The most infamous county in the United States of America for the past five years has been Loudoun County, Virginia. It is not because of its wineries; it is not because of its horse farms; it is not because of its beautiful, quaint downtown Leesburg; it is not even because of its data centers — rather, it is known for its school system. And that, unfortunately, is not a good thing. In just the last month, two stories illustrate why Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) have become shameful. First, law enforcement <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/24/us-news/trans-substitute-teacher-19-allegedly-plotted-chilling-murder-spree-at-a-virginia-school/">arrested a 19-year-old, “transgender” substitute teacher</a> for plotting a “murder spree” at a local high school and then bragging online about having a kill list. Then, just this week, it was <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/freedom-hs-student-accused-of-recording-peers-in-school-bathroom">reported</a> that a “transgender” student at another high school recorded and photographed over forty boys using the bathroom over the span of three years, resulting in another <a href="https://x.com/NickMinock/status/2054185784672927938?s=20">criminal investigation</a>.
Sadly, these incidents have become commonplace at LCPS since 2021, when the school board debated and passed <a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:7d508727-41ce-425d-b0a6-f4fa0a1d2ad8">Policy 8040</a>, which formalized providing super-rights to “transgender and gender expansive students,” allowing them to use opposite-sex restrooms when it matched their “gender identity,” while requiring all other students to accept this or find a private restroom or elsewhere to change. From that moment on, school board members and administrators have been determined to elevate all things “transgender” to the detriment of students, parents, teachers, and common sense. In the process, LCPS has put its federal funding at risk, has exposed itself to significant liability, and has become a national laughingstock.
LCPS’s self-inflicted humiliation really began during the debate over its “transgender” policy in May 2021, when it suspended a teacher for speaking against the policy at a school board meeting because his faith prohibited him from acknowledging students’ “gender identity” by using their chosen pronouns. The trial court swiftly <a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:8cb135d5-fe3b-4988-b154-63804808feb8">reinstated the teacher</a>, finding that LCPS had engaged in an “unnecessary and vindictive” attempt to violate the teacher’s free speech and free exercise rights. Rather than letting it go, LCPS appealed the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court and promptly <a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:caaa5bea-6fb3-40c8-acc5-15eb33188a2d">lost again</a>.
The next month, hundreds of community members showed up to a school board meeting where Policy 8040 was being debated. The overwhelming majority of attendees voiced concerns that the policy would effectively eliminate students’ safety and privacy in same-sex restrooms and locker rooms. Following a round of applause for one of the speakers opposed to the proposed policy, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-parents-protesting-crt-trans-ideology-arrested-after-loudoun-county-school-board-shuts-down-meeting">LCPS shut down the public meeting</a> and arrested two individuals. When the meeting resumed, then-superintendent Scott Ziegler claimed that there were no records of assaults in LCPS bathrooms, and the school board passed Policy 8040 six weeks later, again over fierce vocal opposition from the community.
In October 2021, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">broke the story</a> that one of the individuals who had been arrested at the June meeting was the father of a girl who had been raped in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School by a boy wearing a skirt. To make matters worse, the boy was quietly transferred to a different school, where he sexually assaulted a second girl. According to sworn testimony in court, the boy identified as “gender expansive.” This became national news, the subject of congressional oversight hearings, and arguably a motivating factor in Virginians electing Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears, and Jason Miyares as governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, respectively. This remains the subject of an <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-scott-smith-sexual-assault-student-daughter-bathroom-convicted-restroom-stone-bridge-high-school-vice-principal-title-xi-lawsuit-federal-eastern-district-msiconduct-superintendent">active Department of Education Title IX investigation</a> and a <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-scott-smith-sexual-assault-student-daughter-bathroom-convicted-restroom-stone-bridge-high-school-vice-principal-title-xi-lawsuit-federal-eastern-district-msiconduct-superintendent">federal lawsuit</a> filed by the victim.
Upon taking office, Miyares opened an investigation, which ultimately ripened into a special grand jury investigation and the indictments of then-Superintendent Ziegler and then-Public Information Officer Wayde Byard. Byard was ultimately <a href="https://wtop.com/local/2024/09/acquitted-of-perjury-longtime-loudoun-co-schools-spokesman-has-new-book-on-school-culture-war/">found not guilty of felony perjury</a>, but <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-public-schools-lcps-former-superintendent-scott-zeigler-verdict-guilty-acquitted-investigation-sexual-assaults-jury-trial-special-gran-jury-erin-brooks-virginia-special-education">Ziegler was convicted</a> of using his public office to retaliate against a teacher who spoke up about being inappropriately touched by a student. While Ziegler’s conviction was ultimately <a href="https://www.loudounnow.com/news/loudoun-judge-sets-aside-ziegler-conviction-orders-new-trial/article_04d65594-dca0-11ee-a183-cbe64e26a494.html">vacated due to a flawed jury instruction</a>, the school board fired him.
For the next four years, parents continued to show up at school board meetings, pleading with the board to repeal Policy 8040 and restore some level of sanity to its schools. In July 2025, following AFL’s formal request that the federal Department of Education open a Title IX investigation into Policy 8040, the Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-finds-five-northern-virginia-school-districts-violation-of-title-ix">announced</a> it had determined that LCPS’s policies constituted unlawful sex discrimination under Title IX. LCPS would have to rescind its “transgender” policies to come into compliance with federal law or risk losing all federal funding. In a move that would surprise no one in Loudoun County, LCPS <a href="https://www.loudounnow.com/news/loudoun-school-board-again-bucks-federal-pressure-on-title-ix-compliance/article_ba0bad16-de62-4f10-9c63-3c23d4cdcf63.html">voted to refuse to comply</a> with the Department of Education&#8217;s requirements to resolve the matter.
And, just days after telling the federal government to pound sand, LCPS <a href="https://www.loudounnow.com/news/loudoun-school-board-again-bucks-federal-pressure-on-title-ix-compliance/article_ba0bad16-de62-4f10-9c63-3c23d4cdcf63.html">suspended two boys</a> for objecting to an allegedly “transgender” female student using their locker room and filming other boys while she did so. Charged by LCPS with violating Title IX, the boys filed their own Title IX complaint against the female student for filming them and others in a boys’ locker room. LCPS dismissed their complaint. Enter the Department of Education yet again. The Department opened another Title IX investigation, finding the school system had engaged in sex discrimination against the two boys. The two boys also brought a federal lawsuit against LCPS, which led to a settlement this past February.
Loudoun County Public School parents have every right to wonder how a student could have surreptitiously recorded over 40 other students using the restroom over a three-year period. It strains credulity to believe that this situation had never been brought to the attention of teachers or administrators until now. And given that LCPS has shown a clear pattern of preferential treatment toward anyone who identifies as “transgender or gender expansive,” it would surprise absolutely no one if this student’s behavior had been covered up for that exact reason.
The good news is that parents in Loudoun County may soon get long-deserved answers about the dumpster fire that is their school system. That is because LCPS Superintendent Aaron Spence has been called to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee on June 10 at a hearing titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools.” LCPS may have been able to evade the tough questions over the past five years by limiting public comment, turning off cameras during school board meetings, and labeling every inconvenient fact “Misinformation and Disinformation.”  Now, however, the most infamous school system in America will be the subject of a must-see congressional hearing on Capitol Hill. Get the popcorn ready. This will be a good one.
***
Ian Prior is senior counsel at America First Legal and former deputy director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice.

