San Diego Unified failed to prevent sexual harassment of students, feds find
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A federal probe into the San Diego Unified School District found that it repeatedly failed to properly respond to incidents of sexual harassment and assault of students and violated civil rights laws, U.S. Department of Education officials announced Friday.
The investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights looked at over 250 reports and complaints about the sexual harassment of students by both staff and other students from 2017 and 2020, when U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten served as superintendent.
According to federal officials, it concluded that the district failed to respond equitably to the allegations, as is required by law under Title IX.
Plan would transform old campus into housing for school district employees
It also found that the district failed to consistently investigate whether the complaints violated Title IX, remedy effects of confirmed instances of sexual harassment with the impacted student, and provide reports about the investigation outcomes to all involved parties.
These failures, federal officials said, led to “serial perpetration of harassment with insufficient district response, leaving district students vulnerable to the sex discrimination in school that Title IX forbids.”
Federal investigators particularly raised concerns about SDUSD’s recordkeeping in sexual harassment cases and employee training on the subject, indicating that this may have contributed to the failures the investigation identified.
The probe similarly identified documentation issues that may have led to violations of federal disability law, given observations of incomplete information about whether an alleged perpetrator or targeted student had a suspected or confirmed disability in case files.
The district also did not reevaluate these students with disabilities when it had been notified that existing supports and accommodations may not have been effective at meeting their needs.
The findings came with a number of measures SDUSD officials will need to implement to resolve the issue, which federal officials said the district agreed to. Federal officials noted the district has already created a new civil rights compliance office and hired additional Title IX officers.
“Through today’s resolution, San Diego Unified commits to overhaul its response to allegations of sexual harassment to ensure all its students learn safely and without sex or disability discrimination,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon said in a statement Friday.
Among the other steps SDUSD agreed to take includes reviewing past incidents of student harassment and assault to determine whether further action is needed, providing training for staff annually on their obligation to respond to reports of gender and disability discrimination, and giving age-appropriate instruction to students grades 3 to 12 about how to recognize sexual harassment and available remedies.
San Dieguito Union High School District sued after employee arrest for suspected child abuse
It also said it could implement a federally-approved system and policy for maintaining records of reports, complaints and investigations into sexual harassment claims.
“OCR looks forward to working with the district to redress serial perpetration, protect students with disabilities from being preyed upon, and ensure that district students can expect to focus on learning without unlawful sexual harassment,” Lhamon continued.
FOX 5/KUSI received the following statement from SDUSD:
“The San Diego Unified School District remains committed to the safety and wellbeing of all students, and continuously works to assess and improve Title IX compliance. The district holds itself to the highest standards to ensure that students are never harmed, and has a responsibility to acknowledge when harm does occur to maintain transparency and accountability.”
The findings released by OCR are related to a review period that spanned the school years from 2017-18 to 2019-20, which do not reflect the District’s current policies and practices. The District is committed to be fully compliant with Title IX, as well as with Section 504 and Title II. The District’s work to strengthen its Title IX program began prior to the OCR review, and has been ongoing, and includes:
Implementing new protocols and adding additional staff specifically dedicated to Title IX
Reorganizing the Quality Assurance and Title IX offices into a single integrated unit, the Office of Investigations, Compliance & Accountability (ICA). ICA is tasked with the coordination of responses to Title IX, Uniform Complaints, and to ensure compliance with overlapping state and federal regulations
District policies have been reviewed by the California Department of Education twice during Federal Program Monitoring, and determined to be fully compliant with federal regulations
Initiating partnerships with the District Attorney and the San Diego Police Department, and in 2019 the District convened the Multi-Agency Task Force to Improve Regional Cooperation for the Protection of District Students.
In October, 2020, a student-led engagement campaign was established to increase knowledge of sexual harassment reporting procedures at high schools.
The District entered into the OCR agreement voluntarily, and looks forward to ongoing engagement with OCR and district partners to further strengthen Title IX.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.