Understaffed and Underprepared: Inside San Diego Unified’s Title IX Shortcomings—and How It Plans to Fix Them

When the San Diego Unified School District hired District Attorney Farshad Talebi to lead its internal investigations division nearly two years ago, he ran into a problem: The district didn’t really have a unit specifically dedicated to handling complaints of serious and potentially illegal misconduct, nor did it have the staff or training to do so.

That lack of staffing and expertise directly contributed to San Diego Unified’s failure to protect students from sexual abuse and harassment, federal officials found in a report released last month by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

That report, which examined 253 incidents of alleged sexual misconduct by staff and other students from 2017 to 2020, found that San Diego Unified systematically failed to meet its obligations under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools.

The problem was largely due to a shortage of qualified workers, Talebi told The San Diego Union-Tribune.

For six years, the district employed a Title IX coordinator with a background in education—not law or compliance—and for much of that time, she was expected to handle Title IX cases for a district of nearly 200 schools. Often, Title IX investigations simply didn’t happen.

The district says that over the past year and a half it has undertaken a major overhaul not only of its Title IX responses, but also of the way it handles complaints alleging violations of state or federal law.

Much of that work has come about thanks to Talebi, a former Title IX coordinator and state human trafficking task force coordinator, who joined the district in January 2023.

Talebi now leads a reorganized department called the Office of Investigations, Compliance and Accountability, which replaces the district’s former Quality Assurance Office. In addition to being the district’s primary hub for receiving and processing complaints of misconduct, the office is dedicated to investigating sensitive compliance issues, such as sexual misconduct, discrimination and civil rights violations.

The district also now has a new Title IX coordinator with experience in family law and human trafficking victim services, and a team of five investigators with backgrounds ranging from law enforcement to child protection.

District officials said they are confident these changes will improve the district’s Title IX compliance and address the issues highlighted in the federal report.

“We have a really, really good team,” said Anna Ward, the district’s new Title IX coordinator and a family law attorney who recently worked for the Mississippi attorney general’s office. “I’m really excited about some of these new things that we’re going to be doing. I think it’s going to make things a lot smoother, that’s for sure.”

Some in the community are questioning whether San Diego Unified is doing enough to address and prevent sexual misconduct. This is not only a result of the Title IX report, but also a recent investigation that found former principal Lamont Jackson engaged in sexual misconduct with two women who worked in the district.

The school board, which had hired outside counsel to investigate the allegations, fired Jackson in late August and received severance pay, saying the investigation found at least some of the allegations to be credible.

The two employees had not filed complaints with the district about Jackson, according to the attorney’s summary of the report. It was a board member who had lunch with one of them who learned of the allegations and reported them to the district’s general counsel.

Talebi’s investigation office, which accepts anonymous reports, is generally the department that investigates complaints of alleged sexual misconduct by employees. Unlike nearly all other departments in the district, Talebi’s office is not under the supervision of the superintendent. Instead, the office reports to the district’s general counsel, who reports to the board.

“I am confident that we responded in accordance with the policy, and I think the district responded expeditiously in this case, as we would with other allegations,” Talebi said of the board’s response to the allegations against Jackson. “I am proud that the district responded expeditiously and that there is accountability for violations.”

Little research, little follow-up

The federal investigation found that in many cases where San Diego Unified students were sexually abused or harassed, the district never conducted the required Title IX investigation.

Every one of the 253 files reviewed by the federal government was missing key information and documents, including interview notes, disciplinary records, police reports, witness statements and records of required follow-ups with students with disabilities. And in many cases, the district could not demonstrate that it had taken required follow-up actions, such as taking steps to prevent further harassment or providing support and protection to the students who were victimized, the review found.

The person who served as Title IX coordinator during the period under federal review had an education background, not a legal one. She was an assistant principal when she was promoted to Title IX coordinator in 2017 under then-Superintendent Cindy Marten, now U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education.

According to Talebi, Title IX investigations were not conducted by professionals who had the expertise and training to conduct such investigations or to address complex issues such as sexual abuse and relationship violence, but instead were ultimately entrusted to school boards or human resources officials.

As a result, the district failed to follow the procedures required for such investigations, such as conducting a 10-day review of evidence, appointing a separate investigator and decision-maker, giving both parties an opportunity to respond to the evidence, writing an investigation report, and providing an appeals process.

Talebi was initially hired to lead what was then the district’s Quality Assurance Office, which received and responded to general complaints and concerns from across the district. Talebi helped transform the Quality Assurance Office into the Office of Investigations, Compliance and Accountability and brought Title IX under its umbrella.

In addition to Title IX, the new office will now also investigate uniform complaints and other formal complaints alleging violations of state or federal laws or regulations.

School administrators and human resources continue to handle general misconduct. Only complaints of serious misconduct that risk violating federal and state laws are investigated by Talebi’s office itself.

New team, new expertise

Since Talebi joined the research agency, new employees with research and legal experience have joined the district.

In addition to Ward, the former Mississippi attorney who replaced the district’s retiring Title IX coordinator in 2023, the district has also hired two additional detectives.

The investigative team now includes a retired law enforcement officer with expertise in child exploitation and sex trafficking, two investigators from the San Diego Public Defender’s Office, and an investigator and clinician from Child Protective Services. The investigative office says all of its staff has Title IX training and follows trauma-informed practices.

Talebi has experience in law and compliance, having led human trafficking task forces at the Washington and Hawaii state attorney generals’ offices and previously served as Title IX coordinator for the University of Hawaii.

The investigations office is now responsible for ensuring Title IX procedures are followed, conducting investigations when necessary, and taking supportive measures for involved parties. And even in cases where an investigation by the office is not necessary, the office will contact school administrators or department heads to ensure that the issue is addressed.

Since 2023, Talebi’s team has been providing in-person Title IX training to school police officers and all school principals, assistant principals, high school athletic directors, area administrators, classified employee supervisors and district department supervisors, he said.

Last school year, the district’s Title IX office received 286 reports of alleged sexual harassment, 48 of which resulted in formal Title IX investigations. During each of the previous two school years, the district received approximately 340 reports of alleged sexual harassment.

How to file a complaint

Anyone can report a concern or suspected misconduct at San Diego Unified through the research firm’s online reporting system, EthicsPoint. Concerns can be reported anonymously.

Per district policy, any district employee who becomes aware of sexual misconduct or harassment of students or employees must report it to the Title IX Coordinator within one business day. This can be done by filing a report through EthicsPoint or the district’s Title IX Employee Reporting Form, by calling the Title IX Coordinator at (619) 725-7225, or by emailing [email protected].

District investigators only initiate investigations into serious misconduct that violates federal or state law.

Less serious concerns are still handled by campus administrators. The research firm generally advises parents or students to first discuss concerns with their teacher or principal to resolve conflicts.