(LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a Virginia teacher accusing Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) of retaliating against her for exposing secret abortions arranged by school staffers behind parents’ backs, claiming that the district acted reasonably against her.
As covered by LifeSiteNews in August 2025, a then-17-year-old girl at Centreville High School had an abortion in 2021 after social worker Carolina Diaz swore her to silence. A second teen, five months’ pregnant at the time, pleaded to keep her baby and then fled the abortion facility after Diaz told her abortion was her “only choice.” According to independent journalist Walter Curt, who broke the story, Centreville Principal Chad Lehman “greenlit the whole operation” and even used “tax dollars to finance this pipeline.”
Shortly after the story broke, former Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he was “deeply concerned with the allegations” and directed the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to “open a full criminal investigation into the matter immediately.” Virginia law requires parental consent for anyone younger than 18 to get an abortion.
Per Curt’s original story, the second girl “later confided in her teacher, Mrs. Zenaida Perez, who allowed her name to be used on the record and provided The W.C. Dispatch a recording of the family confirming that no one at the school had ever informed them of the intent to terminate their daughter’s pregnancy.”
“Mrs. Perez says the scandal did not end at the clinic door,” he continued. “According to written statements by multiple students that The Dispatch has reviewed, school administrators tried to muzzle her once she learned the truth – pressuring classmates to bait her into minor policy violations that could justify firing or force a quiet resignation.” Perez spoke out that September, standing by the claims.
FCPS commissioned the law firm King & Spalding to conduct an internal probe, which Superintendent Michelle Reid said in October concluded that the allegations were “likely untrue.” The report framed Perez as potentially fabricating or coercing the statements, supposedly as retaliation against other school officials, which Perez’s attorney denied. She was placed on administrative leave.
Backed by Americans United for Life (AUL), Perez filed a civil suit later that month, accusing the district of defamation and retaliation in violation of whistleblower protections.
On May 8, however, Judge Anthony Trenga dismissed her suit, maintaining that she “failed to plead facts which, when viewed most favorably to her, plausibly give rise to a claim for whistleblower retaliation.”
“Even were Plaintiff’s speech motivated more by pro-life sentiment than personal grievance against the guidance counselor, or any other school official, none of the various alleged investigations substantiated Plaintiff’s claims, and the Individual Defendants could reasonably have believed that Plaintiff’s speech interests were outweighed by the school system’s countervailing interests, particularly in light of her failure to provide Lehman with the evidence she claimed to have, which she instead published years later through a report by a political blogger,” Trenga wrote.
In response, AUL attorney Steven Aden told FFXnow, “While we are disappointed by the court’s decision, we continue to evaluate our client’s options for further recourse. Investigations by the Senate HELP Committee, U.S. Department of Education and Virginia State Police [are] still ongoing to which we have confidence our client will ultimately be vindicated.”
Virginia State Police confirmed their investigation is still “open and active,” while the Trump administration Department of Education’s (DOE) Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) announced in September it would be investigating FCPS over the matter, as well.
Though commonly opposed by the abortion industry and its activist allies, parental involvement rules for underage abortions stop the practice from being used by sexual abusers to cover up and continue their crimes, as is often the case – sometimes with the knowledge and cooperation of Planned Parenthood staffers, as established by undercover investigations by the pro-life group Live Action.
Meanwhile, disregard for parental rights and student welfare when they intersect with left-wing values is a recurring problem in the Virginia education system. Two boys at Loudoun County’s Stonebridge High School were suspended last year not for harming or threatening other students but for objecting to the placement of a gender-dysphoric female in the boys’ lockers.
Loudoun highlighted the dangers of such situations years ago when superintendent Scott Ziegler allegedly covered up the rape of a female student by a “transgender” classmate in a girls bathroom due to its damaging implications for the LGBT movement. He was later convicted in 2023 of “using his official position to retaliate against someone for exercising their rights” by firing a teacher who testified about the situation before a grand jury.