Loudoun County defended itself after running a simulation depicting parents as terrorists amid wider tensions between parents and the school district.
In a closed-door training session hours after a student was allegedly killed in an accident involving a staff member, the Loudoun County school board hired around 30 actors to simulate “terrorist activity” at a school board meeting triggered by parents, according to WJLA reporter Nick Minock. Citing sources in the room, Minock said the Jan. 13 training involved one of the “parents” bringing a gun into the room, causing the rest to begin “screaming, running, and yelling.” The staff members were instructed on how to respond.
Notably, one of the “parents” was named Mr. Smith. At a real school board meeting in 2021, LCSB Superintendent Scott Ziegler had a real parent named Scott Smith arrested at a school board meeting after he showed up to protest his daughter being sexually assaulted by a boy in the girls bathroom.
Minock reported that Ziegler also repeatedly referenced an incident at a school board meeting last year, during which several parents showed up to protest several boys being targeted for alleged Title IX sexual harassment, after they expressed discomfort over a transgender student using the male locker rooms.
LCSB Chairwoman April Chandler reportedly referred to parents as “agitators” and “disruptors” in relation to the 2025 incident, according to ABC7.
Responding to inquiries from the Washington Examiner, an LCSB spokesperson said the timing of holding the training hours after the student’s death was purely coincidental, as it was planned for four days earlier.
They clarified that the training was held in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act’s language, which allows for closed-door sessions for the “discussion of plans to protect public safety as it relates to terrorist activity or specific cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities and briefings by staff members, legal counsel, or law-enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or a related threat to public safety.”
“Given VFOIA’s language for this permitted topic, we can understand the potential for confusion. But as you can see, the reference to terrorist activity likely came directly from the Code of Virginia related to the permitted topic. It is common practice for public bodies to review safety and security protocols on a regular basis with law enforcement and other safety and security officials, which would fall under this topic,” they added.
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While declining to go into specifics, the spokesperson added that the “media accounts … are misleading and inaccurate.”
“To be sure, the School Board does not consider parents terrorists. In fact, we consider parents to be our first and best partners and welcome and encourage their engagement in a variety of ways,” they concluded.