Loudoun County school board meeting

How Transgender Fixation Flunked Loudoun County Schools

DW Opinion

LCPS

Loudoun County

Public Schools

Transgender

I started following Charlie Kirk the moment he stepped on the stage of American politics. I watched him mature in his role as founder of Turning Point USA, and I distinctly remember admiring him for shifting its mission with the realization that the battle for America was not just a political battle, but a spiritual one as well. I was so enamored that I used to imagine being on Charlie’s show — but who was I?
And then it happened. God gave me a chance to be courageous. As a teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools, Virginia, one of the most controversial school districts in the country, I realized God’s truth was more important than my job security, and I took a stand. Alliance Defending Freedom represented me in a <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/cross-v-loudoun-county-school-board/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">lawsuit</a> against LCPS’s transgender policy. We sued to protect free speech and religious freedom, and to advocate for the truth of God’s design.
Charlie Kirk was the first major media personality to invite us to share our story.
Charlie used his platform to take someone considered a “nobody” and elevate her. That is the kind of man he was. He looked to elevate others rather than himself. I have no doubt that, though I was represented by a prestigious legal organization, it was talking with Charlie on his show that made my witness visible and opened other opportunities for me to see God’s goodness in the midst of spiritual battle.
I’m a high school government teacher. I knew, even as I cried over the loss of Charlie and grieved for his wife and children, that I had many students who loved him. I needed the courage to go into school and talk with my classes about this tragic moment for our nation.
Here is what I said to all of my classes:
<blockquote>“One of Charlie Kirk’s repeated themes was how important it is to talk to one another. He often said when people stop talking, that’s when bad things happen. In a marriage, when people stop talking, divorce follows. In society, when people stop talking, that’s when violence happens. One of Charlie’s missions was to train a generation—your generation—how to do politics the right way, how to engage in honest, respectful civil discourse, especially with those whom you disagree.
“One of the things we’ll be learning in studying the Constitution is that there are two ways to govern people: by talking or by force. Democracies govern by talking. That means engaging respectfully with each other, arguing to persuade one another, discussing, negotiating, compromising, and deciding together how to move forward knowing not everyone is going to agree on everything but figuring out how to live together well even in our differences.
“Over the last few days we’ve learned about healthy and unhealthy civil society. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is the epitome of unhealthy civil society. Charlie believed in faith, family, and freedom. Because he was so confident in what he believed and spoke boldly about it, he was silenced…. Again, there are only two ways of governing people: by talking or by force. If we stop talking, there is only one other option.”</blockquote>
In 30 years, I’ve taught four generations of youth. In many ways, the kids of each generation have been the same — trying to grow up, find their identity, and navigate teenage angst. But over the last two years, I’ve noticed a shift.
For almost a decade, when it was time to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, almost no students recited it. Some even refused to stand. Now everyone stands and recites the pledge. I’ve noticed a hunger for truth and a desire for more than slogans.
Now, more students courageously express their faith in school. It’s not every kid, but it is enough to inspire hope, and I believe that Charlie Kirk’s mission is part of the reason for it. His movement has had a ripple effect, even on the kids who have not necessarily followed him. His footprint is that big.
Charlie Kirk was hated because he was confident in what he believed, gifted at persuading others, and a man of integrity. Proverbs 29:10 says, “The bloodthirsty hate a person of integrity and seek to kill the upright.” Jesus told his followers that “the world hates me, and they will hate you because of me.” Goodness evokes one of two reactions from people: hostility or attraction. Those who are attracted want to embrace and merge with that goodness. Those who are hostile to goodness see it as a threat. Simply living right and being a person of integrity will invite hostility.
To our youth: You have a choice. Now is the moment for courage, the time to decide to do what is right, even knowing that it may cost you greatly. My prayer is that this generation, inspired by Charlie Kirk, will stiffen their spines and stand to fight for the same virtues that he stood for so that we may win back the soul of America.
* * *
Monica Gill is a government teacher at Loudoun County High School.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Charlie Kirk Speaks At The Cambridge Union

A Teacher’s Tribute: What Charlie Kirk Taught Me And My Students

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Charlie Kirk

Christianity

Education

Free Speech

Students

Teachers

Turning Point USA

Virginia

In 10 years, The Daily Wire has put up some incredible wins, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking back at 10 of our greatest victories — none of which could have happened without the support of our loyal members and fans. 
To begin, we’re going back to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">story</a> that shocked America — a story that only saw the light of day because The Daily Wire decided it needed to be told. 
In June of 2021, a Virginia man was arrested at a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">Loudoun County</a>, Virginia, school board meeting after he and other attendees spoke out against a proposed transgender bathroom policy for students. Scott Smith became an example used by the Left to label parents who voiced concern about woke policies in schools as potential “domestic terrorists.” 
But Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak discovered that there was much more to the story. 
“What people did not know is that weeks prior on May 28, Smith says, a boy allegedly wearing a skirt entered a girls’ bathroom at nearby Stone Bridge High School, where he sexually assaulted Smith’s ninth-grade daughter,” Rosiak reported. 
Smith was angry after the superintendent falsely stated that there had never been any sexual assaults in Loudoun’s bathrooms as part of a lecture dismissing parents’ concerns. As a result of LCPS’s deliberate effort to sweep that rape under the rug, including submitting falsified documentation to the state, the school board was able to pass the transgender policy that they wanted. Weeks later, the boy who raped Smith’s daughter in the bathroom was arrested for another sexual assault, after police said he forced a girl into an empty classroom, held her against her will, and touched her inappropriately. 
Without The Daily Wire’s coverage and the support of our readers, this story likely would have never been told, and Loudoun County Public Schools would have never faced widespread public scrutiny. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The Daily Wire article, which was published in October 2021, sent a shockwave throughout Virginia and the nation just weeks before a major Virginia gubernatorial election. The story became a rallying cry for parents demanding accountability and transparency from school boards, especially on the issue of transgenderism.
The Daily Wire investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools was a major reason that parental rights became a central issue in the 2021 Virginia election, with Republican Glenn Youngkin pulling off a surprise victory. The Daily Wire’s reporting didn’t just break a story — it helped shift the political landscape. 
As we celebrate this win, we’re reminded that The Daily Wire’s mission is about more than breaking news — it’s about challenging the Left’s obfuscation of reality and amplifying the stories and voices that need to be read and heard. And of course, that victory couldn’t have happened without your loyalty to The Daily Wire. With your continued support, we’ll keep fighting for the truth, no matter how inconvenient it may be.

