The state attorney general's office in Virginia has dropped a remaining charge against Scott Ziegler, a former superintendent for Loudoun County schools. Ziegler was charged with "false publishing" – but that went away this week, according to a court filing from the Virginia Attorney General's office.
At issue was Ziegler's public remarks regarding a case in which a boy wearing a skirt raped a ninth-grade girl in a school bathroom. The boy, who went on to sexually assault a second victim after he was moved to a different school, has since been convicted on both offenses.
WTOP News says the "false publishing" charge against Ziegler was in relation to a statement he made in a livestreamed school board meeting in June 2021, where he commented: "To my knowledge, we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our bathrooms."
The Daily Wire reports that Ziegler lied about the rape and had a motive in doing so: he was attempting to dismiss parental concerns about safety related to letting boys who say they're girls use the girls' restrooms.
Prosecutors said they were dropping the lying charge against Ziegler because they were satisfied that he'd already been convicted of a crime; and they didn't want to put the county through another costly trial for the third charge, which was a minor Class 3 misdemeanor with only a $500 fine.
Jeff Katz, a talk-show host at WRVA in Virginia, has been following the case. He understands some people will be disturbed that the AG's office dropped the final charges. "But if you look at the situation, this superintendent has now lost his position [and] there are other matters that he's going to be punished for," he says.
"It would be highly unlikely, very improbable that this superintendent is going to be working in education – at least in this particular area – any time soon," he continues. "So, again … I think it's simply a matter of saying justice was done, but it was done in a slightly different venue."
Katz notes that the story has gathered national attention. "We had parents of every stripe, every size, every political affiliation who said 'Yeah, I'm appalled at what happened, and we just can't let our children be subjected to this anymore.'
"This is just a huge, huge issue," he concludes, "and the fallout from this is still being felt throughout Virginia. Parents need to be on top of all the matters concerning their kids in schools. We just can never let our guard down."
