#Loudoun

[intergalacticlibrary]

Poolhouse in DC Metro Huge minimalist backyard stone and rectangular infinity pool house photo

[101now]

Former Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler convicted of special ed. teacher’s retaliatory firing

The former school’s superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia, was found guilty Friday for the retaliatory firing of a special education school teacher, a misdemeanor charge related to a larger scandal that engulfed the district over how it handled a pair of sexual assaults.  Scott Ziegler was found not guilty of a lesser charge, punishing an employee for attending court. He faces up to a year…

[shemaegomez]

Modern Pool DC Metro

Picture of a large, minimalist backyard house with a rectangular infinity pool

[xpaigeturnahx]

Poolhouse Poolhouse in DC Metro

Picture of a large, elegant backyard with a rectangular lap pool house

[girlfurniture]

Fiberboard - Exterior Idea for a medium-sized, two-story, beige concrete fiberboard home with a shingle roof.

[subsidystadium]

The Washington Commanders/Commanders have officially stopped screwing over Richmond, Virginia

The year is 2012. The city of Richmond at this time was dealing with “revenue shortfalls” that “forced (public) schools to cut millions of dollars … forcing scores of layoffs, furloughs and other job cuts”. What better time to help out a billionaire sports owner. That year, the Washington Redskins (Commanders will be used from now on) announced that their training camp would move 100 miles south…

[mellarkloaves]

Stone Exterior Massive, elegant, three-story stone building with a gable roof.

[weemsbotts]

Can’t Have it All: The Strange Request From a Disgruntled Man in Loudoun County

By: Lisa Timmerman, Executive Director

Small historic societies and local libraries often have hard to find books and booklets that feature local and regional history, and The Lee Lansing Research Library is no exception. Sharing the stories of the people from our region is just one of the ways we preserve our local history and make it accessible to the community. Local newspapers often contain gems as people freely express their love or hate for certain developments in society. They can also provide a touch of levity as we peer into the concerns and woes of those living in Loudoun County in the 1970s.

(Photograph by Donald G. Rypka, Jr. Enjoy these happy Loudoun geese in lieu of outhouses!)

The Metro Virginia News commenced in November 1972 and eventually condensed many heart-warming and charming stories in compilated volumes. Robin R. Lind, Karen T. Richardson, and Donald G. Rypka, Jr. identified the importance of these delves into the lives of Loudoun County residents in their eloquent introduction to the book Loudoun Harvest – faces and places, past and present, in Loudon County, Virginia. “The beauty of the landscape and the wealth of historical places is not what impressed us most. Rather, it was the warm-hearted and generous people who so proudly call Loudoun their home. These stories represent, not the history recorded by monuments and deed books, but the history of a place as perceived by the people who made, and are in the process of making, that history.”

Meet “Disgusted” aka Fred Crum, an 80-year-old man at the time of book’s publication. In an interview with Don Follmer, he elaborated on his letter to the editor, “The paper’s main topic for months has been SEWAGE, Sewage here, Sewage there, Sewage everywhere…Intellectual, new ideas? Anything interesting? Or cultural? NO WAY. -- Disgusted”

“Listen, Crum said, letting to with a stream of well-chewed Beech Nut over his porch railing, “this sewer stuff is a bunch of bull. Aside from the fact that I’m sick and tired of hearing about it, all the fuss isn’t even necessary.

“What we ought to do is get rid of all these sewer plants, underground lines that crack open, stop having these confusing meetings that no one understands…

“And pass a law that everyone has to build at least a two-holer in his yard. ‘Course we would have to pass some laws about size, depth and width of the seats…that sort of thing. But, hell, after the complicated mess we are into now, it should be pretty simple.

“You know,” Crum mused, looking at the Blue Ridge Mountains rising in his backyard, “there was something nice about the old outhouse. Kind of homey. I mean everybody knew what it was there for.

“You could catch up on the latest products that Sears and Monkey Wards were selling and the kids had a lot of harmless fun turning them over on Halloween.

“I mean it was nice back then. None of this Water Control Board and Regional Planning things and Sanitation Authorities. I know those guys are doing a job and all that, but with all the screwed-up laws, regulations, and stuff, they don’t hardly know what to do. And if they don’t know, who else knows?

