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Virginia superintendent fired after investigation into sexual assaults

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A Virginia superintendent was fired this week after a state grand jury report was released about the mishandling of two sexual assaults committed by the same student last year.

On Tuesday, the The Loudoun County School Board unanimously voted to fire Scott Ziegler after holding a closed-session meeting, according to school video posted online.

Ziegler and school officials had been under fire after a student, who sexually assaulted classmates at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021, was able to transfer to Broad Run High School, where the accused male student assaulted another classmate in a classroom last October, the Associated Press reported.

In their report, the grand jury accused Ziegler of lying to the school board at a June 2021 school board meeting about not having knowledge of the May 2021 assault, which he was aware of, emails showed, the news outlets reported.

According to the Associated Press, the boy who was convicted of the assaults wore a skirt during the May 2021 incident. This sparked national debate about transgender students' rights at school, the news outlets reported.

The grand jury was convened by Attorney General Jason Miyares after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin requested the district be investigated, the news outlets reported.

The school board tried to stop the investigation, but the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the grand jury could continue, the AP reported.