This two-tiered system of justice is the logical conclusion of the poisonous brand of elite identity-obsessed progressivism that has consolidated power in well-to-do communities like Loudoun. The accused student’s status as transgender afforded him a host of special rights and immunities that were not extended to Smith’s white cisgender daughter. This went well above and beyond Ziegler’s apparent willingness to lie on the suspect’s behalf; even as the Loudoun political bureaucracy kicked into gear to protect the victimizer, it went to unprecedented lengths to aggressively prosecute the victim’s family.

This machine’s loyal foot soldiers sit on school boards and in local prosecutor’s offices across the country. They take their cues from a sympathetic legacy media that is far more willing to villainize white fathers like Scott Smith than credibly accused rapists who happen to wear dresses. LCPS has made national news for the brazen radicalism of its school officials before. The debates over CRT in the district were triggered by an unusually extreme and aggressive set of “equity”-oriented reforms that began to be implemented in 2019.

Yet in spite of parental backlash, mediocrities like Scott Ziegler are remarkably adept at self-preservation. As Loudoun County slouches toward anarcho-tyranny, the smug administrators at its helm have been insulated from accountability by the same bureaucratic system that enables them to wield power. Ziegler, for example, blamed his failure to respond to the assault on “the processes and procedures in place” which “existed prior to my tenure,” before congratulating himself for the nebulous achievement of “taking steps to make sure that this process is improved.” The central problem was that “our administrative procedures have not kept pace with the growth we have seen in our county,” he explained in his recent press conference.