A Loudoun County high school teacher was placed on leave after an investigation released last week by an elite D.C. private school detailed allegations that he sexually abused multiple students at the school decades ago.
In a statement to parents, Superintendent Eric Williams said the school system is not aware of any allegations of misconduct against Legg during his tenure in Loudoun.
“I want to assure you now that the safety and security of all Loudoun County Public Schools’ students and staff is our highest priority,” Williams said. “We take all reports of misconduct seriously, and clearly communicate our expectations for employee performance and behavior.”
Legg has taught at Rock Ridge High School in Ashburn since 2016, according to school officials. He taught at Briarwoods High School between 2005 and 2016 and at Loudoun County High School between 1995 and 2005.
Legg was one of at least four faculty members suspected of sexually abusing students at Maret School, which is in the District’s Woodley Park neighborhood, between 1975 and 2008, according to an internal investigation released by the private school last week.
The investigation was conducted by the law firm Crowell & Moring, which released a 60-page report late Thursday. The review spans more than three decades and details allegations against eight faculty members.
Allegations against four of the teachers met a “sufficiently high standard of credibility and severity,” the report said. Allegations against the remaining four faculty members were “credible,” but investigators could not substantiate them, or the accusations were not severe enough.
The probe was sparked by a graduate who contacted school leaders to report past incidents of sexual abuse by an educator later identified as Legg, according to the report.
In response to the graduate’s report, attorneys for Maret provided information regarding steps the school previously took to respond to allegations that Legg was involved in inappropriate relationships, including “reports to various law enforcement authorities” in the 1990s, 2014 and 2017.
Attorneys for Maret told the graduate that the “absence of an identified victim” in the 1990s and 2014 prevented D.C. law enforcement from investigating those reports. The graduate’s attorney accused Maret of insufficiently investigating Legg in the past because it had not contacted the graduate or other victims.
Legg was an English teacher and administrator at Maret from 1974 to 1989, according to the report. He briefly left Maret to go to rehabilitation for alcohol abuse after administrators learned in the fall of 1988 that he allegedly had inappropriate conduct with a student, the report said. He was fired the following year.
The report detailed Legg’s alleged encounters with multiple victims. Investigators received two “credible firsthand reports” of sexual relationships between Legg and students while they were in high school. They also learned about an “extensive emotional boundary-crossing relationship” between Legg and a student that lasted for many years in high school and became physical shortly after the student graduated from Maret, the report said.
Investigators also received second- and third-hand accounts that Legg had a physical relationship with a student that led to his dismissal, according to the report.
Several people who came forward said the teacher chose a “favorite” female student each year with whom he “developed an inappropriately close relationship,” the report stated.
Legg was contacted during the investigation and said he was an alcoholic during his time at Maret and left the school because of his alcoholism, according to the report. He told investigators that he engaged in misconduct with one student but could “not recall” or did “not remember” having a physical relationship with any others, the report said.