Decade Of Daily Wire: How We Exposed Loudoun County’s Dirty Secrets

Daily Wire

Luke Rosiak

The Loudoun County school board will no longer force staff to use students&#8217; preferred pronouns after teachers sued over the Northern Virginia school district&#8217;s transgender policy, a court ruled on Thursday.
In a free speech victory for several teachers who sued, the Loudoun County Circuit Court officially recognized that Loudoun County Public Schools no longer requires teachers to use pronouns inconsistent with students’ biological sex.
The court noted that &#8220;on its face, [the transgender policy] does not require teachers or other staff to use a pronoun to refer to a person that a teacher believes is inconsistent with the person’s sex. Instead, [the policy] permits staff to refrain from using any pronouns.”
The transgender <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/files/D7VLH356939A/$file/8040.pdf">policy</a>, which was adopted in 2021, allows &#8220;gender-expansive or transgender students&#8221; to choose their names and pronouns. Originally, officials stated that it required teachers to use them as well.
&#8220;Staff or students who intentionally and persistently refuse to respect a student’s gender identity by using the wrong name and gender pronoun are in violation of this policy,&#8221; the policy reads.
However, the Loudoun County school board backed down on requiring teachers to use pronouns after Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys <a href="https://adfmedia.org/case/vlaming-v-west-point-school-board/">won</a> a victory on the same issue for another high school teacher, Peter Vlaming, in a different Virginia school district.
Thursday&#8217;s court ruling affirms the school board&#8217;s new interpretation of its policy.
This is the second victory for Loudoun County teachers in this case.
In May 2021, physical education teacher Tanner Cross spoke at a school board meeting and expressed his concerns that the new transgender policy would violate teachers and parents&#8217; rights and be harmful to students.
A few days later, Cross was suspended by Leesburg Elementary School.
He <a href="https://adfmedia.org/case/cross-v-loudoun-county-school-board/">ultimately</a> got his job back when Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys sued on his behalf, and the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that his constitutional rights had likely been violated.
&#8220;Unfortunately, thereafter &#8230; the school board adopted [the transgender policy] without making any revisions or addressing any of the concerns that Tanner or the other parents and teachers addressed,&#8221; Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Wire.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys added two more teachers to the lawsuit against the policy — Smart’s Mill Middle School English teacher Kim Wright and Loudoun County High School history teacher Monica Gill.
&#8220;Thankfully, now after several years of litigation, the school has agreed that its policy does not and cannot compel teachers to use pronouns that students request which are inconsistent with the student&#8217;s sex,&#8221; Langhofer said.
Gill, one of the plaintiffs celebrating Thursday&#8217;s ruling, has taught in Loudoun County for nearly 25 years.
&#8220;I treasure all my students, regardless of whether they identify as the opposite sex,&#8221; Gill said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
However, the transgender policy &#8220;threatened to make me ignore biological reality and lie to my students,&#8221; Gill said.
&#8220;This policy jeopardized the dignity of all students,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m pleased that the school district has now honored my constitutionally protected freedom to speak to my students in love and truth.&#8221;
Loudoun County has been a flash point in the national controversy over transgender ideology in schools, starting with The Daily Wire&#8217;s bombshell 2021 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">investigation</a> into a father&#8217;s claim that the school district covered up the rape of his daughter by a male student in a skirt in the girls&#8217; school bathroom.
&#8220;For many, many years, Loudoun County, along with many other school boards across the country, have acted as if they control, that they&#8217;re ultimately responsible for the education of the children rather than parents,&#8221; attorney Langhofer said.
&#8220;They&#8217;ve also acted as if they get to control all of teachers&#8217; speech and that they can punish teachers for disagreeing with the school on really important topics such as human sexuality and gender identity,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;So this ruling is a great victory for teachers who don&#8217;t want to express messages that they think are untrue or are harmful to students and also don&#8217;t want to mislead parents about how their schools are treating the students at school,&#8221; the attorney said.

Trans Rights Protest At Downing Street As UK Government Blocks Scottish Parliament Law On Self Identification

EXCLUSIVE: Loudoun County Teachers Don’t Have To Use Trans Pronouns, Court Rules

EXCLUSIVE: Loudoun County Teachers Don't Have To Use Trans Pronouns After Lawsuit