“No fuss and muss with hookups and politics, no digging up the streets.

“All you need is some lumber, a deep hole in the ground, a bag of lime, a nail on the door for the latest catalogue and a path from the back door.

“Man,” he said, adjusting his used striped coveralls, “that was real livin’. People don’t now what they gave up when they started with this indoor plumbing.

“Every now and then you’d hear about somebody bein’ bit by a spider or seein’ a snake, but compared to goin’ in one a them sewer meetings or reading about it all the time. I’d almost druther be but bit a spider.

“Snakes? I never bothered about snakes anyway.”

Colonel John S. Mosby might have agreed with Mr. Crum. According to local folklore, Colonel Mosby hid from Union soldiers in an outhouse. His memories note: “A ludicrous incident occurred when we were leaving Fairfax. A window was raised, and a voice inquired, in an authoritative tone, what that cavalry was doing in the street. He was answered by a loud laugh from my men, which was notice to him that we were not his friends. I ordered several men to dismount and capture him. They burst through the front door, but the man's wife met them in the hall and held her ground like a lioness to give her husband time to escape. He was Colonel Johnstone, who was in command of the cavalry brigade during Wyndham's absence. He got out through the back door in his night clothes and barefooted, and hid in the garden. He spent some time there, as he did not know when we left, and his wife could not find him.” Here, “hid in the garden” could be a nice way of stating that he hid underneath the bench of the outhouse.

We know Dumfries residents, such as the Merchant family, used outhouses and the push for sanitation did not go through flawlessly as sewer rates and fees were an issue and concern to the local population. Besides for snarky chamber pots in The Weems-Botts Museum we have no lore to share regarding our past facilities. However, I feel confident stating that Colonel Mosby was probably not the only person to find it a convenient if not hideous hiding spot.

Note: Have you heard of The Weems-Botts Bibliophiles? This charming virtual monthly program features links to short stories, tea from Leaf & Petal, and a presentation/discussion on the selected theme! For November, we are all about the happy feels and healing energy as we brew a delicious cup of Healing Honeysuckle. It is not too late to register! If you would like to have the stories read to you instead, join us for our Winter is Coming Tea! Tickets for the Bibliophiles here and Winter Tea here.

(Sources: Loudon Harvest – faces and places, past and present, in Loudoun County, Virginia. A collection of stories and photographs from the first volume of the Metro Virginia News. Leesburg: Carr Printing and Publishing Company, November 1973; Mosby, John Singleton. The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Modby. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1917 via Documenting the American South; Outhouses in Virginia via Virginia Places)

[loudountactical]

Just a PSA … this is, by no means whatsoever, any form of “Staccato Killer.” The bottom lip of the back strap is brutally sharp, the slide motion is no different than the MC Operator .45, and the overly loose tolerance in the trigger is disappointing. The weight, however, is great and the stock irons are very clean. More to follow on this piece following a @trijicon RDS install and @surefire_llc Turbo light addition. • #ltac #loudountactical #loudoun #loudouncounty #northernvirginia #firearmstraining #tacticaltraining #trust #endure #freedom #usa #america (at Shadow Hawk Defense) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkR7YrwrSup/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ricelily]

Poolhouse - Poolhouse Large cottage backyard concrete paver and kidney-shaped natural pool house photo

[sonjamorganonline]

Out on the town with @jenny_hairsalon 💕 Loving my new look 😊 #loudoun #loudouncounty #purcevillevirginia #VA #girlsnightout 🥂 https://www.instagram.com/p/CjOQNKmOS0a/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[coochiequeens]

A TIM sexually assaulted a girl and a teacher who told a grand jury the truth about another incident of sexual assault was fired. At least someone in the school was more concerned about the truth then perverts or maintaining a woke image.

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — A jury of six women and one man on Friday found ex-Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of using his position to retaliate against a teacher for cooperating with a grand jury investigating how the district handled sexual assault.

After a four-day trial plus a day of deliberations, the jury found that Ziegler wrongfully fired a teacher who had disclosed to Virginia investigators about mishandling of sexual assault in her classroom. Ziegler was convicted of using his official position to retaliate against someone for exercising their rights, and acquitted of punishing someone for testifying to a jury, both misdemeanors.

