MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has found that Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) violated Title IX when it failed to report and appropriately respond to numerous sexual assaults and sexual harassment cases involving teachers, substitute teachers, and students.
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According to the review, teachers or substitute teachers sexually assaulted students in seven incidents across three school years at all school levels in the district: elementary, middle, and high school. Additionally, there were 53 cases of reported staff-to-student sexual harassment, not including sexual assault, as well as a total of 88 cases of student-to-student sexual harassment during the same time period.
OCR cited as an example one case involving an elementary school teacher who was ultimately convicted of soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor and who was reported to have encouraged boys and girls to touch each other inappropriately during class, in addition to other alleged misconduct. The report says the Title IX coordinator for MSCS didn’t investigate the teacher’s conduct, nor did the district provide any supports to the affected students to ensure their equal access to education. OCR also found that no notice was given to the parties regarding any district determination under Title IX.
It was determined that MSCS Employee Relations approached staff-to-student cases primarily as personnel matters, focusing on whether the accused employee violated a school board ethics rule or engaged in conduct that implicated state laws regarding education, rather than on whether there was a potential Title IX violation or the effects of an incident upon the student.
OCR determined MSCS violated Title IX by:
- Not having a designated Title IX coordinator for substantial portions of OCR’s compliance review period.
- Not coordinating its response to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, through its Title IX coordinator as required during the time that a Title IX coordinator was designated.
- Not involving the Title IX coordinator in the majority of sexual harassment files reviewed for this investigation, including not involving a Title IX coordinator in any of the staff involved incidents.
- Not maintaining a nondiscrimination statement and harassment policies that comply with Title IX.
- Not fulfilling the Title IX obligation to maintain records sufficient for the district or for OCR to make compliance determinations, including with respect to inconsistent reporting to OCR for the Civil Rights Data Collection and for this compliance review.
OCR Outlines Steps MSCS Must Take to Improve Response to Sexual Assault
OCR says MSCS must take the following steps to resolve the investigation:
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- Adopt and publish a compliant notice of nondiscrimination.
- Designate, train, and publicize the contact information for, its Title IX coordinator(s).
- Revise all policies that describe the district’s response to sexual harassment to ensure the policies are compliant with the requirements of Title IX and consistent with each other.
- Review all complaints of student and staff involved sexual assault during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years to ensure each complaint was resolved in compliance with Title IX, and if not, offer appropriate remedies.
- Conduct training on the Title IX process and its revised grievance procedures for district staff.
- Develop or revise its procedure for documenting or tracking complaints of sexual assault, including the steps taken as part of the district’s investigation into such complaints.
- Conduct a survey of students and parents to determine if the district needs to take additional steps to address sexual harassment in its schools, with OCR approval for any next steps.
- Develop a plan to ensure timely submission of complete and accurate data to the CRDC in the future and ensure that all employees who are responsible for reporting data to the CRDC receive instructions regarding how to report data to the CRDC in accordance with the plan.
On Friday, MSCS issued a statement, saying it is “committed to ensuring the safety, dignity, and equal educational opportunities for all students” and recognizes the importance of Title IX compliance. The administration is addressing issues identified by OCR while “actively collaborating to establish corrective actions regarding past reports,” reports Chalkbeat.
The letter to Memphis-Shelby County School District is available here and the resolution agreement is available here.
