Grand Jury report on LCPS sexual assault cases is unsealed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure these criminal charges will stick. And the public information officer charged with perjury? It seems very politically motivated by Youngkin/Miyares. Guess we’ll see.

Agree. And will make the next guy's job that much harder (and finding him/her).

Between attacks on teachers and now criminal charges against school administrators, who on earth would want to work in the VA public education system right now? It’s all part of Youngkin’s strategy to dismantle public schools and privatize education.

Well hopefully it keeps out the people who want to take a laissez faire approach to students with sexual assault charges. Maybe we can get back to admins that take it seriously when teachers or parents report dangerous behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure these criminal charges will stick. And the public information officer charged with perjury? It seems very politically motivated by Youngkin/Miyares. Guess we’ll see.

Agree. And will make the next guy's job that much harder (and finding him/her).

Between attacks on teachers and now criminal charges against school administrators, who on earth would want to work in the VA public education system right now? It’s all part of Youngkin’s strategy to dismantle public schools and privatize education.

Well hopefully it keeps out the people who want to take a laissez faire approach to students with sexual assault charges. Maybe we can get back to admins that take it seriously when teachers or parents report dangerous behavior.

And...then what? We (meaning parents) have put schools in a heads-you-lose-tails-you-lose position. What was Zigler supposed to have done differently, besides doxxed the student to the school board and the public at large, which isn't the right thing to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure these criminal charges will stick. And the public information officer charged with perjury? It seems very politically motivated by Youngkin/Miyares. Guess we’ll see.

The charged individual is one of the most popular people in Loudoun County for people under 30. Most know him as the one who calls to say school is closed for snow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She left to get a staff member who has the ability to break up that kind of interaction or force the stall lock or whatever.

No she didn't. She made no effort to notify anyone else. You are making this up to defend the administration.

[Anonymous]

Can a lawyer weigh in on what significance (if any) we can take from charges on former Supt being misdemeanor and charge against public info officer being a felony?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She left to get a staff member who has the ability to break up that kind of interaction or force the stall lock or whatever.

No she didn't. She made no effort to notify anyone else. You are making this up to defend the administration.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a lawyer weigh in on what significance (if any) we can take from charges on former Supt being misdemeanor and charge against public info officer being a felony?

Has to do with the particular charges for which they could get evidence. They don't have Ziegler for perjury but they do have Byard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a lawyer weigh in on what significance (if any) we can take from charges on former Supt being misdemeanor and charge against public info officer being a felony?

Not a lawyer but you don't F around in front of a grand jury. It's one thing to lie in a PR statement but you can't do that under oath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a lawyer weigh in on what significance (if any) we can take from charges on former Supt being misdemeanor and charge against public info officer being a felony?

Perjury is a very serious offense but also can be more difficult to prove since you have to show intent. I recall one of the reasons Trump Jr wasn’t charged with perjury for lying to prosecutors was that it was going to be too hard to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. You basically have to show they knew they were lying and the thing they were lying about was material (not just incidental) to the underlying investigation.

Do we know yet what he was accused of lying about? This charge will be so fact specific. It’s rather unusual for prosecutors to charge someone with perjury and nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Interesting that the Republican Police Chief, Mike Chapman, who was also faulted and assigned blame in the grand jury report, is not facing charges like the Superintendent. This whole thing reeks of politics!

[Anonymous]

Interesting that the Republican Police Chief, Mike Chapman, who was also faulted and assigned blame in the grand jury report, is not facing charges like the Superintendent. This whole thing reeks of politics!

Exactly. His hands are dirty.

[Anonymous]

There was an email sent by a TA that raised concerns over student behaviors that she/he saw. The dept. chair claims to be confused and thought it could just be that the TA was afraid of Covid and illness. But didn’t care enough to clarify. Informed the case manager who also didn’t talk to the TA to ask any questions. The AP says it’s just a classroom management problem, but didn’t offer to do help or do anything. I guess the lowly paid assistant was supposed to handle all that.

It’s commonplace for admins to throw teachers and assistants under the bus and ignore problems. In my experience, I have met very very few admins who actually cared about their employees. But what is shocking to me is that the TA was ignored by other teachers. Teachers - who are also low paid, and constantly disrespected by admins, students and parents - didn’t care about the fellow TA’s concerns at all. They brushed it off. No one even offered to give the TA support, or to even tell them to talk to a counselor who could talk to the student, anything. They did nothing for another staff member who was low on the totem pole like they are.

