Federal investigation into Memphis schools cites dozens of alleged sexual harassment and assault cases • Tennessee Lookout

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 substitutes 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 incidents of reported staff-on-student sexual harassment, excluding sexual assault, as well as a total of 88 incidents of student-on-student sexual harassment during the same time period, the OCR said.

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

These reports and testimony “demonstrate clear violations by the district” of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, and raise “serious concerns” about the district’s response, which is subject to the same law, the OCR 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.”

A statement issued later Friday by the MSCS media relations department said the district is “committed to ensuring the safety, dignity, and equal educational opportunity for all students” and recognizes the importance of Title IX compliance. The administration is addressing issues identified by OCR as it “actively works together to take corrective action on past reports,” it said.

Meanwhile, the school board is in a transitional phase and does not yet have a chairman. Four new members were sworn in on 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:

• There is no designated Title IX coordinator for much of the office’s compliance review period.
• Failure to coordinate the response to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, through the Title IX Coordinator as required during the period a coordinator was designated.
• The Title IX coordinator was not involved in the majority of sexual harassment cases reviewed for the investigation. In addition, no Title IX coordinator was involved in incidents involving staff.
• Failure to comply with a non-discrimination statement and failure to adhere to an anti-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 to the compliance review itself.

The OCR’s 20-page letter to the district states that the records generally show that staff members overseeing labor 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 might have been a violation of Title IX.

The OCR paid particular attention to a case involving an elementary school teacher who was ultimately convicted of soliciting the sexual exploitation of a minor. He allegedly encouraged 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, and that the parties were not 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 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years to ensure that they have all been resolved or, if not, taking steps to do so; conducting training for district staff; surveying parents and students about how sexual harassment is handled in schools; and “designating, training, and posting contact information” for the Title IX coordinator.

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 revise policies and workflows as needed.

Second, implement civil rights training for students and employees “to ensure compliance with duties to respond to, investigate, and decide complaints” regarding federal laws.

Eric Gorski is Chalkbeat’s managing editor for local news. You can reach him at (email address).

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent covering the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at (email address).

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