OAN’s Abril Elfi
2:21 PM – Saturday, October 7, 2023
A Virginia family whose daughter was sexually assaulted in a high school bathroom is suing Loudoun County School District for $30 million in damages.
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More than two years after being sexually assaulted in the girls’ bathroom by a male student wearing a skirt, one of the two known sexual-abuse victims of the student in Virginia’s Loudoun County school district is suing for $30 million in damages.
According to prosecutors, even though the student was using the women’s bathroom and wearing a skirt, he preferred to go by male pronouns, making the gender identity not a big part of the lawsuit.
The sexual assault in May was one of two in the school system committed by the same student.
The second occurred in October 2021 at another high school.
The sexual assaulter, who was 15 at the time, was convicted of both offenses as a juvenile.
The family claims that the district lied to the public to cover up the attack because Loudoun County Public Schools was adopting a new restroom policy for transgender kids at the time.
According to a complaint filed to the United States District Court, The victim “struggled academically, emotionally and physically for the remainder of the school year” and she “continues to struggle significantly.”
Court records state that the male student and his victim had agreed to meet in the Stone Bridge High School bathroom before the incident occurred.
Following the May assault, the attacker was charged and barred by court order from returning to Stone Bridge.
Administrators then transferred him to nearby Broad Run High School where the second assault occurred in an empty classroom.
The Loudoun County grand jury had accused the school system’s superintendent of lying to the public to cover up what occurred, and authorities of ignoring multiple warning signs that could have prevented an assault.
According to the prosecution, the school system superintendent Scott Ziegler lied at a school board meeting in June 2021, following the first incident.
A school board member asked Ziegler if the schools had a problem with sexual assaults in bathrooms as the board considered policies affecting transgender kids and whether they can use the restroom of their choice.
“To my knowledge,” Ziegler said, “we don’t have any record of assaults in our restrooms.” However, emails demonstrate that Ziegler was aware of the Stone Bridge assault and alerted board members about it.
Ziegler later admitted that he misinterpreted the question.
Last week, Ziegler was found guilty of the retaliatory firing of a special education teacher, a misdemeanor charge linked to the district’s handling of the two sexual assaults.
The identities of the attacker and two victims remain anonymous as they are underage.
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