervisors meeting on November 3,” when the sheriff’s office assured county leaders that LCPS was “absolutely notified” of the arrest. Ziegler complained in the letter: “LCPS cannot confirm that we have received the required notification of charges from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office regarding this case.”
Sheriff Mike Chapman blasted Ziegler on November 10 in response, faulting him for being misleading and writing:
Nothing in your letter addresses the following facts:
That you knew of the alleged sexual offense the day it occurred. …
[That] An official notification of the suspect’s July 9, 2021 arrest was made to LCPS by Juvenile Intake as required by law.
That LCPS was aware of the Juvenile Intake, Commonwealth Attorney, and Judicial process throughout this case.
That despite knowing the serious nature of the offense, LCPS decided to place this individual back into (another) high school population.
That the consequences of that decision resulted in a second student being victimized.
Chapman also noted that a day after the incoming Republican state Attorney General Jason Miyares pledged to investigative LCPS’ handling of the rape, LCPS announced it would commission its own “independent” review. “I have concerns of the legitimacy of such a review conducted at your direction,” he wrote.
LCPS did not return a request for comment.
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