What started as a school project for Sukhi Mahadevan and Rithika Kanakamedala when they were sophomores in high school has become a larger effort to curb domestic violence in Virginia.
What started as a school project for Sukhi Mahadevan and Rithika Kanakamedala when they were sophomores in high school has become a larger effort to curb domestic violence in Virginia.
The pair wanted to do something to give back to their Loudoun County community, so they began arranging local fundraisers. But then, they came across Loudoun County’s women’s shelter and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services. It draws people from nearby jurisdictions and those as far as Richmond, and some of them are looking for legal help or financial resources, Mahadevan said.
The circumstances inspired them to try and do more.
The revelation ultimately led to the launch of Her Voice, a nonprofit that aims to help teens prevent dating violence. Using events and a podcast, the group is evolving to spread potentially life-saving messages.
“We felt that obviously domestic violence and sexual assault are incredibly common problems within our age group that often go really under-looked or over-stigmatized within so many minority households,” Mahadevan told WTOP.
The group created “Her Voice, Her Story,” a nearly hourlong podcast during which survivors of domestic violence share their stories. It’s very focused, senior Ishita Sharma said. Nobody usually chimes in, except to ask a question.
“It’s kind of a place where we give a lot of people the opportunity to have a voice, when a lot of other people said no to them and didn’t want to hear their stories,” Sharma said.
For many people, Kanakamedala said, domestic violence is misunderstood. Some think it’s “just physical. But we want to tell people that it can come in any form. There’s a lot of different ways that you can see it develop. You want to find the red flags first.”
They attended basketball and football games, selling shirts as part of their fundraising efforts, and they hosted an event at a middle school last year. In partnership with a business, they also hosted a self-defense class with about 40 attendees, offering defense tips if facing a threat or if a family member is an abuser.
Student Ved Bhandare said he “didn’t fully understand the importance of domestic violence awareness and how prevalent it is in the local area. But with their project, I was impacted and I found out the importance.”
The group has meetings with its board of directors twice per month, and Kanakamedala said they’re hoping to get more of their peers involved through volunteering. They’re planning a gala, which will feature activities and guest speakers.
“It’s really important that kids our age don’t fall into the same kinds of patterns that a lot of adults might have faced when they were younger,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, Mahadevan said, their work aims to create meaningful conversations: “It’s 2025, almost 2026, and these stigmas and preconceptions of DV and SA still exist.”
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Loudoun County Public Schools violated Title IX and retaliated against two male students being filmed in a boys’ locker room by a transgender student.
WTOP’s Nick Iannelli discussed the DOE finding with Loudoun Now reporter Patrick Lewis
The U.S. Department of Education said Loudoun County Public Schools violated Title IX and retaliated against two male students who reported being filmed in a boys’ locker room by a transgender student who identified as a male.
The ruling, in the form of a press release, came the day after the families of the two students filed a federal lawsuit against LCPS, seeking to overturn suspensions for the two students at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia.
The decision is the latest by the Department of Education, under President Donald Trump, focused on the issue of whether transgender children should be allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
“Loudoun County’s adherence to radical gender ideology has repeatedly placed its students in harm’s way,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “Loudoun County failed to treat allegations of sexual harassment equally: it promptly investigated a female student’s complaint but quickly dismissed and failed to meaningly investigate two of its male students’ complaints of sexual harassment.”
According to the DOE release, LCPS has 10 days to voluntarily enter the Department’s Resolution Agreement, which requires the school system to take the following actions:
Rescind the suspensions imposed on the two male students;
Review its findings to determine if discipline of the male students is warranted and, if Loudoun County determines that it is, the discipline must not exceed the discipline imposed on students who engaged in similar conduct and who had comparable disciplinary histories;
Issue letters apologizing for Loudoun County’s failure to properly investigate Title IX complaints;
Notify the students and their parents that Loudoun County Public Schools will promptly investigate the formal Title IX complaints in a manner that is compliant with the requirements of Title IX; and
Provide training to all high school and Loudoun County staff who receive or respond to reports of sexual harassment under Title IX.
Contacted by WTOP for a response to the DOE findings, Loudoun County Public Schools referred to an earlier comment: “At no time would LCPS suspend a student simply because they expressed some kind of discomfort. A reading of our Title IX resources should make it clear that there is a high bar to launch a Title IX investigation and an even higher bar to determine a student is in violation of Title IX.”
What this means, what comes next
Shortly after the DOE statement, WTOP evening anchor Nick Iannelli spoke with Loudoun Now reporter Patrick Lewis. Iannelli said the facts about what happened in the boys’ bathroom aren’t clear to the public.