Special prosecutors representing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Thursday moved to drop the criminal case against Loudoun County Public Schools’ former superintendent, Scott Ziegler, who was fired over a rape coverup.
Ziegler was already convicted by a jury in the case, but a judge overturned the conviction on a technicality, saying that although there was “ample evidence” to support the charge, it would have to be retried. Miyares’ office said it will no longer seek that retrial after LCPS settled a civil lawsuit with a teacher whose testimony was key in the case.
In October 2021, The Daily Wire reported that at a school board meeting over a proposed transgender policy, Ziegler dismissed concerns about safety by stating that no sexual assaults had ever occurred in Loudoun’s bathrooms, despite knowing that a boy wearing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">skirt and blouse allegedly raped </a>a ninth-grader in a girls bathroom just weeks prior. LCPS also filed false paperwork with the state concealing the incident. The policy was passed and the boy remained in the school system, despite the police charging him with rape. That allowed him to sexually assault a second girl in October. He was convicted on both counts.
A special grand jury was convened to look into Loudoun’s handling of sexual abuse, and it resulted in a felony perjury charge against the school’s then-spokesman, and two misdemeanors against Ziegler. One was for the false statement at the school board meeting, and the other was for allegedly firing a teacher, Erin Brooks, in retaliation for her speaking to the grand jury.
In September 2023, Ziegler was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jury-finds-former-loudoun-county-superintendent-guilty-of-charges-stemming-from-trans-rape-coverup">convicted</a> of the latter charge, which carried a penalty of up to a year in jail. He showed up to his trial wearing nail polish and an earring. Prosecutors then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-drops-remaining-criminal-charge-against-loudoun-superintendent-who-lied-about-rape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> the other charge, explaining that they were satisfied that he was now a convicted criminal and there was no need for the time and expense of a second trial. But that logic no longer held when the judge overturned the conviction on a technicality. Judge Douglas Fleming wrote that there was “ample evidence” to support Ziegler’s conviction in the Brooks case, but that it would have to be retried.
In June 2022, Brooks also brought a civil lawsuit seeking money over the same issue, suing LCPS and a principal. It settled last November, not long before the criminal retrial, which was set to take place next month. Miyares’ motion to close the case said “Since this Court’s ruling setting aside the earlier conviction, the complaining witness has resolved her civil suit against the defendant and the Loudoun County Public Schools. The complaining witness is grateful to the Office of the Attorney General for its efforts in obtaining the initial conviction, but now desires to put this entire matter behind her.” Brooks’ cooperation would have been key to securing another criminal conviction.
LCPS has a history of paying people who allege that they have been wronged by its employees in exchange for both not pursuing legal action and their silence. The Daily Wire is currently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-sues-loudoun-schools-for-misusing-privacy-protections-to-hide-wrongdoing">suing</a> the district for its payouts to resolve allegations of wrongdoing against it, including the contracts with language such as secrecy clauses. LCPS has acknowledged that it is hiding at least 10 settlements since May 2023.
<div id="attachment_472476" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-472476" class="size-full wp-image-472476" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200.png" alt="" width="1200" height="651" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200.png 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-300x163.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-1024x556.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-768x417.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />The Loudoun County Public Schools rapist / Social media screenshot</div>
Those include a settlement with the second girl assaulted by the rapist, which used an out-of-district court, the Alexandria Circuit Court, to conceal the deal and place the entire case under seal. In the FOIA lawsuit in Loudoun court, LCPS has refused to show even that judge a copy of the settlement, or disclose its dollar amount. Her family said after the grand jury released its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/grand-jury-finds-virginia-school-bathroom-rape-handling-worse-than-known-rips-officials-intentional-amnesia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fact-finding report</a> — leading to Ziegler&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-school-board-fires-superintendent-who-lied-about-bathroom-rape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">firing</a> — that “since our daughter was assaulted, not one member of the school board, LCPS administration, or even our local high school leadership has reached out to check on how she is doing, lend any type of support or even apologize for what we are going through as a family. That alone speaks volumes to what we have endured throughout this ordeal.”
The school system&#8217;s indulgence in controversial politics has also been expensive for taxpayers — or its insurance company — through significant bills for the time of outside lawyers. LCPS responded to a FOIA request from The Daily Wire for legal bills with totals showing nearly $2 million to outside attorneys between the June 2021 rape and 2023. Missing were any payments to Ziegler’s attorneys, and LCPS ignored FOIA appeals questioning its completeness. Ziegler’s attorneys later filed a lawsuit against LCPS saying it had <a href="https://www.loudountimes.com/0local-or-not/1local/law-firm-representing-ziegler-says-lcps-owes-617k-in-legal-fees/article_798629dc-f906-11ee-9b1d-ff577cf00612.html">refused to pay his bills</a>, seemingly suggesting that Ziegler was on his own. Spokesman Dan Adams did not answer questions about the Brooks settlement for this story, which also asked its current position on whether Ziegler had to pay his own legal bills or not.
The former spokesman facing the felony perjury charge was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-schools-honchos-in-perjury-trial-testify-they-cant-remember-almost-anything-about-rape-scandal">acquitted</a> after a parade of LCPS officials testified that they could not recall basic details of what had transpired.
Out of all of LCPS’ 15,000 teachers, Brooks was singled out for firing by Ziegler at a school board meeting in June 2022, prosecutors said. Ziegler told board members he fired Brooks for giving private information to a conservative activist, and for giving private information to the grand jury, school board member John Beatty testified. Ziegler’s alleged claim that Brooks had given information to a conservative activist turned out to be false, and it would be illegal to punish her for telling the truth to a jury she’d been subpoenaed by, prosecutors argued.
At trial, school board member Brenda Sheridan, a Democrat who was chair during the rape coverup, was asked under oath about Ziegler’s closed-door statements that amounted to a confession. She did not deny Beatty’s version, but instead refused to answer.

Scott Ziegler outside the Loudoun courthouse on September 28, 2023 / Daily Wire

Criminal Charge Against Loudoun County Superintendent Dropped After Victim Is Paid Off

