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 between 2017 and 2020.

According to federal officials, it concluded that the district failed to respond equitably to the allegations, as is required by law under Title IX.

It also found that the district failed to consistently investigate whether the complaints violated Title IX, redress effects of confirmed instances of sexual harassment or assault 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....