San Diego Unified School District officials mishandled multiple student complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault in violation of their obligations under federal law, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced Friday.
The office found that over a three-year period, district students filed 253 reports and complaints of sexual harassment and assault, with nearly 40 percent of those complaints coming from the elementary school level.
The allegations included “student-to-student” and “employee-to-student” misconduct that potentially violated federal statutes, including Title IX, according to the Office for Civil Rights, which said the district “more often than not failed to comply with its Title IX statutory requirement to equitably respond to allegations of sexual harassment by its students.”
The office also announced a resolution, saying Friday morning that the school district had reached an agreement with federal officials to remedy the violations.
These abuses “have led to a serial perpetration of harassment with an insufficient district response, leaving district students vulnerable to sexual discrimination at school,” the office said in a news release.
“Through today’s resolution, San Diego Unified is committed to reviewing its response to allegations of sexual harassment to ensure that all of its students learn safely and without discrimination based on sex or disability,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in a statement.
San Diego Unified said in a separate statement Friday night that the district “remains committed to the safety and well-being of all students, and continually works to assess and improve Title IX compliance.”
The statement continued: “The district holds itself to the highest standards to ensure that students are never harmed, and has a responsibility to acknowledge when harm occurs to maintain transparency and accountability.”
San Diego Unified Board President Shana Hazan said it was “disappointing and disheartening” to learn of the district's shortcomings, but she was “committed to addressing the harm done.”
San Diego Unified It serves 121,000 students in traditional, special education, adult education, alternative and charter schools.making it the second largest school district in California, behind the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The Office of Civil Rights reported that 98 of the 253 complaints of sexual harassment or assault of students occurred at the elementary school level and said nine involved staff.
In one such incident at an elementary school, a student was accused of forcing another student to place his hands on a third student's clothing above his genitals multiple times. District police investigated the incident, and the district filed a complaint with Child Protective Services.
But according to the Office of Civil Rights, the district did not conduct any further investigation into whether the accused student had sexually harassed his peers and did not interview anyone involved in the incident.
An additional 15 complaints were received involving schools with students in kindergarten through eighth grade; as well as 79 from middle schools; 68 from high schools; and three from special education. A total of five complaints of incidents between employees and students came from middle and high schools combined, according to the report.
The number of incidents reported in each category adds up to more than the total of 253 cited by the Office of Civil Rights; it offered no explanation for the discrepancy.
The district was in litigation over seven cases of alleged sexual assault at the time of the report's publication.
The agreement signed by San Diego Unified requires the district to make several changes, including:
- Review previous incidents of sexual harassment between students and between employees to determine whether further action is needed to achieve an equitable resolution.
- Provide annual age-appropriate training to students in grades three through twelve on how to recognize and report sexual harassment and where to seek support and solutions.
- Annual survey of parents, students, and district employees regarding sexual harassment in schools.
- Review the district's policies against sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, and its Title IX complaint procedures to ensure they comply with the law.
- Provide annual training to district employees on their obligations to respond to such allegations, including those involving students with disabilities.
- Implement a system and policy to maintain data and records on sexual harassment reports, complaints, and investigations, to be approved by the Office of Civil Rights.
- Ensure that the district complies with its obligations under Title IX even when law enforcement responds to reports of student sexual harassment.
“As a parent in the district, I am confident that my own children will be protected from harm because the district has taken decisive action to protect our students from sexual harassment,” Hazan said.
She added that the district has since established a new investigations, compliance and accountability office and is in the process of improving procedures for documenting and addressing complaints.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights “looks forward to working with the district to remedy the serial perpetration, protect students with disabilities from being victims of sexual harassment, and ensure that district students can focus on learning free from unlawful sexual harassment,” said Lhamon, the office’s deputy secretary.
