Fairfax Schools’ Pricey Legal Advice Disguised as ‘Independent Investigation’
Earlier this year, 13 girls attending Fairfax High School told school administrators that Israel Flores Ortiz, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador attending the school as a junior, groped their genitals in the hallway as they were transitioning between classes.
In April, Ortiz was sentenced to 360 days in jail for multiple counts of assault and battery.
Following Ortiz’s arrest and the U.S. Department of Education’s announcement of a Title IX investigation into the district, Fairfax County Public Schools leaders hired McGuireWoods to conduct a comprehensive review of this matter. As the district signed a contract with the law firm agreeing to pay lawyers up to $1,850 per hour, Superintendent Michelle Reid—who earns $445,353 this year—told the public that the district retained “an independent outside law firm to conduct a comprehensive review of this matter.”
The district’s contract with McGuireWoods, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, suggests that the investigation is not “independent,” nor for the purposes of public accountability.
The contract states, “McGuireWoods was retained … to conduct a confidential, attorney-client privileged investigation … The investigation has been undertaken for the purpose of providing legal advice to Client.”
Foreshadowing what comes when a public school district refuses to share the final report publicly, the contract further specifies that McGuireWoods’ “work on the Matter will not include … advice on any disclosure obligations.”
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Indeed, the district spends an astounding amount of money on outside lawyers. From July 2025 to April 2026, Fairfax County Public Schools spent $12.5 million on legal fees. Note in the table below that, with two months still remaining in the fiscal year, this is a significant increase from preceding years.
FCPS Legal Fees (FY 2020–Present)
| Fiscal Year | Legal Fees |
| FY 2020 | $6,401,078 |
| FY 2021 | $5,066,049 |
| FY 2022 | $6,312,989 |
| FY 2023 | $6,925,475 |
| FY 2024 | $11,619,332 |
| FY 2025 | $7,656,968 |
| FY 2026 (July 2025-April 2026) | $12,508,746 |
| Total | $56,490,638 |
Figures Obtained via FOIA.
This month, after McGuireWoods concluded its expensive investigation, Reid announced, “The external investigation confirmed that our administration acted promptly and appropriately to stop this behavior.”
And of course, the public is expected to just take her word for it.
District leaders have publicly cited the review’s conclusions in addressing a matter of significant public concern, yet the public is not permitted to evaluate the evidence and reasoning underlying those conclusions.
To better understand the factual basis for the district’s statements, I submitted a FOIA request for the McGuireWoods report, while expressly recognizing that portions of the records would likely need to be redacted under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to protect student privacy.
On June 11, the district’s FOIA office responded that it would withhold the McGuireWoods records in their entirety and not release any portion of the report. The response stated that the records “relate to [an] independent, external review and/or work product which is protected under the attorney-client privilege” and also contain information protected by FERPA.
The response is baffling. First, it is troubling that Fairfax County Public Schools is withholding the report in its entirety rather than releasing any nonexempt portions. And perhaps even more importantly, district leaders publicly described McGuireWoods as an “independent” outside firm conducting a review of the matter, creating the impression that they had commissioned an objective fact-finding investigation in the interest of public accountability.
Reid cannot simultaneously portray an investigation as an exercise in public accountability and shield its findings from public scrutiny as privileged legal advice. If McGuireWoods conducted an independent investigation on behalf of the public, Fairfax Schools should explain in more detail why the resulting report is not being released. If, instead, McGuireWoods was retained primarily to provide legal advice under attorney-client privilege, then district leadership should be candid with the public about the nature and purpose of this investigation, and all the others that have preceded it.
The issue is no longer simply what happened at Fairfax High School. It is whether district leaders are being candid with the public about how they investigate controversies and communicate the results.
Parents, students, and taxpayers deserve more than assurances. They deserve honesty about what this investigation was, what it was not, and why they are being asked to accept its conclusions without seeing the evidence behind them.
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