A jury found former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of retaliation against a former special education teacher.
In a split decision on Friday, jurors found Ziegler guilty of retaliation but not guilty of penalizing an employee for jury service. Ziegler faces a maximum of 12 months in jail and will appeal. He’s set to be sentenced on Jan. 4.
The case stems from Attorney General Jason Miyares’ investigation into LCPS, which was one of the first things Gov. Glenn Youngkin did when he took office.
Miyares said in a statement Friday: "Justice has finally been served in Loudoun County. 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. Today, my office brought a measure of justice for Erin Brooks.”
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The attorney general’s office aimed to prove Ziegler did not renew Erin Brooks’ year-to-year contract because she spoke up about a nonverbal student with autism who inappropriately touched her and her teaching assistant every day for a couple of months in early 2021 at Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School.
Brooks says the student touched her and her teaching assistant up to 40 times a day.
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She asked for help from administrators, and internal emails show administrators were working through some solutions when conservative activist Ian Prior went before the school board during a public comment session in March 2022.
“At an elementary school in Loudoun County, you have teachers that are being inappropriately touched multiple times a day for the better part of two months,” Prior said at that meeting.
The school district says Brooks wasn’t following the protocol they needed from her in order for the issue to be addressed. Brooks was called back to the stand for a second time Thursday and testified that she did not know if or when she filled out the proper Title IX complaint form that she had said she filled out.
The attorney general’s office also charged Ziegler with retaliating against her because she testified before the special grand jury investigating LCPS.
Brooks says she never believed she was retaliated against because of her special grand jury testimony, which might have ended any chance prosecutors had on that charge.
The defense says Brooks' contract wasn’t renewed because they believe she violated school policy and possibly federal student privacy laws when she admittedly forwarded internal emails about the situation to a private email account.
An investigation revealed Brooks forwarded at least 26 internal emails to her teaching assistant’s personal email address in the weeks leading up to Prior’s statement. Brooks testified she wanted to preserve and document the district’s response.
“I’ve been relabeled by you as unacceptable, and Mr. Ziegler, you will not renew my contract next school year,” she said at a school board meeting. “Please stop with the intimidation, stop with the defamation, stop trying to cover this up. Face the issues head on. I’m doing my job; please do yours.”
The school district’s head of human resources testified the decision not to renew Brooks’ contract was done legally, per state law.
The principal of Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School testified for the defense, reading a scathing review she gave Brooks recommending she not be renewed, saying she created an unsafe and unproductive workplace for the students, particularly the student at the center of this case.
Ziegler is scheduled to stand trial early next year for allegedly giving false information to a publication.
Brooks also filed a $1 million civil lawsuit against Ziegler.
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Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
