Dive Brief:
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San Diego Unified School District “more often than not” violated Title IX over the course of three school years between 2017-2020, according to an investigation settled last week by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights office.
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The Office for Civil Rights reviewed 253 student sexual harassment complaints and reports, finding that the district — California’s second-largest — didn’t evaluate multiple reports of sexual harassment that it knew about, especially in cases when the harassment was also reported to local police.
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In a majority of cases, district staff contacted the local police. And in multiple cases, school administrators deferred to police analysis of whether an incident was sexual harassment under Title IX.
Dive Insight:
San Diego USD serves over 100,000 students in 175 schools and employs over 13,000 staff members. At the time of the review period, it had one Title IX coordinator responsible for coordinating the district’s Title IX response.
In its investigation, OCR found that San Diego “abdicated its Title IX responsibility to determine whether conduct constituted sexual harassment” to the local police, who make determinations based on criminal legal standards rather than under the federal civil rights law.
Criminal legal standards often use a higher burden of proof than under federal civil rights law. Criminal investigations are also conducted differently than civil investigations: The latter aim to remedy civil right violations and create an equitable learning environment rather than to determine and punish criminal conduct.
Both schools’ civil and police's criminal investigations can run concurrently, and parts of Title IX investigations can be put on pause under certain circumstances to make way for police involvement. However, under no circumstances are schools entirely exempt from their Title IX responsibilities, including investigations, after being notified of potential sexual harassment, according to the Education DepartmentXX.
In 21 of the 253 incidents OCR reviewed in three years, it was district police, rather than school personnel, who conducted interviews of students.
“In such instances, the District could not determine whether students reporting sexual harassment experienced sex discrimination in its schools under Title IX, and, if so, what steps the District should take to remedy the discrimination and prevent its recurrence,” a 22-page letter sent to the district on Aug. 9 said.
It also detailed potential Section 504 violations when responding to sexual harassment involving students with disabilities.
These failures — and others, such as not properly training staff — "led to serial perpetration of harassment with insufficient district response, leaving district students vulnerable to the sex discrimination in school that Title IX forbids."
The district failed to prevent a sexually hostile environment, which the anti-sex discrimination statute requires schools to investigate, address and prevent, OCR found.
San Diego Unified School District said that OCR's findings between 2017-2020 "do not reflect the District's current policies and practices," and that it entered into an agreement with OCR voluntarily.
"The District’s work to strengthen its Title IX program began prior to the OCR review, and has been ongoing," said Maureen Magee, district spokesperson, in an email. These efforts include bringing on additional Title IX staff and implementing new protocols.
OCR’s findings for San Diego USD are not uncommon. In at least five Title IX investigations last year, the office found instances of schools deferring to police rather than fulfilling their own civil rights duties.
A K-12 Dive analysis of the cases showed that the same districts also often lacked proper training and recordkeeping practices, and they didn't designate proper or trained staff to head Title IX efforts. Ultimately, many students who complained or reported being sexually harassed or assaulted would transfer schools or districts or decline in their academic performance.
In 2023, about 17% of female teens reported experiencing sexual violence at school, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Considering the vital role schools play in promoting health and well-being, it is critical to address school-based violence and safety concerns,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, in a statement on the data.