WASHINGTON, D.C. &#8212; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> on Friday told hundreds of moms from across the country that Democrat policies are harming children, and that a second Trump administration will prioritize the rights of parents.
He spoke for an hour at a conference organized by Moms For Liberty just two blocks from the White House, which some pledged to “fight like a mother” to make his home once again.
Trump said that the Biden-Harris open border policies, which include letting any child across the border as long as they are “unaccompanied” by a parent, cruelly lead to Hispanic children being placed in vulnerable situations.
“Massive percentages of women are being raped and beat to hell coming up in the caravans,” he said. “Mothers give their daughters big bottles of birth control because they know it’s bad coming up.”
The loophole for “unaccompanied minors” persists even under Biden’s recent executive order tightening the border, and Harris’ Democratic National Convention platform reaffirms its commitment to it. Trump suggested that the exemption induced family separation, encouraging children to split off from their parents and come to the U.S. alone, where they are at the whims of traffickers. “We’re getting them to come up, telling them you’ll get free [things],” he said.
Nearly 500,000 “unaccompanied minors” have crossed the border, and Biden eliminated DNA testing requirements and reduced vetting, sending them to live with unrelated “sponsors.” About a third of children <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors">go missing</a> after being sent to live with sponsors.
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Trump said American children also suffer from the migrant influx. “They’re going into the classroom, carrying disease and they don’t even speak english. It’s crazy,” he said. “I thought New York had no money, yet they’re spending billions of dollars on illegal immigrants. … When you think that 21 million people came into our country, that’s bigger than New York. Nobody can take that.”
Trump said foreign leaders are getting rid of criminals in their society by dumping them on the U.S., and that American youth are “being killed by illegal aliens” &#8212; two words he said Democrats don’t want people to use because “they want to take away all the words so you can&#8217;t talk about the subject.” He said that two days ago, he was at the border with parents who had lost a child due to migrant crime.
He said he believes 85-90% of the country does not want to be flooded with illegal immigrants, and that he will deport them. “The highest deportation was a pretty moderate guy, but he hated that our country was being swamped, Dwight Eisenhower,” he said.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-789049" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2.jpg" alt="" width="2400" height="1300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2.jpg 2400w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2-300x163.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2-1024x555.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2-768x416.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2-1536x832.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-2-2048x1109.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px" /></div>
Trump said he would restore rights to parents, citing the story of the Loudoun County transgender rape coverup broken by The Daily Wire in which the victim’s father was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/glenn-youngkin-grants-absolute-pardon-to-loudoun-dad-arrested-at-school-board-meeting">prosecuted</a>.
“You have these parents that get in fistfights at school board meetings, and they mean well. Especially in Loudoun County,” he said. “The parents truly love the kids. Some of these people on the boards, I think they don’t like the kids very much, with what they’re doing. You have to give the rights back to the parents. This administration, the FBI goes after the parents. We’ll change that on the first day.”
He also said he would ensure that girls can compete in sports without being thwarted by mediocre boys. “Who would want men playing in women’s sports?” he asked. “The Olympics was the best thing I’ve seen because you really see when these boxers come out, it was so ridiculous … it’s so demeaning to women.”
Parents are a key constituency for Republicans as Democrats have rapidly politicized public education, even fighting against merit and rigor — such as gifted and talented schools — in the name of “equity.”
Trump was introduced by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who attributed his own success to his mother vigilantly monitoring his treatment at the hands of New York’s public schools.
Moms for Liberty formed three years ago out of anger at extended school closures pushed by Democrats at the behest of teachers unions. It is now widely accepted that the moms’ position was the correct one.
Democrats have sought to simply act as if the misstep never occurred, but many at the Moms for Liberty convention believed that children are still suffering from a year of lost learning, and that Democrats should pay a price at the ballot box.
Yet one person wore a mask to Trump’s speech in 2024: a reporter camped in a press area, who was also one of the few not to stand for the national anthem.
<div id="attachment_789047" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-789047" class="size-full wp-image-789047" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1920" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/m4l-3-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />A journalist wears a mask to be around conservatives in 2024</div>

Trump at Moms for Liberty

Trump Makes His Case To Parents In Moms For Liberty Speech, Citing Effects To Children Of Open Borders, Transgender Ideology

Byron Donalds

Donald Trump

Elections

Immigration

Parental Rights in Education

Politics

Law enforcement identified 39-year-old Toby Shane Kessler as the man who broke into a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> campaign office for former President Donald Trump last weekend.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said authorities were still trying to locate Kessler, who they say <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/authorities-search-for-man-who-broke-into-trump-campaign-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke into</a> the Trump for President 2024 office located in Ashburn, Virginia, around 8:11 p.m. on Sunday. The office, about 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.,  is being leased by the Trump campaign. 
Kessler has been charged with burglary and could face up to 20 years in prison and a $2,500 fine if convicted. 
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“The LCSO’s investigation determined that Mr. Kessler forced entry into a back door of the location and spent a brief period of time inside before leaving,” the sheriff’s office said. “He appears to have left nothing behind, and it is still unclear what, if anything, he took with him. The investigation is ongoing.”
Kessler was described as a white adult male with dark clothing, a cap, and a backpack. Law enforcement said that Kessler doesn’t have a “fixed address.” 
“Mr. Kessler has a history of criminal behavior and appears to have been in the Washington metropolitan area at least since 2018. He has a California identification,” the sheriff’s office said. 
Court <a href="https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/gdcourts/criminalDetail.do?formAction=newSearch?ts=1723809893251&amp;clientSearchCounter=3&amp;localFipsCode=013" target="_blank" rel="noopener">records</a> show that he was previously arrested in Arlington on a felony offense in 2020 and <a href="https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/gdcourts/criminalDetail.do?formAction=newSearch?ts=1723810087775&amp;clientSearchCounter=3&amp;localFipsCode=013" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged </a>with failure to appear in court in July 2020. He was arrested on that charge on July 13, 2024, before he was released on his own recognizance. 
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The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/14/trump-virginia-office-break-in-suspect-identified/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that in 2019, Kessler was charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct in Maryland and had a loitering charge in Florida. He has also been charged with public intoxication and property damage in Virginia. 
In a statement on Wednesday, Virginia GOP Chairman Rich Anderson praised law enforcement over its handling of the case. 
“The Republican Party of Virginia is deeply grateful to Sheriff Mike Chapman and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office for their rapid and professional handling of this investigation,” he said. “Their efforts are a reminder of how fortunate we all are to have the dedicated men and women of law enforcement serving our communities.”

MixCollage-16-Aug-2024-07-42-AM-8863

Man With Lengthy Criminal History Identified As Suspect Who Broke Into Trump Campaign Office

2024 Election

Crime

U.S. Politics

The “gender-fluid” Virginia teenager who raped a freshman girl in a girl’s bathroom while he was wearing a skirt was quietly released from a juvenile treatment center in November. On Wednesday, his 18th birthday, he was released from court supervision.
Because Buta Biberaj—Loudoun County&#8217;s since-defeated George Soros-backed prosecutor—charged him as a juvenile, he will have no public conviction on his record. He will not appear on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-rapist-removed-from-sex-offender-registry-after-county-board-member-says-hes-the-victim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sex offender registry</a>, despite Judge Pamela Brooks saying at his January 2022 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-loudoun-rapist-sentenced-put-on-sex-offender-registry-for-life">sentencing</a> that “Over the years this court has read many psychosexual reports, and when I read yours, frankly, it scared me. It scared me for you, it scared me for society.”
Now that the perpetrator is an adult, The Daily Wire is no longer withholding his name: Hunter Heckel.
In October 2021, The Daily Wire broke the news that the Loudoun County school system <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concealed the rape</a> while it worked to pass a policy that would allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. Administrators transferred Heckel to a different school, where he sexually assaulted another girl.
In between, then-Loudoun County Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler accused parents who objected to the bathroom policy of transphobia and denied that any rape occurred in the school bathroom.
Scott Smith, the father of Heckel&#8217;s first victim, said Biberaj did not notify his family upon the rapist&#8217;s release in November. Biberaj lost to a Republican that same month.
Smith said after Heckel raped his daughter, Biberaj extended a plea deal for lesser charges, over his objections, that would have “made it seem like a minor thing.”
“They were trying to push through a BS plea bargain with no consequence. We were told there was nothing we could do about it,&#8221; Smith told The Daily Wire. &#8220;If he hadn’t [assaulted a second girl], they were going to push us off a cliff.&#8221;
Biberaj personally argued in court for Smith&#8211;the victim&#8217;s father&#8211;to be sentenced to jail for disorderly conduct after he became angry at the school board meeting at which Ziegler denied the existence of the rape. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R.) later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-lash-out-at-youngkin-for-pardoning-father-of-loudoun-rape-victim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pardoned</a> Smith for his disorderly conduct conviction, sending Biberaj into a fury.
The new Republican prosecutor, Bob Anderson, has since hired several people who stood up for the victims, including a lawyer who helped the Smith family navigate Heckler&#8217;s prosecution and another who worked for the state to prosecute former superintendent Ziegler.
Smith—who is suing Loudoun County Public Schools after its<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-said-trumps-policies-forced-them-to-cover-up-rape-its-own-lawyers-found-the-opposite-in-secret-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> lawyers</a> acknowledged that it violated federal law designed to protect women—said Biberaj’s defeat at the ballot box was a bright spot in a trying time.
Smith said that he was told that Heckel has “completed his high school, he has a job, and he’s considering going to college.&#8221;
“He basically walked out of this scarless. Hunter got a new start yesterday. When do we get our new start?”

