Federal investigation into Memphis school district cites dozens of cases of alleged sexual harassment and assault

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Memphis-Shelby County schools violated federal civil rights law by failing to adequately respond to complaints of sexual harassment and assault from students over a three-year period, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said Friday.

The office said the state’s largest school district has agreed to a number of corrective actions to resolve the office’s compliance investigation, which began in March 2020.

According to the agency, district records reflect reports that teachers or substitute teachers sexually assaulted students in seven incidents over three school years at all school levels in the district: elementary, middle and high school. District records reflect 53 additional cases of reported staff-on-student sexual harassment, excluding sexual assault, as well as a total of 88 cases of student-on-student sexual harassment during the same time period, the office said.

According to the Office for Civil Rights’ letter to Superintendent Marie Feagins, who led the district, earlier this year, the violations occurred over a three-year period, beginning in 2017-2018.

Those reports and testimony show that the district is in clear violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, and raises “serious concerns” about the district’s response, which is subject to the same law, the agency said.

“Students in the Memphis-Shelby County School District deserve the safety and freedom from discrimination that Congress promised them in Title IX, and the District is now committed to fulfilling its Title IX obligations to these students,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said in a statement. “The Office for Civil Rights will continue to monitor the school district in the coming years to ensure it complies with Title IX.”

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The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment and did not post any statements on its website or social media. Meanwhile, the school board is in transition and has no chair, as four new members were sworn in Thursday.

“Anytime someone is violated, the school board is very concerned,” Stephanie Love, who was re-elected to the board this month, said Friday. “I want to talk to the superintendent and our general counsel to see what we can do to right the ship.”

The Office for Civil Rights, which opened an investigation in March 2020, according to the letter to the district, found that the district had violated Title IX by:

— Failure to have a designated Title IX Coordinator for a substantial portion of the office’s compliance review period.

— Failure to coordinate the response to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual abuse, through the Title IX Coordinator as required during the period a Coordinator was designated.

— Failure to involve the Title IX Coordinator in the majority of sexual harassment files reviewed for the investigation, including failure to involve a Title IX Coordinator in one of the incidents involving staff.

— Failure to maintain a nondiscrimination statement and a harassment policy that complies with Title IX.

— Failure to comply with the Title IX requirement to maintain sufficient records for the District or for the Office of Civil Rights to make compliance decisions, including inconsistent reporting to the Office for the collection of civil rights data and for the compliance review itself.

The office’s letter to the district said that the records generally showed that staff members overseeing employee relations approached the cases primarily as human resources matters, focusing on whether the accused employee had violated a school board ethics policy or acted in a manner inconsistent with state education law, rather than whether there was a potential violation of Title IX.

The agency paid particular attention to a case involving an elementary school teacher who was ultimately convicted of soliciting the sexual exploitation of a minor, for allegedly encouraging boys and girls to inappropriately touch each other during class, among other alleged misconduct.

The agency said the records do not show that the Title IX coordinator was involved in the investigation into the teacher’s conduct, that the district provided support to the affected students to ensure their equal access to education, or that the parties were notified of a district decision under Title IX.

The resolution agreement requires the school district to take a number of steps, including: adopting and posting a compliant notice of nondiscrimination; revising the policy; reviewing all sexual harassment cases from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years to ensure that all cases have been resolved or, if not, taking steps to do so; conducting training for district staff; surveying parents and students about how sexual harassment is addressed in schools; and “designating, training, and posting the contact information” of the Title IX coordinator.

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The district has already taken some steps. In the budget for the 2024-25 school year, the district attorney’s list of priorities begins with two bullet points.

One of these is “building a strong team” to address Title IX issues and reviewing policies and workflows as needed.

Second, civil rights training should be provided to students and employees to ensure that they meet their obligations to respond to, investigate, and decide complaints about federal laws.

You can read the 20-page letter from the Office for Civil Rights to Memphis-Shelby County Schools and the Resolution Agreement.

Eric Gorski is Chalkbeat’s managing editor for local news. You can reach him at [email protected].

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent covering the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at [email protected].

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit organization that publishes news about educational changes in public schools.