Tipsheet

Loudoun County Superintendent Compared Protests of Concerned Parents to January 6

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 29, 2021 6:00 PM

The blatant disregard the Loudoun County School Board and the district's superintendent has for concerned parents keeps getting worse. As Sam Dorman reported for Fox News on Friday, citing a transcript from a September 22 court hearing for Commonwealth v. Tigges, Superintendent Scott Ziegler said that protests from concerned parents reminded him of January 6 and people drinking on the beach.

The case in question was heard in Loudoun's general district court. John Tigges is alleged to have trespassed during a June 22 school board meeting.

Superintendent Ziegler told counsel that "somebody had brought in a voice amplification device at some point, and there was individuals, I guess, trying to organize their own version of public comment."

To Ziegler, "at that point, it became clear to me that we were not going to be able to restore order in the room, that these individuals were going to continue standing on chairs, that they were going to voice opposition to things that were on the agenda that night, but also that it wasn't going to be safe in the room for those who disagreed with their opinion. Basically, individuals had taken over the boardroom and it was very reminiscent to me of January 6."

When asked by the defendant's attorney, Chris Kachouroff, under cross-examination that "this reminded you of January the 6th," Ziegler confirmed "it did, yes."

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Kachouroff also made reference to violent incidents occurring in Portland, Oregon, asking "were there people that were burning chairs inside the room?" Ziegler acknowledged that there were not, answering by saying "no, but there were people who were moving chairs, aggressively, yeah."

Ziegler also responded "yes" when Kachouroff pointed out that "you were analogizing the crowd that was there that night to the crowds that come from bars where people had been drinking on the strip in Virginia Beach."

The commonwealth attorney in the case, who was mentioned in Dorman's reporting, is Buta Biberaj, who was also responsible for handling the cases against Scott Smith, who was arrested after a heated confrontation at the June 22 school board meeting. Smith only recently revealed, as reported by Luke Rosiak of The Daily Wire, that he had been looking for answers surrounding his ninth grade daughter's rape in a bathroom by a 14-year old boy in a skirt. 

That 14-year old, who Biberaj had previously said "appeared to be a good candidate to be put on electronic monitoring based on the information that was provided," was found guilty of raping Smith's daughter.  The unidentified young man is also charged in a separate sexual assault, the incident which is what prompted Smith to go public about why he was at the school board meeting.

Biberaj shockingly sought jail time for Smith, who was sentenced to 10 days in jail, though the sentence was suspended, contingent on a year of good behavior. 

As Jessica Chasmar reported for Fox News, Biberaj's campaign was funded by George Soros' Justice and Public Safety PAC to the tune of over $860,000. She is known for being a criminal reform advocate and a member of Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, which calls for ending mandatory minimum sentences and cash bail. Hence, her decision to be so involved in Smith's case despite being a so-called criminal reform advocate was all the more shocking. 

Biberaj is also affiliated with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, and appeared at an October 2 campaign event of his in Leesburg.

Emily Zanotti reported for The Daily Wire that McAuliffe evaded a reporter's question, in addition to asking if she was vaccinated and saying he hoped she voted already, when asked if he "still supports Scott Smith’s prosecutor."

Ian Prior, the executive director of Fight for Schools PAC, who has written about Loudoun County school board meetings for Townhall before, told Fox News that "[t]here will never be trust in Loudoun County Schools until Superintendent Ziegler is fired."

Others have already called for Ziegler to be fired, especially after he covered up the rape incident by claiming that "we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms," yet told the school board of the allegation in May, as Landon reported. 

McAuliffe's Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, as Landon also reported, has called on Ziegler to resign. 

Before then, Youngkin had made an announcement earlier this month to a crowd of almost 1,000 in Burke, Virginia, during which he called on the school board to be investigated. 

In response to that Youngkin announcement, Christian Freundlich, a McAuliffe spokesperson, in a statement to Julia Manchester with The Hill, claimed that "Glenn Youngkin's entire campaign has been based on Donald Trump's divisive conspiracy theories, and tonight we saw more of the same--angry Trumpian conspiracy theories and constant threats against public school funding."

During a rally for McAuliffe last week in Virginia, former President Barack Obama told the crowd that "we don't have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage, the right-wing media's pedals to juice their rating."