Join us for a conversation with journalist and former Loudoun County Public Schools' public information officer Wayde Byard to discuss his book The Battle for Loudoun County: Inside the Culture War Between a Woke School Board and the Radical Right in America's Wealthiest Suburb.

Description

In 2021, a new battleground in America's political and cultural wars emerged--local school boards.

Seemingly overnight, parents across the country joined with activist groups and political figures at all levels to engage in heated--sometimes violent--fights over issues such as COVID mandates, retrofitting bathrooms to accommodate changing gender representation, and the teaching of American history through the lens of race.

At the epicenter of this outrage machine was Loudoun County, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and the wealthiest county in the nation.

As the county's beloved public schools information officer for more than twenty years, Wayde Byard had a front-row seat to the transformation of public education from the bedrock of community to a vicious political knife-fight, complete with death threats and arrests after riotous meetings.

But it wasn't until the sexual assault of a high school girl by a boy who was described as wearing a dress became national news that he became something he never expected--a target of a politically motivated felony investigation.

Accused, along with the superintendent, by an ambitious, conservative governor and attorney general of covering up the crime, Byard--who most students knew from his popular announcements of snow days--was ultimately acquitted of a perjury charge but left with a troubling awareness that what happened to him could happen to anyone.

The Battle for Loudoun County provides a rare and intimate window into the dangers of America's "bathroom wars" and the culture of outrage that, if left unchecked, will tear our country apart.

About the Author
Wayde B. Byard served for more than twenty years as the public information officer for Loudoun County Public Schools. In a previous professional life as an award-winning journalist with the Winchester Star, he reported on crime, government (sometimes government-related crime), and sports. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri's famed School of Journalism and lives in Winchester, Virginia, with his wife.

About the Moderator

Elizabeth Scheib was born and raised in Loudoun County by teacher and LCPS administrator parents. She graduated from Loudoun County High School. After teaching in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, she moved back to Leesburg with her family and has been a school librarian in LCPS for 8 years. Her daughter is a thriving 7th grader at Smarts Mill Middle School.