Loudoun Superintendent, Spokesman Criminally Indicted In Rape Coverup

Two top officials of a Northern Virginia public school district were indicted Monday for their roles in the handling of a bathroom rape by a skirt-wearing boy after The Daily Wire revealed the apparent coverup last year, court documents unsealed Monday showed.

Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of false publication, conflict of interest-prohibited conduct, and penalizing employee for court appearance. Spokesman Wayde Byard was indicted on a felony charge of perjury, court records show.

A week ago, a special grand jury released a 91-page report that confirmed the findings of The Daily Wire’s October 2021 expose, saying that Ziegler told a “bald-faced lie” when he dismissed concerns about a proposed transgender policy by denying that there had ever been any bathroom sex assaults–despite knowing that just a month prior, a skirt-wearing boy had allegedly raped a ninth-grade girl.

The grand jury said Ziegler’s administration also concealed from the public and even the school board that the same boy went on the sexually assault another girl in the classroom, with school board members learning about it only thanks to The Daily Wire. The report painted a devastating picture and found that “throughout this ordeal LCPS administrators were looking out for their own interests instead of the best interests of LCPS.”

When The Daily Wire asked Byard last week about the grand jury’s fact-finding report, he sent a statement attributed to school board chair Jeff Morse and vice chair Ian Serotkin that said they were “pleased” that the grand jury had not indicted anyone. The Daily Wire responded to Byard that “The attorney general also notes that the grand jury is still running,” meaning the statement seemed to be without basis, but Byard did not clarify.

On Monday, he did not return a request for comment on his own indictment.

The school board fired Ziegler on Tuesday, a day after the grand jury report–but fired him “without cause,” apparently giving him a $350,000 golden parachute.

The school system has generally ignored requests for information from the publication. A grand jury report revealed that when The Daily Wire informed Byard that it was about to break the story of the rape coverup, Byard’s boss ordered him and others to “TAKE NO ACTION.”

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement that “The Office of the Attorney General will be prosecuting these cases and has no further comment on this matter.”

Ian Prior, chairman of the parents activist group Fight for Schools, said in a statement that “We are beyond pleased that the families who were harmed by the egregious failures of the leadership of Loudoun County Public Schools, exacerbated by its repeated acts of deceit and dishonesty, will receive some measure of justice… parents repeatedly took slings and arrows from the media, local elected officials, and others in their own community, for speaking truth to power – despite that, they never backed down. Loudoun County should serve as a beacon of hope for the rest of the country.”

Brian Davison, a parent who exposed unrelated wrongdoing by the school system, told The Daily Wire that Byard has a pattern of dishonesty.

“For over 7 years, the Loudoun school board has employed Wayde Byard as its primary spokesman despite knowing he perjured himself in a lawsuit against LCPS in 2015. The Virginia State Police stated via internal emails that the perjury allegations against Byard was a ‘legitimate complaint’ supported by ‘extensive, detailed records to support [the] claim.’ Yet, Loudoun officials refused to prosecute and the school board kept Byard as a member of their mafia. With today’s news of Byard being prosecuted for yet another act of perjury, Loudoun residents can celebrate finally having a Governor and Attorney General willing to hold our corrupt officials accountable. With the threat of future prosecution, maybe reform can finally happen in LCPS.”