The Centreville High School teacher who alleged that a social worker had helped students obtain abortions in 2021 is now on paid leave.
Fairfax County Public Schools Director of Employee Relations William Fulton notified Zenaida Perez on Monday (Oct. 20) that she has been placed on paid administrative leave, effective immediately, after investigators released a report last week challenging the veracity of her claims.
According to Fulton’s letter, FCPS is now investigating Perez for “serious professional misconduct,” including allegations that she has failed to cooperate with investigations into her claims, made “serious accusations” against other FCPS employees based on “potentially knowingly false” information, overstepped professional boundaries when dealing with students and their families, and shared confidential information, including about students, without authorization.
While on paid leave, Perez is barred from participating in any FCPS activities or visiting FCPS facilities without the approval of Centreville High School principal Erik Healey, Fulton said.
“Paid administrative leave is not a disciplinary measure and is not a determination on the merits of the concerns currently under investigation,” Fulton wrote. “While on paid administrative leave, you are expected to be available during your scheduled work hours for follow-up conferences and meetings, as necessary.”
An FCPS spokesperson confirmed that, as stated in Fulton’s letter, placing employees on paid administrative leave is “standard protocol … in these circumstances.”
Though initial findings suggest Perez’s claims against the social worker “are likely untrue,” FCPS reiterated that the behavior she described would “at no time” be acceptable.
“The division’s highest priority remains ensuring that each student learns in a safe, healthy, and supportive environment,” FCPS said.
An attorney representing Perez decried the move as “the latest example” of FCPS taking “retaliatory action” against the teacher, who first brought allegations of the social worker pushing two underage students to get abortions without their families’ awareness to Centreville High administrators in November 2022 before making them public this summer.
The Aug. 5 report by the Substack newsletter WC Dispatch prompted FCPS to hire the outside law firm King & Spalding to review Perez’s allegations and drew the attention of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who ordered the Virginia State Police to open a criminal investigation of the school system.
In response to requests for information from the U.S. Department of Education and the Senate education committee chair, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid publicized preliminary reports by King & Spalding last Thursday (Oct. 16) that indicated Perez’s allegations are “likely untrue.”
In their report, the attorneys found that the social worker had directed students to a nurse employed by Fairfax County, not FCPS, for guidance on how to handle their pregnancies in accordance with protocol.
They also contended that Perez possibly fabricated statements cited as evidence that the students felt coerced and that Youngkin and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares might’ve been aware of her allegations well before they became public, suggesting that conservative activists and elected officials were “shining a spotlight” on the claims now as a political maneuver ahead of “hotly contested” statewide elections.
Attorneys with the anti-abortion advocacy group Americans United for Life (AUL), which is representing Perez, have dismissed the allegation that she fabricated evidence and say she is planning to file a lawsuit against FCPS for “retaliation and defamation.”
“We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that Mrs. Perez’s charges are properly investigated by the Virginia State Police, the Senate and the Department of Education, and not brushed under the rug by FCPS bureaucrats in an attempt to save face,” Aden said. “Mrs. Perez will have her day in court, and we are more confident than ever in our client.”
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