Pro-life demonstrators lined the sidewalks outside Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church Aug. 28, holding up signs to passing cars.
It was the first Fairfax County Public Schools board meeting since allegations broke Aug. 5 that FCPS staff at Centreville High School had arranged and paid for a student’s abortion without notifying the minor’s guardians.
According to Virginia law, a physician must receive written notice of a guardian’s consent for an abortion to be administered upon a minor, or a judicial bypass must be procured.
Just before the school board meeting, pro-lifers demonstrated, including Students for Life and the Family Foundation. The Virginia Catholic Conference, Virginia Society for Human Life, Concerned Women for America and Democrats for Life also mobilized people to turn out for the meeting.
During public comment, Fairfax County resident Rosie Kostka spoke of her experience coaching a public school’s ultimate frisbee team and teaching at Our Lady of Hope School in Potomac Falls.
“Virginia state law says I cannot give my Fairfax County high school athletes Tylenol for a headache, yet these girls were brought to surgery without their parents knowing,” she said. “As a teacher, I keep my kids’ parents in the loop. I would expect the same outreach, not only from my child’s teacher, but also from the school counselor dealing with something as big as a pregnancy. School does not exist to take guardianship of our children.”
Kostka added that resources are available to which school counselors can refer young women in unplanned pregnancies, such as standingwithyou.org.
“No matter where one stands on the issue of abortion or education, the events in Fairfax County demand our attention and action,” she concluded. “The allegations are serious. We insist on clarity and strive always to place the interests of young students and families first.”
Despite the board’s requests at the beginning of the session to maintain decorum, pro-life speakers were harassed by others in the audience.
An Aug. 5 report from W. C. Dispatch alleged that Centreville High School social worker Carolina Diaz arranged and paid for an abortion for a minor without parental consent. The day after the report was published, FCPS told ABC7 News it would launch an investigation. On Aug. 13, Gov. Glenn Youngkin directed Virginia State Police to open a criminal investigation.
Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid released a letter to the Centreville High School community Aug. 8, writing, “at no time, would the situation as described in these allegations be acceptable in Fairfax County Public Schools.” According to FCPS Regulation 2504, school counselors must make “every effort” to encourage pregnant students to discuss their situation with their parents or guardians. The regulation adds that in no case should the counselors “maintain such information confidentially.”
Zenaida Perez, the Centreville teacher who took the allegations public after hearing from students involved and school officials’ subsequent refusal to intervene, told the Catholic Herald that she first heard about a school-funded abortion three years ago.
She said rumors began circulating in spring 2022 that Perez had bought a pregnancy test for a student. She denied the claims, and said she told school officials in a meeting that she knew of one school social worker who had distributed pregnancy tests to students.
Shortly after this meeting, a student approached Perez, saying that in November 2021, the social worker had scheduled an abortion for her. “At that time, she was just turning 17 years old, and her uncle, who was her legal guardian at that point, was never informed. No one contacted him,” Perez said.
Perez said that the student allegedly did not pay for the abortion and her uncle only learned about it when the student experienced a post-abortion medical crisis and was rushed to the emergency room at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
Perez said she immediately reported the situation to the school principal at the time, Chad Lehman, and followed up several more times. “He didn’t do anything,” she said.
Perez added that this past May, a former Centreville High School student met with her and said that she, too, was offered an abortion by FCPS staff when she was five months pregnant. The student declined the offer, and her son is approximately 18 months old today, according to Perez.
Perez has also retained a lawyer, Steven Aden. Aden, who serves as general counsel at Americans United for Life, spoke at the Aug. 28 school board meeting on her behalf.
“Mrs. Perez brought these allegations to the attention of the Centreville High School principal at the time, as well as other staff on seven occasions, but each of Mrs. Perez’s attempts to bring the case to light were ignored. As a result of her perseverance on behalf of these girls, Mrs. Perez faced what she described as a campaign of significant workplace retaliation and harassment,” he said. “These allegations are detailed and alarming, and they point to an apparent systematic program for enabling young girls, especially vulnerable immigrants, to unlawfully obtain abortions by evading their parents and their guardians.”
Perez said that despite the alleged retaliation, she does not want to leave her job. “I love to teach. I love my students,” she said. “I guess this fortitude has come to me from God.”
She said concerned parents must strive to remain active in their children’s lives, “that they earn the children’s trust, so children don’t go to talk to the social workers or the nurses, because sometimes they have a political agenda.”
