Skip to main content

Loudoun Co. schools not disclosing report on sexual assault allegations

A review of how allegations of sexual assault were handled at two Virginia high schools is complete, but Loudoun County schools are not releasing it.

Loudoun County Public Schools is withholding the report from disclosure in its entirety, citing Virginia laws related to attorney-client privilege and personnel information concerning identifiable individuals, schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard said in a statement.

WTOP reached out to LCPS Tuesday, but the school system declined any further comment.



Last October, a 15-year-old student was charged with sexual battery and abduction in an incident that happened at Broad Run High School. That same teenager was on electronic monitoring after being charged with sexually assaulting a young girl at Stone Bridge High School in May.

After what happened at Broad Run, schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler sent an apology to the families and students involved and acknowledged that “we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide.”

While school officials said they believed proper procedures were followed to report the allegations of sexual assaults, they hired Blankingship & Keith PC to conduct a review of what happened, as part of the effort to move forward and help “heal our school community.”

WTOP’s Alicia Abelson contributed to this report.

Breaking the silence around suicide: A Virginia mother shares thoughts on prevention

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and Betsy Stephenson, an Alexandria, Virginia, resident and a mother who lost her son to suicide, wants people to talk about it. "By not talking about suicide, we are not going to make it go away. In fact, I think that we could inadvertently give it a little more power than it deserves," she told WTOP. One of the things that Stephenson wants families to know is that people who are struggling can appear to be doing well. "You can be very high-functioning as a depressed person or an anxious person," she said. "You can be connected socially. You can be doing well at school or work. You can be making plans, smiling, laughing, engaged, but still be struggling deeply, you know, cosmically, inside."
Read Next Story