The teacher at the center of an investigation into whether a Centreville High school student was assisted with an abortion by a school social worker filed a lawsuit against Fairfax County Public Schools.

The teacher revealed her allegations first to a conservative blogger and then News4 in August.

Now, the teacher has filed a defamation lawsuit after a law firm hired by FCPS reported her claims were "likely false and fabricated."

Veteran ESOL teacher Zenaida Perez stood along with her attorneys and an organization called Americans United for Life outside the Fairfax County Courthouse.

The lawsuit on her behalf filed against FCPS, Superintendent Michelle Reid and several

administrators asserts that Perez was defamed when a law firm hired by the school district concluded her allegations were likely untrue.

The report -- a response to a U.S. Department of Justice enforcement notice -- also accuses Perez of gathering false statements from students to support her allegations.

"I felt retaliated against," Perez said. "I was absolutely slandered, and they told a lot of things in the media that were absolutely not true, and we will come out with the truth, and we will prevail with honesty."

Perez made her allegations public and detailed them for News4 back in August -- chief among them that in May 2022, a 17-year-old student told her a school social worker helped her get an abortion and paid for it. Perez also said the girl's guardian was not notified.

"I asked her, 'I need you to tell me the details about what you know and what you remember. What happened to you?'" she said. "Then she confessed to me privately and away from the rest of the class that she got pregnant back in October, November 2021, and she had an abortion that was facilitated and arranged and covered financially paid by the social worker at the school."

News4 has learned the teenage girl was an unaccompanied minor in the U.S.

The law firm investigation conducted for FCPS sharply contradicts Perez's story. It says the school social worker followed protocol, referring the girl to a Health Department nurse and that a relative listed as a guardian in school records was contacted.

The girl's uncle, with whom she sometimes lived, spoke to News4 and Telemundo 44 but asked his identity be concealed for privacy reasons.

He told News4 he was not the teen's legal guardian, but the new lawsuit said he was her guardian and was the one who should have been notified.

The FCPS law firm investigation also suggests that Perez first made her allegations to the school principal in 2022 after she was disciplined for allegedly helping a student get a pregnancy test.

Perez was recently placed on administrative leave, the notification letter informing her she "may have engaged in serious professional misconduct."

In addition to claims she's been defamed, her attorneys say her protections as a whistleblower have been violated, as have her First Amendment free speech rights.

"They have disparaged her character, virtually destroyed her reputation with her peers, with her friends at Centreville High school, with the community," said Steve Aden, general counsel for Americans United for Life. "They have run her through the wringer in the press, and we want justice and compensation for all of that."

The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages.

The Virginia State Police are investigating whether the teacher's allegations are true and whether any crimes were committed.

News4 contacted FCPS for comment on the lawsuit but they have not responded.