An investigation conducted for Fairfax County Public Schools indicates allegations that a high school social worker helped a student get an abortion and paid for the procedure are likely “false and fabricated.”
The troubling allegations made by a teacher against a Centreville High school social worker first were reported by a conservative blogger in August. The school district launched an investigation, and Gov. Youngkin asked Virginia State Police to do the same.
The law firm hired by FCPS made public its report Friday because the U.S. Department of Education — before any investigation was complete — notified FCPS and released a statement that it will initiate an enforcement action. DOE wrote the allegations “shocked the conscience.”
FCPS was given Friday as the deadline to respond.
The 61-page interim report concludes the teacher who made the allegations fabricated a disturbing narrative about the student abortion after she’d been disciplined for allegedly helping another student get a pregnancy test.
Zenaida Perez, a teacher of English for students of other languages (ESOL) at Centreville High School, said in May 2022, a 17-year-old student told her a school social worker helped her get an abortion and paid for it.
“I asked her, I need you to tell me details about what you know and what you remember, what happened to you?” Perez told News4 in August. “Then she confessed to me privately away from the rest of the class that she got pregnant back in October/November 2021 and she had an abortion that was facilitated and arranged and covered, financially paid, by the social worker at the school.”
Perez says she first told the school principal in May 2022. Later, she alleged he engaged in a cover up.
Perez says she was targeted for harassment because of her disclosure, saying that was why she decided three years later to go public with her story.
“Because I realized that FCPS and all the administrators were going to continue with harassment and bullying to silence me and to make me resign,” she said in August.
But the interim report from law firm King & Spaulding concludes the teacher’s allegations are untrue, writing: “These allegations are indeed shocking. Yet, based on our fact-finding, it also appears they are very likely untrue and lacking in factual or evidentiary support. We found no evidence substantiating Mrs. Perez’s allegation that [the social worker] encouraged, facilitated or funded student abortions.”
The report says the social worker followed protocol and referred the student to the nurse, who is a Fairfax County Health Department employee.
The law firm says Perez was disciplined in May 2022 for allegedly providing a student with a pregnancy test. The law firm also says the social worker Perez accused of assisting with the abortion is the person who reported Perez’ improper conduct.
The report also finds no evidence of an administrative cover up.
The investigators suggest Perez manipulated or fabricated student statements.
The investigation spotlights a handwritten letter Perez provided to the blogger who first told her story. She says it came from the student describing the social worker’s help with an abortion, but investigators allege Perez wrote the letter herself, citing the identical way “ESOL” was written in the letter and in another document signed by Perez.
The uncle of the 17-year-old who had the abortion said his niece came to Fairfax County as an unaccompanied minor and sometimes lived with him. But the law firm’s report says another relative was listed as the guardian in school records and was contacted by the school nurse.
The uncle said the girl’s abortion procedure took place at a clinic in Maryland and that he was the one who called the girl’s mother in Guatemala.
“When I called her, we talked a lot,” he said. “This was a difficult situation.”
He also said he asked his niece whether they should report to school officials what had happened.
“When I told her we should file a report with the school, she said no, better that we leave it like it is. Better that we leave it alone,” he said.
The investigators said they have not been able to locate the former student or her uncle to speak directly with them.
The general counselor for the legal representative for Perez, Americans United for Life, said, in part: “Fairfax County taxpayers now have what they likely paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, for – a thin coating of whitewash over very serious, detailed and documented charges.”
Her attorney said they will provide a more detailed response soon.
FCPS Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid posted an update to the community online, noting the law firm’s investigation and that of Virginia State Police continue.
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