Loudoun rapist

Virginia’s Skirt-Wearing Rapist Was Released On His 18th Birthday. Now He’s Not Anonymous.

George Soros

The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) official hired to foster &#8220;transparency&#8221; and &#8220;family outreach&#8221; following its sordid scandals appears to be tied to a social media account that degraded and attacked parents and journalists, mocking the district&#8217;s sex-starved &#8220;middle-aged soccer mom[s]” and &#8220;white people,&#8221; and saying a journalist had a &#8220;little d&#8211;k.&#8221;
When Aaron Spence was named superintendent after the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-loudoun-superintendent-heads-to-criminal-sentencing-no-evidence-of-remorse-just-partisan-rage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal indictment</a> of his predecessor, Spence turned heads by bringing with him a lavishly-paid communications officer from his last job: Thirty-six-year-old Natalie Allen was given an annual salary of $251,000, plus special benefits, to serve as Chief Communications Officer of Loudoun schools.
Allen&#8217;s office has often ignored questions from reporters, including for this article. However, around the time that Allen was brought in to manage LCPS&#8217; reputation, assure parents that it was not partisan, and provide information to the public, an X account with the handle @kecknj began profanely attacking journalists, conservatives, and others who discussed negative information about LCPS.
The X account did not have a name displayed at the time, but a 2019 news article reveals that it used to have the name Nicholas Keckeisen. Property records show Allen owns a home with Nicholas Keckeisen; he is presumably her husband. That <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/school-board-president-apologizes-for-comparing-blonde-hair-to-racial-injustice-013628281.html">news article</a> showed the account attacking a school board member in Missouri, where Allen worked around that time, accusing the board member of “white fragility.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 LCPS pays their Chief Communications Officer, Natalie Allen, a salary of 250k to “drive positive news coverage of LCPS and build meaningful relationship with families”.
Why is her husband, kecknj, attacking local news reporters and parents? Is he ensuring her job security? <a href="https://t.co/JlSGzHaWkr">pic.twitter.com/JlSGzHaWkr</a>
— LoudounCountyMoms (@LoudounMoms) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoudounMoms/status/1772782409915695306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
The account (which Allen&#8217;s official X account follows) was imbued with partisan animus and mirrored the issues fixated on by Allen&#8217;s office, revealing contempt for normal taxpayers of America’s wealthiest county. The account called conservative parents “lying sacks of s&#8212;” and concerned moms a “little sewing group” of “middle-aged soccer mom[s]” who were angry because their pool boys would not have sex with them. “We’re trying to get those white people to stop being a—holes,” it said, adding that the state&#8217;s Republican governor supports rape.
The poster claimed to see a conservative parent “slipping schtick minock’s little d— down his throat behind the Arby’s last week” — using a disparaging nickname for the WJLA journalist Nick Minock, who has been targeted by Allen&#8217;s office — and said the school board views concerned parents as “fools to be kept off of Fox news with your childish antics.”
Allen, immediately after being hired, steered $27,000 to a nonprofit that had previously given her an award — the nonprofit went on to write a report that was used as justification for shocking steps to silence critics of Spence, demonize watchdogs, and turn the school system into &#8220;misinformation&#8221; police, a Daily Wire review shows. That includes a move to ban elected school board members —Spence&#8217;s bosses — from communicating with their own constituents, in favor of all information coming through Allen&#8217;s office.
The &#8220;communications audit&#8221; purchased from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) is cited as the basis for LCPS asking the federal government last month to punish a local news station for its Emmy-winning coverage of LCPS, with Allen&#8217;s subordinate writing to the Federal Communications Commission that an ABC affiliate&#8217;s coverage &#8220;will continue unabated without some kind of external action.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-asks-feds-to-censor-local-outlet-for-bullying-it-by-reporting-on-its-corruption" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FCC complaint</a> even argued that the station should not be allowed to use the tagline “Crisis in the Classroom” for its editorial products on education because the “communications audit” said people would prefer “good news” stories.
NSPRA gave Allen an award in 2020, as well as honored her in 2016, a year in which she worked for Baltimore County Public Schools superintendent Dallas Dance, who was sentenced to <a href="https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2019-05-30/dallas-dance-talks-about-baltimore-county-schools-and-his-new-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prison for perjury</a> in 2018.
Its audit was also cited as justification for a broader attack by Allen’s office on the media, including a new website called “<a href="https://www.lcps.org/Page/254751" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Correcting Misinformation and Disinformation</a>” that faults the media for harming “the school division’s efforts to rebuild trust.” The website says Allen&#8217;s office will &#8220;notify students, families, staff and the community when misinformation or disinformation is occurring.”
The <a href="https://issuu.com/lcpspio/docs/audit_report_loudoun_2024_final" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit proposed</a> to “Eliminate the release of board member-specific newsletters. Currently, some board members send newsletters to their district constituents and some do not&#8230; Stakeholders are simply receiving too much information from too many sources. Eliminating these newsletters would be responsive to that stakeholder feedback, and instead relying on school board information produced and distributed by the Department of Communications and Community Engagement would help ensure messages are accurate.”
That would amount to a near-coup, as the superintendent works for school board members, rather than the other way around. In recent weeks, a Republican school board member was also hauled into a secret meeting where she faced the threat of <a href="https://www.loudounnow.com/news/after-school-board-closed-session-no-formal-action-taken-against-griffiths/article_41205c62-2d12-11ef-b181-6f22226c535c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discipline</a> after she said she voted against giving Spence a $20,000 bonus, while a policy was proposed prohibiting school board aides from criticizing the district <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-county-school-board-policy-restrict-staff-criticism-lcps-publicly-privately-public-comment-meeting-bathroom-locker-room-policies-children-students-athletic-gender-sex" target="_blank" rel="noopener">even privately</a>, after an aide said her daughter did not like being forced to share a locker room with a boy.
A review of NSPRA audits conducted for other school systems suggests that the primary value of the document to Allen was precisely to <a href="https://www.lcps.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&amp;ModuleInstanceID=378090&amp;ViewID=7b97f7ed-8e5e-4120-848f-a8b4987d588f&amp;RenderLoc=0&amp;FlexDataID=479961&amp;PageID=254573" target="_blank" rel="noopener">justify such moves</a> while hiding behind a third party. NSPRA has sold custom audits to more than a dozen school systems, but they included identical assessments and language, despite those districts being wildly different.
For example, NSPRA claimed that at individual “focus groups” at <a href="https://www.paulding.k12.ga.us/cms/lib/GA01903603/Centricity/Domain/238/Audit-Report-Paulding-23-final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pauling County</a> schools in Georgia, <a href="https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1694117375/apsborg/aimayhybjf6u2a5qfci4/Audit_Report_Ascension-202309-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ascension Public Schools</a> in Louisiana, and <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/mo/lsr7sd/Board.nsf/files/CZCTYT7641F4/$file/Audit%20Report%20LSR7%202023%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lee’s Summit</a> in Missouri, participants at each made the exact same remarks. Those remarks, it said, led it to recommend that each district “Develop and execute a plan to combat misinformation and disinformation.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-754255" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/nspra.jpg" alt="" width="906" height="1021" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/nspra.jpg 906w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/nspra-266x300.jpg 266w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/nspra-511x576.jpg 511w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/nspra-768x865.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 906px) 100vw, 906px" /></div>
The FCC complaint against ABC affiliate WJLA shows that Allen&#8217;s office is fixated on its reporter Nick Minock and his stories on Spence, particularly Spence&#8217;s coverup of the fact that nine students from one high school overdosed on fentanyl. (Spence falsely claimed that privacy laws prevented him from even saying the name of the school, drawing bipartisan rebuke.)
The X account was also used to monitor and attack parents who unearthed facts about the school system — parents like Erin Smith, who was the first to notice the account&#8217;s link to Allen as well as the copy-and-paste content in the NSPRA&#8217;s &#8220;audits.&#8221;  When one such parent commented that Minock&#8217;s reporting on the overdose coverup had led Virginia lawmakers to pass a bipartisan law forcing districts to disclose overdoses, the account wrote, “Don’t thank that f—ing shill. He’s hired help pushing forward the ultranationalist agenda. Vile human being.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The NSPRA audit has large copy and paste paragraphs from other school district audits, many with half the student body size but with exact same recommendations.
The audit that sparked this new account IS the misinformation. 
➡️ <a href="https://t.co/xxKzhkySbs">https://t.co/xxKzhkySbs</a> <a href="https://t.co/PTw0k1plIA">https://t.co/PTw0k1plIA</a>
— LoudounCountyMoms (@LoudounMoms) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoudounMoms/status/1803954642134417746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2024</a></blockquote>
The National School Public Relations Association, despite being geared at communicating with the media, did not return a request for comment on the duplicated language in its $27,000 &#8220;disinformation&#8221; PDFs; whether Loudoun&#8217;s attempts to get the federal government to punish a TV station were in line with the practices suggested by its audit; whether it was appropriate to recommend that a superintendent tell school board members not to email their constituents; and whether the social media posts were in line with its recommended practices.

Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Aaron Spence and communications chief Natalie Allen (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images / LinkedIn)

Loudoun Schools’ Public Relations Honcho Linked To Anonymous Social Media Attacks On Journalist, Parents: “Little D–k” “White People”

Misinformation

Loudoun County Public Schools filed a bizarre complaint with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) asking the federal agency to punish the D.C. market’s ABC affiliate for its coverage of the district’s corruption, calling the reporting “misinformation and disinformation” that amounted to &#8220;bullying and harassing behavior.”
For 35 pages, the manifesto by LCPS spokesman Dan Adams tattled to the government that journalists had not characterized things the way he instructed them to—for example, Nick Minock, WJLA&#8217;s lead Loudoun reporter, said that the school superintendant had missed a month of school (20 workdays) traveling on junkets, when Adams said it was 19.5 days.
&#8220;LCPS is forced to ask itself, ‘what recourse remains?’ WJLA has demonstrated through its actions and failure to communicate that their behavior will continue unabated without some kind of external action,” the <a href="https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/35696/WJLA%20Media%20Distortion%20Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FCC complaint</a> said.
“We do not take this action lightly, as we work tirelessly to have positive and collaborative relationships with our media partners. But at this time, we can no longer stand by while WJLA and its staff consistently provide misinformation and disinformation to our community,” LCPS wrote.
The censorship attempt comes as Superintendent Aaron Spence embarks on an unprecedented spree of stifling dissent and hiding problems.
A Republican school board member, Deana Griffiths, also faced a closed-door attempt to formally discipline her last week <a href="https://www.loudounnow.com/news/after-school-board-closed-session-no-formal-action-taken-against-griffiths/article_41205c62-2d12-11ef-b181-6f22226c535c.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for offering mild criticism of Spence</a>, and revealing that she declined to vote in favor of giving him a bonus of more than $20,000.
Adams included a chart in his complaint to demonstrate WJLA had a “disproportionate focus” on Loudoun schools, a plea for the government to punish a private media station for choosing what topics to focus on.
Shortly after the complaint was sent, Minock won <a href="https://twitter.com/NickMinock/status/1804874998630199601">three Emmy awards</a> for his Loudoun reporting, celebrating its widely-recognized accuracy and importance to the public interest.
The complaint nitpicked reporting such as how after LCPS spent $11 million adding non-gendered bathrooms to its schools —after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">covering up a rape</a> by a boy in the girls bathroom — Minock reported that the goal was to accommodate transgender students; Adams claimed that was “misinformation” because non-transgender students would also be allowed to use the new restrooms.
Recently, Loudoun’s sheriff was forced to go public after Spence concealed the fact that there had been nine fentanyl overdoses by students of a single school, with Spence falsely claiming that even saying the name of the schools where it occurred would violate privacy laws.
Adams complained to the FCC that WJLA should not have been allowed to report that it concealed the overdoses, because in one case the school disclosed that “a student experienced a medical emergency,” without saying what it was. Adams said Minock “disrupted [a] public meeting” by asking the superintendent about the topic. In response to bipartisan condemnation of the secrecy, the Virginia legislature later passed a bill requiring schools to notify parents of overdoses — a bill LCPS hired a lobbyist to try to modify.
Virginia state senator Glen Sturtevant, a Republican, <a href="https://twitter.com/GlenSturtevant/status/1804235516424122409">called</a> for a “temporary state takeover” of LCPS in response to Adams&#8217; screed, saying that “trying to silence a free press” that had reported on its problems shows that it is “totally out of control.”
Adams is also in charge of Freedom of Information Act requests and has repeatedly violated the law, for which The Daily Wire <a class="c-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-sues-loudoun-schools-for-misusing-privacy-protections-to-hide-wrongdoing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-sues-loudoun-schools-for-misusing-privacy-protections-to-hide-wrongdoing" data-sk="tooltip_parent">sued him</a> and LCPS.

