Wayde Byard, the former Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman who was involved in an investigation into the school system’s handling of two student sexual assaults, wrote a new book telling his side of the story. The Battle for Loudoun County: Inside the Culture War Between a ‘Woke’ School Board and the Radical Right comes out on October 15.
Byard was acquitted of perjury last June in a federal trial that sought to determine whether he lied during a grand jury investigation into how LCPS handled two sexual assaults by the same student at different schools.
“I think there really just needs to be a record of what really happened. I don’t want people to believe the public school system would ever cover up a sexual assault for whatever reason,” Byard says.
“I think so much has become distorted through the echo chambers over the months since this has happened that there needs to be a record somewhere of what really did happen,” he says.
This new book recounts his experiences learning about the assaults (one in May 2021 and one in October 2021), conflicts within Loudoun County School Board meetings, the following media coverage and social media outrage, the grand jury investigation, and his felony trial.
The incidents came at a time when the school system was considering a change to allow transgender students to use restrooms that align with their gender identity, and the perpetrator was described as wearing a skirt at the time of the first incident. The student responsible pleaded guilty to both assaults.
This became a topic of vicious debate at school board meetings and was a major talking point in now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s campaign. Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares appointed a special grand jury to investigate how the school system handled the incidents, resulting in a 92-page report that criticized the school system for a “stunning lack of openness” about the incident.
Both Wayde Byard and then-superintendent of LCPS Scott Ziegler, who was fired after the report was published, were put on trial after the investigation.
Looking back, Byard says he believes a crucial problem in how the case was handled was what was detailed on page 18 of the grand jury report, which said that the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Loudoun County School Board office did not effectively communicate with each other.
“What really happened is the adults in the room didn’t act like adults in the room, and that ended up with students getting subjected to things they shouldn’t have been subjected to,” he says. “They didn’t consult with one another, they didn’t freely share information, and that led to some very unfortunate outcomes.”
He also describes the way that school board meetings became the scene for “political knife fights,” with discussions over policies such as bathroom use for transgender students devolving into harsh arguments.
“A very small group can portray itself as being a majority or a substantial minority who’s upset at the school division,” he says. “What happens is we have political performance artists who come to school board meetings knowing they’ll be on camera, knowing that they can get a clip for YouTube, knowing that on a good day, they can make Fox News, and they act in a manner that’s outrageous. They act in a manner that’s confrontational. And the whole idea is to generate views, to generate likes, to generate media attention.”
In Loudoun in particular, he says he believes that the political divisiveness exhibited in meetings is driven by a community that is very politically motivated and plugged in to social media.
He says he hopes readers take away the fact that what happened to him can happen to anyone.
“This could happen to you in a politically charged atmosphere. This could happen to anybody,” he says. “You could find yourself in the middle of political maelstrom, totally unaware of what got you there, you can just be dumped in the middle of something really toxic and upsetting.”
After his acquittal, Byard returned to work for LCPS in a less public-facing role. He retired in December 2023.
In the months since his retirement, he says he has focused on checking off bucket-list items such as traveling with his wife, Brenda, and home renovations.
“I’ve learned not to put off your ‘one days,’” he says. “I was going to do something ‘one day,’ and I’ve learned not to put that off.”
Feature image courtesy Wayde Byard
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