As far as the administrators - what did they know about the previous issues? I assume the principal at least would know what was going on. No one warned the teachers or TAs involved? They just threw the student in their classes without any guidance? That’s not surprising at all. Because they don’t have to deal with the student, they don’t care. How can any teacher or TA continue to work for these people? These admins who knowingly put them in a horrible situation without warning while they themselves are armed with way more information and knowledge about the danger that is walking around in their school.

Also, who was the person who got fired? Was it the TA? Another teacher? Admin?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure these criminal charges will stick. And the public information officer charged with perjury? It seems very politically motivated by Youngkin/Miyares. Guess we’ll see.

They won’t. A prosecutor can indict a bologna sandwich

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was an email sent by a TA that raised concerns over student behaviors that she/he saw. The dept. chair claims to be confused and thought it could just be that the TA was afraid of Covid and illness. But didn’t care enough to clarify. Informed the case manager who also didn’t talk to the TA to ask any questions. The AP says it’s just a classroom management problem, but didn’t offer to do help or do anything. I guess the lowly paid assistant was supposed to handle all that.

It’s commonplace for admins to throw teachers and assistants under the bus and ignore problems. In my experience, I have met very very few admins who actually cared about their employees. But what is shocking to me is that the TA was ignored by other teachers. Teachers - who are also low paid, and constantly disrespected by admins, students and parents - didn’t care about the fellow TA’s concerns at all. They brushed it off. No one even offered to give the TA support, or to even tell them to talk to a counselor who could talk to the student, anything. They did nothing for another staff member who was low on the totem pole like they are.

As far as the administrators - what did they know about the previous issues? I assume the principal at least would know what was going on. No one warned the teachers or TAs involved? They just threw the student in their classes without any guidance? That’s not surprising at all. Because they don’t have to deal with the student, they don’t care. How can any teacher or TA continue to work for these people? These admins who knowingly put them in a horrible situation without warning while they themselves are armed with way more information and knowledge about the danger that is walking around in their school.

Also, who was the person who got fired? Was it the TA? Another teacher? Admin?

The person who got fired and the reason Ziegler has misdemeanor charges has nothing to do with the stone bridge assault case. A teacher at Rosa Lee Carter elementary reported that a disabled 5th grader had groped her multiple times. When nothing was done she spoke at the school board meeting about it. She was later reprimanded and fired. For that reason, Ziegler was charged with retaliation and intimidation. That teacher currently has a suit against him/LCPS/her former principal.

So as employees we have learned you’re damned if you do report student concerns and damned if you don’t. Nothing will be done about it either but somehow if something ends up happening with that student, it’ll end up coming back on us. Good to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an email sent by a TA that raised concerns over student behaviors that she/he saw. The dept. chair claims to be confused and thought it could just be that the TA was afraid of Covid and illness. But didn’t care enough to clarify. Informed the case manager who also didn’t talk to the TA to ask any questions. The AP says it’s just a classroom management problem, but didn’t offer to do help or do anything. I guess the lowly paid assistant was supposed to handle all that.

It’s commonplace for admins to throw teachers and assistants under the bus and ignore problems. In my experience, I have met very very few admins who actually cared about their employees. But what is shocking to me is that the TA was ignored by other teachers. Teachers - who are also low paid, and constantly disrespected by admins, students and parents - didn’t care about the fellow TA’s concerns at all. They brushed it off. No one even offered to give the TA support, or to even tell them to talk to a counselor who could talk to the student, anything. They did nothing for another staff member who was low on the totem pole like they are.

As far as the administrators - what did they know about the previous issues? I assume the principal at least would know what was going on. No one warned the teachers or TAs involved? They just threw the student in their classes without any guidance? That’s not surprising at all. Because they don’t have to deal with the student, they don’t care. How can any teacher or TA continue to work for these people? These admins who knowingly put them in a horrible situation without warning while they themselves are armed with way more information and knowledge about the danger that is walking around in their school.

Also, who was the person who got fired? Was it the TA? Another teacher? Admin?

The person who got fired and the reason Ziegler has misdemeanor charges has nothing to do with the stone bridge assault case. A teacher at Rosa Lee Carter elementary reported that a disabled 5th grader had groped her multiple times. When nothing was done she spoke at the school board meeting about it. She was later reprimanded and fired. For that reason, Ziegler was charged with retaliation and intimidation. That teacher currently has a suit against him/LCPS/her former principal.

So as employees we have learned you’re damned if you do report student concerns and damned if you don’t. Nothing will be done about it either but somehow if something ends up happening with that student, it’ll end up coming back on us. Good to know.

And that is why he will be exonerated. She wasn’t fired in retaliation. She was fired for violating student privacy rights.