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Loudoun Asks Feds To Censor Local Outlet For ‘Bullying’ It By Reporting On Its Corruption

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Scott Ziegler, the superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia&#8217;s schools who was fired after concealing a rape and criminally convicted of retaliating against a teacher who was cooperating with the grand jury looking into the coverup, appeared in court on Thursday expecting to be sentenced—but had his sentencing postponed after asking a judge to overturn the jury’s verdict on a technicality.
Materials submitted by his attorney indicated no remorse or acceptance of responsibility, without which defendants are typically given harsher sentences. Instead, he submitted letters brimming with partisan rage that seemed to blame Republicans for the coverup.
Ziegler was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jury-finds-former-loudoun-county-superintendent-guilty-of-charges-stemming-from-trans-rape-coverup">convicted in September</a> of violating the State and Local Government Conflicts of Interest Act, a misdemeanor that could carry up to a year in jail. In a post-conviction motion to set aside the verdict, Ziegler claimed he did not know he was not allowed to retaliate, and only &#8220;knowing&#8221; violations of the Act are a crime.
His lawyer, Erin Harrigan, never argued that at trial, and said she noticed the language after re-reading the law after his conviction.
Prosecutors shot back that the last-ditch effort was too little, too late, and provided evidence showing that Harrigan consented to the jury instructions relied upon to reach the verdict.
They also said he knew it was illegal to use his position to retaliate for numerous reasons, including that he is on video participating in a school board meeting that went over the ethics act.
Harrigan&#8217;s attorney previously argued he could only be prosecuted for violating the Act by the “local” Commonwealth’s Attorney—at the time a Democrat—but not a special prosecutor for the attorney general, who is a Republican.
In a letter to the judge in an attempt to influence his sentence, his wife, Lisa Ziegler, lashed out in partisan tones, saying Ziegler’s “name and reputation have been dragged through the mud for political gain. Politicians, interlopers, and outsiders have accused him of using his position for political gain.” She said her husband was not part of the “leftest [sic] global cabal,” and quoted at length from Joe Biden.
She blamed Gov. Glenn Youngkin&#8211;not the conduct for which a local jury convicted Ziegler, or the false statement about the rape caught on video—for his plight, saying, “[O]ur family has been rocked to the core so an ambitious billionaire could gain some electoral points in Northern Virginia.”
In another letter, a top Loudoun County Public Schools official defended him, making it difficult for LCPS to argue that with Ziegler fired, it has corrected its problems. (Indeed, LCPS has continued to seemingly try to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-sues-loudoun-schools-for-misusing-privacy-protections-to-hide-wrongdoing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cover up its coverups</a> by refusing Freedom of Information Act requests.)
“Dr. Ziegler took great care to ensure that his decisions and actions were not only in line with School Board policies and the Code of Virginia but also aligned with a broader sense of ethical responsibility,” LCPS Chief Human Resources Officer Lisa Boland wrote.
Another LCPS employee, executive assistant Michelle Walker, seemed to blame Republicans for Ziegler covering up a rape to pass a transgender policy. She alleged a conspiracy theory in which a “coordinated, nationwide political strategy” was “executed at [his] door” to “turn the tide of public opinion.”
The Daily Wire’s Virginia-based education reporter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">broke the story</a> cited by the grand jury in the course of covering other issues in the district, and ran the story in October 2021 not because there was an election the next month, but rather because the rapist Ziegler let remain in school had just struck again.
Ziegler seemed to throw school board members under the bus in a bid for a lenient sentence, presenting letters of praise from school board members after they knew of the rape coverup, but before he was fired. One praised him for being a “lightning rod” that took criticism on their behalf.
The school board was aware of Ziegler’s actions because of an internal law firm investigation they commissioned and kept secret, but they only fired him when similar evidence became known to the public thanks to a report from a grand jury.
You have “served us by serving as a lighting for in order to defect [sic] partisan attacks,” then-board member Tom Marshall wrote to Ziegler in a letter.
Vice-chair Ian Serotkin complained of “unrelenting and unfair national scrutiny” and the “way you have been demonized.”
School board chair Jeff Morse wrote that he suffered “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and the “board support you.”
On Thursday, prosecutor Brandon Wrobleski told the judge that “He knew he couldn’t do a retaliatory firing.” He reminded the judge that at trial, school board member John Beatty testified under oath that Ziegler told board members he was firing teacher Erin Brooks for cooperating with the grand jury investigating sexual assaults, and because he (falsely) believed Brooks had spoken to a conservative activist.
Wrobleski said during the board meeting where Ziegler used a parliamentary maneuver to quietly end Brooks&#8217; contract, another board member, Denise Corbo, asked him about it, only to be met with a strange reaction. “Jeff Morse shut Corbo up,” Wrobleski said.
Whereas Beatty had a clear memory of what happened, Morse “testified on Ziegler’s behalf and said he couldn’t remember anything,” Wrobleski said Thursday. Another Democrat board member invoked attorney-client privilege to refuse to say what had happened, and Ziegler did not testify on his own behalf.
After hearing the arguments Thursday, Judge Douglas Fleming postponed the sentencing so that he could consider Ziegler’s motion to overturn the jury’s verdict.

As Loudoun Superintendent Heads To Criminal Sentencing, No Evidence Of Remorse, Just Partisan Rage

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