Ziegler could face up to 12 months in jail, a $2,500 fine, or both. Sentencing in the trial will occur on January 4, 2024, Judge Douglas Fleming Jr. said. Ziegler’s victim, former special education teacher Erin Brooks, clasped her hands in front of her mouth in emotion after the verdict was read.

Prosecutors appointed by Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, said that after they began investigating the school district’s coverup of a bathroom rape, they spoke with Brooks, who disclosed an unrelated instance of mishandling of sexual assault by school administrators. Brooks was then fired by Ziegler for cooperating with the special grand jury.

Out of all of LCPS’ 15,000 teachers, Brooks was singled out for firing by Ziegler at a school board meeting in June 2022, prosecutors said. Ziegler told board members he fired Brooks for giving private information to a conservative activist, and for giving private information to the grand jury, school board member John Beatty testified.

Ziegler’s alleged claim that Brooks had given information to a conservative activist turned out to be false, and it would be illegal to punish her for telling the truth to a jury she’d been subpoenaed by, prosecutors argued.

At trial, school board member Brenda Sheridan, a Democrat who was chair during the gender-fluid rape coverup, was asked under oath about Ziegler’s closed-door statements that amounted to a confession. She did not deny Beatty’s version, but instead refused to answer, saying that because division attorney Robert Falconi was in the room during the discussion, she believed she could invoke attorney-client privilege.

Ziegler, who was wearing earrings and nail polish, did not testify at trial.

Falconi convinced the board to drop their questions about Brooks that June night by falsely saying she could simply appeal.

LCPS, often through its then-attorney Falconi, repeatedly attacked, tried to shut down, and obfuscated to the special grand jury, which Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin promised to convene following the Daily Wire’s October 2021 expose of a “genderfluid” rape coverup.

The grand jury previously said it would have indicted Falconi for witness tampering because of his central role in the rape coverup, but were hamstrung by the fact that Virginia doesn’t have a witness tampering law.

Though Ziegler’s defense attorney Erin Harrigan said in opening arguments that she would show that Ziegler fired Brooks for invading the privacy of her student assailant, she failed to produce evidence that private information was shared or that a policy was violated. None of the witnesses could point to a policy that Brooks violated.

Prosecutors laid out a devastating timeline of retaliation against Brooks, who was trying to get administrators to do something about the fact that a student with intellectual disabilities was grabbing the genitals of her and her teaching assistant Laurie Vandermeulen dozens of times a day, while making crude motions with his tongue. Administrators offered the educators a piece of cardboard called “no-no hands,” and told them to hold it in front of their groins. They also offered to buy them dog groomer aprons to wear to “slow down penetration,” they said.

At a loss for what to do, Vandermeulen asked a frequent speaker at school board meetings, Ian Prior, to read a letter to the school board expressing that there were two teachers who were being sexually assaulted in class and needed help.

Vandermeulen also sent a record of the assaults she was facing to her personal gmail after fearing a coverup was afoot, which Ziegler’s attorney initially tried to portray as “smuggling” private information, but ultimately failed to show that Vandermeulen violated any policy.

On March 22, 2022, principal Diane Mackey gave Brooks a glowing evaluation. That night, Prior made the speech, which contained no identifying information about the student, the teachers, or even the name of the school. Prior didn’t know any details about the student and Vandermeulen asked him not to use any names. He only said that teachers had filed a Title IX complaint on a certain date that he hoped the school board would look into.

Mackey saw the school board speech and the student was moved out of Brooks’ classroom the next day, but Brooks became the target of ruthless animus from school administrators.

Soon after, Brooks asked Mackey for a day off to testify to the grand jury, and Mackey demanded to see the subpoena. Ziegler asked HR whether Brooks was a probationary employee, meaning she would be easy to fire. Mackey spoke to Ziegler about Brooks, then falsely testified to the grand jury that she had not, she acknowledged this week, chalking it up to a memory error. Mackey also spoke about Brooks to Falconi, the attorney who prosecutors said was Ziegler’s “right-hand man.”

