LEESBURG, Va. — The former Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent accused of firing a special education teacher in retaliation for participating in a special grand jury investigation began presenting his defense Wednesday – calling the teacher’s principal to question key elements of the prosecution’s case.
Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School principal Diane Mackey was called Wednesday afternoon as the first defense witness for Dr. Scott Ziegler. Ziegler began trial this week on two counts accusing him of making a false statement about sexual assaults at a Loudoun County high school and of not renewing the contract of Rosa Lee Carter special education teacher Erin Brooks after she testified before a grand jury about how the district handled incidents of inappropriate touching in her classroom
Brooks, and her teacher’s aide Laurie Vandermuelen, accused school administrators of not taking their reports seriously after a student in their special education class began touching them inappropriately repeatedly throughout the day. Brooks eventually made a complaint to the district’s Title IX office and both women made contact with the executive director of a right-wing parents group, Fight for Schools, that has criticized the school system’s policies around COVID-19 and transgender students.
On Wednesday, Ziegler’s attorney Erin Harrigan called Mackey to the stand to offer jurors an alternate perspective on why Brooks’ contract wasn’t renewed. Mackey said Brooks was unwilling to implement a plan to curb the unwanted behaviors from the student and reacted unprofessionally to the student’s behavior, including by sharing protected information about the student with others who shouldn’t have received it.
Mackey said she was specifically concerned when Brooks began describing the 10-year-old non-verbal student with autism as attempting to touch her and her aide in a sexual manner – which she said showed a profound lack of understanding of the behavior of a student with a “severe disability and the cognitive function of a toddler.” Mackey and other school employees called to testify said the student had a history of grabbing at clothing and hair, but never demonstrated the behaviors Brooks and Vandermuelen reported either before or after with any other staff members.
“I decided the situation had escalated beyond the ability to be remediated in her classroom and the student would need to be removed from her classroom,” Mackey said.
Mackey said she was the one who ultimately decided to recommend Brooks’ contract not be renewed for a number of reasons, including her rigidity in failing to implement the plan to deal with the student’s behavior and the “unsafe, unproductive” environment Mackey said resulted in her classroom.
Prosecutor Brandon Wrobleski, a special assistant with Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office, attempted to undercut Mackey’s testimony by highlighting positive observations about her written by both Mackey and her assistant principal prior to the recommendation not to renew her contract.
In addition to four witnesses called by the defense Wednesday, Ziegler was expected to call five additional people to the stand in his defense Thursday morning before the defense wrapped its case. Prosecutors said they expected not to put on a rebuttal case. Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Douglas Fleming Jr., who is presiding over the trial, told jurors to expect they might begin deliberations Thursday afternoon.