It’s been a little more than a month since WJLA investigative reporter Nick Minock’s blockbuster story that “school officials at Fairfax County’s Centerville High School arranged and bankrolled abortions for girls without so much as a phone call to their parents back in 2021.” That was followed almost immediately by an order from Gov. Glenn Youngkin to Virginia State Police to open a “full criminal investigation into allegations of school-funded abortions in Fairfax County.”
“I am deeply concerned with the allegations that Fairfax County Public Schools officials arranged for minors to get abortions without parental consent and may have misused public funds to pay for them,” Gov. Youngkin said at the time. “I am directing the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to open a full criminal investigation into the matter immediately.”
Both, however, followed Walter Curt’s story which alleged
Fairfax County’s Centreville High School is staring down a potential criminal firestorm. Two female students—both minors—say school officials arranged and bankrolled abortions at Fairfax Healthcare Center without so much as a phone call to their parents, a direct break with Virginia’s parental-notification law.
That second girl, according to Curl, later confided in her teacher, Mrs. Zenaida Perez. Perez, originally from Cuba, is an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher. She
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. I have reviewed the audio in full and verified its content, it’s heartbreaking.
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Perez, 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 alleges that she “reportedly brought her concerns to school administrators seven times,” according to Sarah Zagorski. “But instead of district officials addressing these allegations, Perez says she experienced bullying from administrators and attempts from the school to undermine her integrity by falsely accusing her of handing out pregnancy tests to students.”
Since then, even more questions have been raised as the Fairfax County School Board ducks and evades direct answers. On August 28, The Fairfax County Public Schools board held their first meeting since the controversy exploited.
“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.” Anna Donofrio reported.
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.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.
