A Loudoun County jury found former superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of unlawfully discharging a teacher who reported being repeatedly groped by a student.
Ziegler faces up to six months in jail and/or a $2,500 fine for the retaliatory firing of Erin Brooks, a former special education teacher who had complained about being touched inappropriately by a nonverbal student in class.
The jury also found Ziegler not guilty Friday on a charge of penalizing the teacher for missing work to testify before a special grand jury in a separate sexual assault case at a different school.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said he was “grateful for the jury’s verdict.”
“Justice has finally been served in Loudoun County,” Mr. Miyares said in a Friday statement. “Nearly two years ago, Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County School Board were thrown into the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons. One of the casualties of their neglect and mismanagement led to the retaliatory firing of a dedicated and caring school teacher.”
He added: “Today, my office brought a measure of justice for Erin Brooks.”
Defense attorney Erin Harrigan said she plans to file a motion to set aside the jury’s verdict, according to Loudoun Now. Ziegler is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 4.
Ms. Brooks said she and her teaching assistant were touched up to 40 times daily in the buttocks, breast and pubic area last spring while working at Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School, but that the district failed to protect her despite her complaints.
Her contract was not renewed after she went public by reaching out to Ian Prior, Fight for Schools executive director, a prominent critic of the district who made a statement on her behalf at a March 2022 school board meeting.
WATCH: The Loudoun County teacher - who Scott Ziegler unlawfully fired - spoke exclusively with me moments after the former Superintendent was found guilty by a jury.
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) September 29, 2023
Story: https://t.co/17rq4d2VFL pic.twitter.com/xHPZjHee0f
Ms. Brooks, who has filed a civil lawsuit against Ziegler, said after the verdict that she was “blown away.”
“This is not about just me, this is about our community, this is about our local government, this is about our country,” she told ABC7 in the District. “It’s unprecedented what happened here today.”
Ziegler faces another jury trial in February on charges of making a false statement when he said during a June 2021 school board meeting that he was unaware of any reports of sexual assaults in school bathrooms.
The district landed in the middle of an uproar over parents’ rights when Scott Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct at a rowdy 2021 school board meeting after his 14-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by another student in a school bathroom.
The assailant was transferred to another high school, where he assaulted a second female student.
A special grand jury said Ziegler had been previously informed of the first assault.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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