This blog exists to document publicly all of my dealings with Mr. Nick Cottone, Principal of Seneca Ridge Middle School.

I have been unfortunately led to this position, as Mr. Cottone has inappropriately and unprofessionally interjected himself into my divorce and child custody situation. Loudoun County Public Schools continues to harbor a principal that exhibits predatory behavior and unprofessional behavior with absolutely no regard or concern for the employee’s inappropriate and illegal behavior.

Mr. Cottone has an inappropriate relationship with my ex-wife and other parents of his school.

What is an inappropriate relationship?

An inappropriate relationship here is defined as Mr. Cottone using his position of power in my child(ren) life and using and abusing his power as Principal to do the following:

1.      Settle scores against me on behalf of other parents, specifically my ex-wife.

2.      Actively colluded with my ex-wife and her attorney to harm me and my parental rights.

3.      Actively made false allegations against me to a LCSO employee, in collusion with my ex-wife and her attorney, in order to attempt to have me charged with a crime.

4.      Actively alienated me from my child over the course of three years.

5.      Actively prohibited me from participating in my child’s life in spite of my legal marriage settlement agreement and parental rights.

6.      Actively made threats of physical harm against me

There seems to be a pattern with Mr. Cottone, whereby he seeks out broken families and identifies broken families where the father is seemingly out of the picture. Mr. Cottone then ingratiates himself into that family in order to railroad and alienate the father out of the child’s life.

Mr. Cottone’s tactics include:

1.      Avoidance of the parent he wishes to alienate.

2.      He unilaterally schedules meetings with parents he hates.

3.      He refuses to act professionally and reach a mutually agreeable time to set a meeting.

4.      He actively and arbitrarily prohibits parents from attending LCPS events at the parent’s school.

5.      He has aided and abetted identify theft, as my ex wife seemingly stole my identity for financial gain, as she is allowed to use my last name on LCPS documents and websites, when the woman never legally changed her name during our marriage, and never used my last name while married.

6.      Given the last name situation above, I am concerned that he and LCPS have aided and abetted my ex-wife’s identify theft, as she has attempted to steal money from me and has caused me to undertake measures when your identify has been stolen.

After conducting significant research, an LCPS employee, and LCPS the system, is only allowed to view me as the father of my child, and my ex wife as the mother of our child(ren).

For some reason, LCPS and Mr. Cottone have violated this basic tenet of the agreement of my child going to school at Seneca Ridge Middle School. These entities have actively selected my ex wife as the preferred parent.

I have given them no reason to act in this manner. These entities began a campaign of parental alienation starting in August 2022 when my son matriculated to the school. The alienation only increases each year, as communication is less and less, I have never been offered a parent teacher conference once, and now the school is actively blocking my child from communicating with me.

Finally, I know if you are reading this you think Steve is nuts. Why would he write these things? I am writing these things because I am being railroaded for calling out toxic and inappropriate behavior around children. I do not believe that LCPS or Mr. Cottone have the best interests of my children at heart, and continue to exhibit behavior that is extremely predatory and toxic to them, and me. No one will listen to me and therefore, I am forced to make these things public in order to protect myself from physical threats being made against me by Mr. Cottone and LCPS.

Over the coming days and weeks, I will upload posts to describe and detail the unprofessional behavior I have dealt with. Additionally, as I am treated inappropriately, I will upload posts describing the new inappropriate behavior.

I am very concerned for my physical and mental safety as I have now been threatened by Mr. Cottone and his boss Mr. Gus Martinez of LCPS.