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Cao wins continued from page 3 debunked conspiracy theories that fueled that day’s attack on the seat of American democracy. “It’s very hard to understand how a person who hid in their basement the entire time got more votes than Barack Obama. It’s just very hard for me to understand that,” Cao said. “You’re telling me you’re too scared for your life to have somebody certify an absentee ballot? There’s definitely a lot of anomalies and a lot of rules that were not followed.” Despite multiple lawsuits and inves-
Petitions dismissed continued from page 1 of the county’s education system,” the group said in a statement. Padrick ruled that because special prosecutor Joseph D. Platania found no evidence of neglect of office, the motion to quash the petitions was granted. Platania, a prosecutor from Charlottesville, was appointed the special prosecutor for case against Reaser in April after Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj recused herself. “By the way, there was no one really interested in being the commonwealth’s attorney in these cases,” Padrick joked. Padrick ruled that Platania would handle both cases because the petitions were identical. He also denied motions from both Fight for Schools, the group that organized the removal effort, and the Loudoun NACCP to intervene in the cases. “Fight for Schools and the NAACP are not elected officials. They come from good organizations,” he said, “But they’re advocacy groups.” Fight for Schools’ attorney David Warrington argued that the group should be permitted to enter the case because prosecutors are elected officials and might themselves be targets of such removal efforts. Following the ruling, Reaser and Sheridan were met with hugs from fellow School Board members Harris Mahedavi (Ashburn) and Ian Serotkin (Blue Ridge), county Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian), state Sen. Jennifer Boys-
tigations there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. As Democrats raise their voices for gun control in response to the 198 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, Cao falls in line with the stance of many GOP officials. “Gun control has never stopped anyone. Most people get bludgeoned to death and stabbed to death then they get shot. I mean it’s a tragedy, it’s an absolute tragedy. But if it’s not guns, it’s going to be with pipe bombs, or knives or hammers,” he said. “It’s just evil. There’s a lot of evil in the world, and we’re not going to stop it with gun control.” As for infrastructure, Cao said not
ko (D-33), and Loudoun NAACP President Michelle Thomas. Reaser and Sheridan delivered emotional remarks outside of the courthouse. “I will never be able to put into words the toll that this process took on my family, and the families I serve. What I will tell you is this type of malicious court filing has a chilling effect on democracy,” Reaser said. “It discourages good people from stepping up and serving their community.” Sheridan thanked the two dozen School Board supporters present, calling the removal effort a “horrible abuse of the system.” “It’s time to get back to work, so let’s do that,” she said. Thomas said that justice prevailed during the hearings. “Today, we saw the law in action and the peoples’ resistance against unfounded voter suppression and action as well,” she said.
Ongoing Investigation While School Board members celebrated vindication in Circuit Court, the special grand jury is in its second month investigating the division’s handling of sexual assaults in Ashburn high schools. The panel is a part of Attorney General Jason Miyares’ investigation, which was requested by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in an executive order. The division sued for an emergency injunction against the special grand jury last week, calling the executive order “no ordinary exercise of gubernatorial authority. Instead, it is an unprecedented attempt to vest broad prosecution power in the polit-
enough focus is being devoted to roads or broadband. “A lot of the bill handles charging stations for the electric vehicles that not many of us own. It goes to Critical Race Theory issues,” he said. “We need to make progress there. Especially down in Rappahannock, those poor guys, you can’t even get cellphone service down there.” Rappahannock County is the southernmost portion of the new 10th district, which was redawn after the 2020 Census. Instead of reaching east and west, the district now reaches from Loudoun south through Fauquier and Rappahannock counties, Manassas, Manassas Park, much of Prince William Coun-
ical offices of the state government”. Judge James E. Plowman, who is overseeing the special grand jury, granted broad authority to investigate any matter related to the school division. Several students’ records were subpoenaed, including those of transgender students. Division spokesman Wayde Byard said that the scope of the investigation is “overly broad and holds significant potential to invade the privacy of our students, staff, and families.” “LCPS also believes the investigation violates our locally elected School Board’s constitutional authority to govern,” Byard said in an email. “For these reasons, LCPS has filed a complaint for a temporary injunction to limit the scope of the Attorney General’s investigation.” Division Counsel Steven Webster, of Webster Book LLP, also charged that Virginia state law does not grant the governor nor the attorney general the right to convene a special grand jury, arguing that authority lies with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. The filing said: “Permitting this Special Grand Jury to continue in its present form places LCPS’s 15,000 employees, 80,000 students, and their families under an investigation with no boundaries in time, scope or subject matter, and facing subpoenas demanding records and testimony regarding sensitive, personal information without any regard for whether that will lead to evidence of a crime.” Critics charge that the School Board and Superintendent Scott Ziegler knowingly endangered students by allowing a student accused of sexually assaulting a student to transfer to another school
MAY 26, 2022
ty and a part of southwestern Fairfax County. Following Cao’s nomination, Wexton released a statement, doubling down on her track record on infrastructure and post-pandemic economic recovery. “I’ve fought hard during my time in Congress to help families and small businesses weather the COVID crisis, enact legislation to create good-paying jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure, deliver key federal investments for our district through my role on the Appropriations Committee, author bills to support victims of abuse and domestic violence, and hold the Chinese government accountable for their human rights atrocities,” she shared. n
where he assaulted a second student; Ziegler contends that his administration complied with Title IX requirements. Fight for Schools Executive Director Ian Prior said that his group would likely wait for the conclusions of the panel before taking further action against the School Board.
Group Eyes a New Fight Prior said that his group next will pivot its focus to the race for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, seeking the ouster of Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10). “We’re in the process of filing with the Federal Election Commission to start spending money to defeat Wexton,” Prior said outside the courtroom. He said those filings would be completed later in the week. “For our purposes, we’ve seen and made our displeasure with the School Board known. … We’re going to look at candidates who are most vociferously against the Loudoun County School Board. That goes for the Board of Supervisors as well.” The group will continue to focus on the role of Ziegler and his administration in the handling of the sexual assault scandal. In his ruling Monday, Padrick pointed to administrators’ potential culpability in the assaults, which were listed as grievances against School Board members on the petitions. He leveled a metaphor using police officers and city council. “If a police officer negligently shoots somebody, the city council members aren’t going to get sued,” he said. n
