HAMILTON, Va. — We attended a gathering of roughly 20 parents and other concerned residents of Loudoun County to tape footage for a documentary when the news broke last Thursday night that Superintendent Scott Ziegler had emailed the Loudoun County School Board on May 28 to notify them of the sexual assault that occurred at Stone Bridge High School earlier that same day. From indignation to validation to hope, here’s how they reacted.
“It’s unbelievably shocking, but I think we all kind of assumed that that was the case, as heartbreaking as it is, I think we all kind of knew that he knew and were just waiting for someone to find proof,” Gina Anders told us, as she and three other women gathered around an iPhone to read the breaking news. “That the superintendent of LCPS actually knew about the alleged rape that occurred in the schools from the very beginning and failed — not only lied to us at the school board meeting … but also transferred the alleged perpetrator to another school where he victimized a second girl.”
“The most important part of all of this is they staged a question to the superintendent and had him answer it, and it was a lie,” added Pegah Fowler. “They staged an actual situation where they asked him this question and gave him a platform and an opportunity to actually lie about what he knew. Scott Ziegler flat-out lied.”
“At this point in time, it’s crystal clear” that Loudoun County Public Schools are corrupt, Fowler added.
“We need to get them all out, the entire school board, the superintendent, I mean, and this is an issue of accountability,” noted Anders. “I mean, they don’t want to be, obviously, accountable to the parents. But these are our kids. Parents need to run the schools, not bureaucrats. I couldn’t have imagined it even just a few years ago.”
Several of the women emphasized that LCPS has promoted a “facade” of being an excellent school system. “We moved here a few years ago to the best school district, and … I feel totally lied to,” jumped in Markie Sheets, holding her baby on her hip.
“It’s a facade: Let’s repeat this lie over and over and over again. … Let’s pretend that we are providing the best education in the states, because Loudoun was the No. 1 growing county — I mean talk about a facade,” Fowler added. “They flat-out lied, and they repeated it over and over and over again to a point where it caught on. And let’s just pretend so we can line our own pockets, and then at the end of it all, let’s sacrifice children, let’s strip them of their innocence, let’s take their souls, let’s victimize them.”
“And let’s pass [Policy 8040] so that more students can be victimized in bathrooms like the one they just covered up,” chimed in Anders. “They actually passed it, knowing that this incident occurred. That’s what’s so just unbelievable.”
Fowler added that out of roughly 81,000 students in Loudoun County, “there are 29 of them, and that’s probably a high number, that would have a need for transgender bathrooms. So we’re going to sacrifice our children for 29 people when we could accommodate those 29 appropriately by giving them a bathroom? … You’ve got family bathrooms in grocery stores, you’ve got family bathrooms in malls. Why can’t we provide that for those individual kids and leave the rest of the children alone?”
Fowler noted emphatically that she is “absolutely not” anti-trans. “I think that as a child of Christ we need to love them, we need to embrace them, we need to have them part of our community, we need to extend that love.”
Despite their disappointment and indignation at the actions of Ziegler and the Loudoun County School Board, the women felt validation for their efforts and hope for the future.
“I think we’ve made incredible progress,” Anders said.
“All the time away from our families, all the nights, I mean, it’s incredible because it’s allowed us to bond, but I think it’s so worth it though,” Fowler added. “You know what’s amazing about this, our Founding Fathers and the government that they created — tonight, it validates what we’re capable of.”
“When we get engaged,” Anders agreed.
“Once we know we have the power to do so, that’s why COVID was the best thing that happened to us because it allowed us to educate ourselves and come to the realization that we have complete control,” Fowler concluded. “A Third World country doesn’t have this kind of control. And you know what, our civil rights, our liberty, our freedom, it’s just like a muscle. You don’t use it, you lose it, and that’s where we are right now.”
