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A former Mountain View-Los Altos High School District student has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, claiming that the district failed to adequately respond after she was allegedly raped by a fellow student off-campus.
The complaint, which was filed in June by a female student who had attended the district’s Middle College alternative school program, came to light last week in a lengthy investigative report by the San Francisco Chronicle. The victim, who is not being named, told the Chronicle that the alleged perpetrator, a Los Altos High School student, had raped her in a San Jose hotel room during a party in Sept. 2015. Both victim and rapist were juveniles at the time of the alleged incident, according to the Chronicle.
The party was thrown by a student’s father, who provided the teens with alcohol and illicit drugs, and transported the students to the hotel, according to details from the story.
The Office for Civil Rights is responsible for ensuring school districts follow federal civil rights laws, including Title IX, which protects students from gender discrimination at school. The law specifically calls on districts to provide safeguards for student victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault, including providing accommodations to prevent victims from encountering their assailants while on campus.
The former student filed the complaint on the grounds that the district failed to take a proactive approach in informing her family of its rights under Title IX, did not investigate the alleged rape and did not provide accommodations afforded to her under the civil rights law.
On Monday, Superintendent Jeff Harding confirmed to the Voice that the district was notified by the Office for Civil Rights about the complaint last year, but an investigation into civil rights violations has yet to be conducted and no district employees or students have been interviewed yet.
Harding defended the district’s decision not to open up its own investigation, noting that the alleged rape happened off-campus and that the district’s legal counsel found no “nexus” between the two students who attended different schools.
“We have no legal jurisdiction over a weekend party in San Jose,” Harding said. “We didn’t have the legal authority to take disciplinary action (against the perpetrator).”
School and district officials remained quiet about a series of wild, drug- and alcohol-fueled parties thrown by the same parent because, as Harding described it, information reached them after the fact through rumors and hearsay, making it questionable how useful it would be to caution the greater school community. In at least two instances since then, Harding said, the district warned parents of upcoming parties ahead of time.
Harding maintained that the district was also sensitive to the needs of the victim throughout the remainder of her time at district schools. The only request they received from the family was right before graduation, when members requested that the alleged perpetrator be prohibited from attending the graduation ceremony.
“There was close communication between the district and the family, and we checked in with them numerous times,” he said. “Throughout the entire year up until graduation, no requests came in for any accommodations.”
In an email sent to parents, Harding said that the Chronicle story draws “negative attention” to the school district and the challenges it faces with dangerous off-campus behavior, and that the story wrongly determined that the district’s response was “troubling.”
“As a district, we do everything possible to ensure the safety of all our students at school events. And, although we can’t control what occurs at non-school events, we do everything we can to discourage and, where necessary, address these incidents,” Harding said in the letter.
The Office for Civil Rights recently concluded its investigation into whether the neighboring Palo Alto Unified School District violated students’ rights under Title IX for failing to appropriately respond to cases of sexual harassment at both Palo Alto and Gunn high schools. A draft resolution agreement between the district and the Office for Civil Rights calls for the district to go back and conduct an investigation into reports of sexual violence that occurred off-campus during the 2012-13 school year.
I was also personally violated on LAHS campus, reported it and the principle/assistant and nothing happened.
Title IX requires schools to address a hostile educational environment even when the abuse occurs off campus, such as on the school bus, during a field trip or extracurricular activity, or online. That is the law.