FCPS Teacher’s Claim About Student Abortion Reportedly False, Investigation Finds

Investigation Finds Teacher’s Abortion Claims Against School Social Worker Likely False

A Virginia school district investigation has concluded that allegations made by a Centreville High School teacher claiming a social worker pressured students to get abortions appear to be fabricated, according to an interim report released last week.

Zenaida Perez, who teaches English for students of other languages, publicly accused Carolina Diaz, a social worker at the Fairfax County school, of facilitating and funding student abortions without parental consent. Perez also alleged that former principal Chad Lehman approved these actions and attempted to cover up information related to the accusations.

The 61-page interim report, prepared by law firm King & Spaulding on behalf of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), paints a different picture. Investigators found that Perez likely made these allegations after facing disciplinary action for inappropriately purchasing pregnancy tests for a student in 2022.

“Mrs. Perez’s allegations appear to be rooted in speculation. It also appears that in her zeal to prove her suspicions true, Mrs. Perez procured statements from students that were false,” the report stated. “In doing so, Mrs. Perez, among other things, violated policies and regulations that require teachers to maintain professional boundaries with students.”

The controversy gained significant attention in August when independent journalist Walter Curt published Perez’s claims, prompting Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin to order a state police investigation. The interim report, however, suggests both Youngkin’s office and the Virginia Attorney General’s office may have known about these allegations for a year or more before the governor referred them to state police.

According to investigators, Perez prepared a complaint to the Virginia Attorney General in March 2023, accusing Diaz of arranging an abortion for a 17-year-old student and claiming CHS administrators coerced both the student and her guardian into silence. When contacted by reporters, a spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights stated they have “no record of a complaint filed by Ms. Perez.”

The report reveals that FCPS senior administrators only became aware of the allegations when they became public in August 2023, having never been contacted by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office regarding Perez’s supposed March 2023 complaint.

Investigators traced the origins of Perez’s claims to 2022, when the teacher was under investigation herself for purchasing pregnancy tests for a student—a violation of professional boundaries. Diaz served as a witness in that investigation, which ultimately concluded that Perez had “acted unprofessionally in violation of FCPS policies and regulations.”

In what appears to be a retaliatory move, the report quotes Perez describing her discovery of Diaz’s alleged involvement with student abortions as a “godsend” because it provided “evidence” she could use “against the woman who set me up with a pregnancy test.”

“By her own admission, from this point forward, Mrs. Perez actively conducted her own ‘investigation’ in an effort to compile ‘evidence’ against Mrs. Diaz (and later also Mr. Lehman), and her efforts in this regard included pursuing students, parents, and guardians outside of school to obtain information or statements supporting her suspicions,” the document stated.

Particularly troubling, according to investigators, was Perez’s alleged attempt to pressure the student involved in the pregnancy test incident (referred to as “Student A”) to provide a false statement. The report cites a written account from Diaz claiming Student A reported that Perez “raised her voice,” berated her, and told her “she [Perez] was going to lose her job because of this,” while claiming school staff were “out to get her.”

The law firm concluded that Perez “has a demonstrated tendency of failing to respect proper boundaries with students and their families” and a history of filing complaints against “school staff and administrators whom she feels wronged by in some way.”

While the investigation continues, the interim findings suggest Perez’s serious allegations about school-funded abortions may have stemmed from personal grievances rather than factual concerns, causing significant harm to the reputations of the accused staff members.

Neither Perez nor Governor Youngkin’s office responded to requests for comment on the interim findings.