“We know the school’s Title IX office found the two boys guilty of sexual harassment and sex based discrimination, and we only know that boys’ lawyers and their families released that,” said Lewis. “The schools are not going to release anything at all because they’re saying its protected student records.”
While the school system’s statement provides no specifics, Iannelli posited that the statement suggests other factors led to the students’ suspensions.
“There’s a lot of bars that you legally have to hit to even initiate a Title IX investigation once ou receive a complaint,” said Lewis. “Obviously, they found them guilty of harassment and discrimination, so from LCPS’s side, they’re saying they checked a lot of boxes, which obviously the boys and their attorneys are saying they were nowhere near checking.”
In July, DOE’s Office of Civil Rights found five Northern Virginia school divisions — Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Arlington, and the City of Alexandria — had violated Title IX. The school systems refused to abide by the proposed DOE resolution agreement.
While the new release from the Department of Education doesn’t specify what steps would be taken if Loudoun doesn’t comply, “Presumably the Education Department will move further in their process to withdraw federal funding from the schools,” said Lewis.
However, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares referred his investigation into the locker room filming incident to the U.S. Department of Justice. “No word from them on whether they’re even investigating that, but potentially, down the road, there could also be criminal elements to all of this, as well,” said Lewis.
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In a WTOP exclusive, former Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman Wayde Byard is finally speaking on his own behalf, ahead of the release of his book “The Battle for Loudoun County.”
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Former Loudoun Co. schools spokesman Wayde Byard on indictment, culture wars
He spent 20 years as the spokesman for Loudoun County Public Schools and then found himself at the center of a national controversy — and a felony perjury trial — over the school system’s handling of two sexual assaults by the same student. Now, Wayde Byard, who was acquitted last year in his criminal trial, is finally speaking on his own behalf.
Byard’s perjury case was the sole felony count handed up from an eight-monthslong special grand jury probe commissioned by Attorney General Jason Miyares at the request of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Byard was found not guilty by a Loudoun County jury in June 2023.
“I wanted people to know that a public school system would not cover up a rape or hide student misconduct or not cooperate with law enforcement,” said Byard.
In his book, Byard describes Loudoun County as “the wealthiest, most-educated locality in America. It’s diverse. It’s home to cutting-edge technology. It boasts one of the most-honored school systems in the country.”
He also said it’s home to “bigotry and cultural stupidity on an epic scale.”
“Loudoun is a template for how the Radical Right wants to reshape American politics, using a reasonable façade to push policies that were considered regressive a half-century ago,” he writes.
While the school system’s transgender policy would become the focus of much of the ensuing controversy, Byard said an earlier turning point came in June 2021 when then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler presented “Promise and Progress: Report on Equity 2021” to a work session of the school board. While no members of the media were present, this was the first time an LCPS superintendent highlighted the fact that white students were outnumbered in the school system.
“I think you can tap into people who are nervous about a school division or community going majority minority. There’s a lot of fears there — people think ‘I’ve lost my community,’” Byard opined.
Byard blamed what he calls “social media conspiracy theories” that exploited some honest mistakes made by the school system.
“That’s what people really want to think, is that somehow this big organization with 15,000 people, has this gigantic conspiracy going to poison the minds of the young,” said Byard. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”
The incident
In 2021, Loudoun County became the epicenter of a controversy that played out in the state governor’s race and even on a national level about how the school system handled two sexual assaults done by the same student — the first one in late May of that year in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School.
The attack came at a time when the school system was considering a policy change to allow transgender students to use the restroom of their choice, and the perpetrator was wearing a skirt (or kilt) at the time.
Shortly afterward, the school board approved the policy allowing transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
Byard said local news organizations were willing participants in drawing outsized attention to future school board meetings.
“The news directors would say, ‘OK, Loudoun is the hot spot, so we’ve got to have a crew there,” said Byard. “What made Loudoun special is we had some political performance artists, some of whom came in from Fairfax and Prince William (counties), who wanted to make YouTube videos.”
Byard said mostly outside agitators were adept at getting attention: “They knew the news story would become ‘Parents go crazy at school board meeting, film at 11.’ And here’s a teaser, somebody shouting into a microphone, usually with a couple of bleeps.”
The controversy only grew when the male student was transferred to another high school, Broad Run High School, and sexually assaulted another student inside a classroom in October of 2021.
