Ongoing Retaliation by Nick Cottone and LCPS

 On November 6, 2025, an article was published on Yahoo! News and other news outlets. The story discussed the fact that Principal Nick Cottone of Seneca Ridge Middle School had activated his School Resource Officer to have a special education teacher arrested under suspicion that she was drunk.

Here is a link to that news article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/teacher-assistant-accused-being-under-180336717.html

On Saturday, November 8, 2025, I published comments calling out Nick Cottone for having a track record of abusing his power and inappropriately and illegally activating his School Resource Officer to attack parents he did not like in order to protect his personal and profesional reputation and his position as principal.

Here is the text of what I wrote:

"Can someone explain how Nick Cottone remains the principal of Seneca Ridge Middle School? Mr. Cottone has a well-documented history of abusing his power as the principal of Seneca Ridge Middle School by filing false charges or using the SRO at his school to falsely accuse both parents and staff of made up allegations. In December 2023, Mr. Cottone colluded with the attorney's of Troxel Leigh, including but not limited to Lindsay Mohler and Gareth Bowen, to have me falsely accused in order to have the SRO unlawfully interrogate me in an attempt to have me falsely charged with a crime in order to unlawfully impinge and harm my parental rights. Mr. Cottone abused his position of power and colluded with the lawyers of Troxel Leigh and the School Resource Officer because I accused him of having an inappropriate relationship with my ex wife. Mr. Cottone responded to me in an inappropriate and unhinged manner. Instead of resolving the matter appropriately with me, he sought to abuse his position of power and take in appropriate action against me. I filed a workforce complaint with LCPS and HRTD validated my complaint. Additionally, Mr. Cottone has undertaken significant retaliatory actions against me for attempting to have him held accountable for his inappropriate actions. He as consistently violated Virginia State Law when activating his SRO. There are no legal restrictions around my parental rights."

Mr. Cottone then unprofessionally responded to my posting on Sunday, November 7, 2025, in his weekly newsletter to Seneca Ridge Middle School parents. The comments were then published to the Seneca Ridge MIddle school website on Tuesday, November 11, 2025:

Link: https://app.smore.com/n/wqxjd-thunderblast-november-9-2025?ref=email

Mr. Cottone's comments seemed to reference my public comments made the day before.

It is unprofessional, inappropriate, and a violation of LCPS policy to utilize the school website to settle scores or personal vendettas against parents.

Since publication of my comments publicly, I have endured mutliple retaliatory acts conducted by LCPS employees including, but not limited to Dr. Kate Ridgeway, Principal of Lowes Island Middle School, and John Brewer, Principal of Dominion High School.

I have taken and continue to undertake legal protected action by filing workforce complaints regarding discrimination and retaliation, but am continuing to be attacked by LCPS for making my concerns known and calling out unlawful and illegal activity conducted by LCPS employees focused on harming not only myself but more importantly my children.

Subsequent to these actions, I have filed a formal request to

1. Terminate the employment of Nick Cottone as Principal of Seneca Ridge Middle SChool

2. A request for administrative accommodation whereby LCPS places my children in a school not led or employing Nick Cottone

LCPS, including but not limited to Dr. Aaron Spence, I have sent four USPS certified letters, has not officially responded directly to my assertions, substantiated allegations, and requests.

Instead, Rae Mitchell sent a retaliatory letter telling me to stop contacting LCPS or I will lose my ability to communicate with the school. I live 700 miles away in Chicago and the only means of communication I have are via email and zoom.

Sending such a threatening letter immediately after I undertake legally protected action represents blatant retaliation on the part of LCPS.

Clarification of my comments placed on the Yahoo! News article: I sent Nick Cottone an email on October 10, 2023, upset about being lied to about SMRS basketball tryouts during my limited parental visitation time. I also accused him of having an inappropriate relationship with my ex wife.

He immediately emailed and called me upon receipt of my email. We never connected and he never followed up.

On December 8, 2023, I was served with a lawsuit filed by my ex wife. The document included the private communication I sent to Nick Cottone. I alerted Mr. Cottone to this fact.

On December 12, 2023, four days after being served and more than two months after my original email, Mr. Cottone had Officer Timothy Iversen harass and interrogate me, which represented a retaliatory act on the part of Nick Cottone, as I had filed official complaints against him with LCPS on November 6, 2023.

The interrogation was retaliatory because it came four days after being served with a lawsuit and was done to protect the reputation and position of Nick Cottone.

Upon conducting several FOIA requests, I was able to determine that Nick Cottone sent an email to my ex wife explicitly stating that he would work to obtain the email for her. Additionally, Mr. Cottone conducted conversations with her attorney's when there were no legal grounds for such communcation to occur. This Occurred in October 2023, specifically on October 24, 2023.

#LCPS #LoudounCountyPublicSchools #NickCottone #SenecaRidgeMiddleSchool #SMRS #LowesIslandElementarySchool #LIES #KateRidgeway #DominionHighSchool #DHS #JohnBrewer #TroxelLeigh #LindsayMohler #GarethBowen