Loudoun County Public Schools has hired a law firm to independently investigate allegations of sexual assault at two high schools.
The school district has been criticized after a teenage boy charged with sexual assault at one school was allowed to transfer to another school, where he was later charged in a second sexual assault. Some are calling for Superintendent Scott Ziegler’s job.
“We believe we have followed all mandatory reporting protocols and aided law enforcement to the fullest extent allowed in all investigations regarding these matters,” Ziegler wrote in a letter to families. “We acknowledge that these matters need to be fully reviewed.”
The first attack was reported inside Stone Bridge High School in late May, when a ninth-grade girl says a boy forcibly sodomized her inside a bathroom.
While the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office was investigating, a Loudoun County School Board meeting devolved into chaos June 22. The victim's mother is heard on cellphone video telling the crowd what happened.
“My child was raped at school! " she said.
Behind her, the victim's father is seen being arrested.
The family says they were provoked by other parents.
Then on Oct. 6 inside Broad Run High School, another girl was sexually assaulted inside of a classroom.
Prosecutors confirm it was the same boy.
The boy was arrested and charged for the first assault in July but released from juvenile detention while prosecutors waited for DNA rape kit evidence to come back.
Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney Buta Biberaj says at the time they had no reason to believe the boy should have stayed in juvenile detention.
The school district hired Blankingship & Keith, P.C. on Oct. 28 to conduct an independent review.