The boy was found responsible for both assaults, and sentenced to a residential treatment facility until he turned 18. In November 2023, when he turned 18, he was released.
In retrospect, Byard believes the aftermath of the sexual assaults was exacerbated, “because the adults in the room did not get together and communicate,” referring to the school system, the sheriff’s office, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and juvenile services.
“I think, probably, the boy should have been in an alternative placement, but we didn’t know all the facts. We didn’t know a lot of the facts until two days before things got started, at which time we were at warp speed trying to get the school year started, and things got lost,” said Byard.
A report commissioned by the school system and later ordered released by a judge faulted the school system for not carrying out its own investigation and threat assessment of the student, instead relying on the sheriff’s office. The school board said at the time of the report’s release last September that it has taken “significant actions,” including policy changes since the 2021 assaults.
Indicted
During the 2021 governor election, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin campaigned on a “parents first” platform — and won. The day he was sworn in, he issued an executive order authorizing an investigation into Loudoun County schools, saying, “School administrators withheld key details and knowingly lied to parents about the assaults.”
Newly elected Attorney General Jason Miyares added, “Loudoun County Public Schools covered up a sexual assault on school grounds for political gain.”
Asked about those statements, which implied premeditation and intent on the part of the school system, Byard said, “I think they’re false.”
“First of all, the student pleaded guilty before the governor was elected. Sentence was imposed before he was inaugurated. The system worked — albeit very imperfectly, the system worked,” he said.
The special grand jury empaneled by Miyares’ office worked for months, seeking to clarify who knew what, and when. Byard testified before the grand jury twice.
Ultimately, in December 2022, Byard was indicted on a felony perjury charge and former superintendent Ziegler was indicted on three misdemeanors. Ziegler, who was fired after the release of the special grand jury report, was convicted last September of a retaliatory firing of a teacher unrelated to the 2021 sexual assaults. However, the conviction was later thrown out and he is set to be retried next year. (Ziegler was acquitted on a second charge, and a third count was dropped.)
Byard recalls the moment in December 2022 when he was told by the school division’s attorney that he and the superintendent had been indicted and Byard was being suspended without pay.
“I was marched out of the building, in a friendly way,” Byard said. “We’d decided that if the building was staked out (by reporters), we didn’t want a perp walk. They took me out to my car. The personnel head was in tears, as she asked for my parking pass. And, I learned what the feeling of being alone was, at that moment.”
Shortly before trial, Byard and his attorney, Jennifer Leffler, were offered a plea bargain. “In my case, they said, we’ll do a misdemeanor of making a false statement, $100 fine, but we’re gonna wait two years to sentence you.”
The pair thought they had a solid defense, so rejected the offer. The case went ahead.
The trial
According to Byard, “My name was barely mentioned during my trial. I felt like a spectator at my own trial — they were trying the school division, through me, as a surrogate.”
When jurors got the case, they only deliberated a short while before informing Circuit Court Judge Douglas Fleming that they had reached a verdict.
“We were confident. I think when they came back in an hour, we felt we’d probably won because if they really had to agonize over the decision, we wouldn’t have gotten a verdict that quickly. I later found out that basically the trial was over after the first day — they did not follow the opening arguments,” made by prosecutors for Attorney General Miyares’ office.
When the court clerk unfolded the paper upon which the jury foreman wrote the verdict, it read “Not guilty.”
“You are free to go, sir,” said Judge Fleming after the verdict was read in court.
With his legal troubles behind him, a meeting was held with the school system’s interim superintendent, chief human resources officer and director of strategic communications, where the group decided Byard would no longer be the voice or face of LCPS.
“It was actually a relief. At that point, I couldn’t see going back out there because I’d be a distraction. If I were there for the opening of school, they’d say, ‘Well, fresh off his perjury trial, here he is,” he laughed.
The group agreed Byard would concentrate on writing projects until his retirement, in December 2023.
Today, after the national scrutiny, the political posturing and the claim that the Loudoun County Public School system was in crisis, what does Byard think is really important to the parents of Loudoun County school students.
“Safety is number one. Two, that my child is successful, that they get a diploma, that they have life skills, that they have a career path,” Byard said. “We did surveys, and 87% of the population is very pleased with the school division.”
At the height of tensions during school board meetings, Byard said the chief of staff asked him to compile how many people participated in school board meetings.
“We had about 40 regulars and 20 part-timers. So, we had 60 people out of a population of 400,000 that were very agitated, very angry, but were not representative of the population as a whole,” said Byard. “It’s a very small minority that’s vocal, and creates this illusion.”