In May, Mackey wrote a negative evaluation and letter to Ziegler recommending that she be fired. Ziegler used the letter the same day to have her fired, suggesting he was waiting on it.

Prosecutors said the year-end evaluation of Brooks showed that school officials had “fabricated” the allegations retroactively to justify Ziegler’s desire to fire her, given that she had a stellar record and had been named Special Ed Teacher of the Year the prior year.

The evaluation focused squarely on the student who was the subject of the trial, saying she had failed to manage his behavior and failed to implement “plans” like the cardboard. It, and Ziegler’s attorney, suggested that Brooks had caused the student to sexually assault her by making him frustrated by refusing to give him an iPad.

The year-end evaluation posed a major timeline problem for the defense: The student never set foot in Brooks’ classroom in between her glowing March evaluation and negative May one. Yet the May one was full of allegations involving her handling of the student that were absent from, or outright contradicted by, the earlier evaluation.

“She made it up after the fact. Isn’t it brazen how she did this?” prosecutor Brandon Wrobleski asked. “‘We can’t have more sexual assaults coming out. Anyone who brings sexual assaults to public attention is gone.’ That’s what happened here,” he said. “Look a how well the Family works together when a dissident speaks out. She goes from Teacher of the Year to fired,” he said.

Ziegler’s attorney Harrigan explained the discrepancy in closing arguments by saying that in between the two evaluations, Mackey had seen that the student supposedly did not assault his new teacher, leading to a conclusion that Brooks and Vendermeulen must have been to blame for their own assaults.

Prosecutor Theo Stamos said the defense had offered no “motive” why Brooks and Vandermeulen would voluntarily cause themselves to be sexually assaulted or deprive him of an iPad communication device–Brooks was actually such a proponent of the communication aid for disabled students that she led a training on it.

The defense’s evidence that she had caused the assaults by failing to implement administrators’ “plans” or not provided him an iPad was based on fleeting observations from a handful of administrators who had stopped in Brooks’ class for a few minutes, and whose testimony at trial suggested that the defense had overstated or misrepresented their observations.

Harrigan emphasized in closing arguments that the law about an employer punishing someone for jury testimony talks about punishing them for being absent. Ziegler was found not guilty of that charge, perhaps because jurors believed he was retaliating against Brooks for what she said to the grand jury, not for taking a day off work to do it.

A month after his January 4 sentencing, Ziegler will face a separate trial on a final misdemeanor charge that was at the core of The Daily Wire’s 2021 story: His false statement at a school board meeting that there had been no sexual assaults in LCPS restrooms–part of a screed denigrating parents who were concerned about a transgender policy being discussed–when in fact he knew that a skirt-wearing boy had anally raped a ninth grader in the girls bathroom just weeks prior.

Harrigan said she plans to file a “somewhat legally complex” “motion to set aside the jury’s verdict.”

[istandonsnowpiles]

Loudoun Gateway Station

[federer7]

June 1942. "Rigger on the Fort Loudoun Dam, a Tennessee Valley Authority project."

Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the U.S. Foreign Information Service

View full size

[gogmstuff]

Big hair (from top to bottom) -

ca. 1770 The Love Letter by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (location ?). From tumblr.com/silverfoxstole 884X1103 @72 327kj.

1771 Anne Loudoun, Lady Henderson of Fordell by Angelika Kauffmann (Angelika Kauffmann Museum - Schwarzenberg, Bregenz, Austria). From tumblr.com/sims4rococo76 1417X1819 @72 2Mj.

L'Offrande du Bouquet by Jean-Frédéric Schall (location ?). From tumblr.com/silverfoxstole 2048X2554 @72 1.8Mj.

Lady by Jean-Frédéric Schall (auctioned by Christie's). From tumblr.com/silverfoxstole 969X121 @72 655kj.

ca. 1775 Susette Isabelle von Rohden by Johann Heinrich d. Ä. Tischbein (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, specific location ? - Kassel, Hessen, Germany). From datenbank.museum-kassel.de/30195/34135/0/0/b92/0/0/objekt.html. 950X1200 @300 223kj

[kevinnance]

Wherefore © 2023 by Kevin Nance

(The Loudoun House, Lexington, Kentucky)