‘It’s Like the Wild West’: Sexual Assault Victims Struggle in K-12 Schools
WINCHESTER, Va. — Nausea had consumed her as her attacker pinned her arms down at a park, forced her first kiss upon her, and tried to take off her pants at the tender age of 14, and nausea resurfaced every time she saw him in the hallways of her high school.
For a year, the girl had tried to convey the lingering trauma of the attack to disbelieving school officials as they investigated her claims. Then over the summer, they brought her to a conference room at the Winchester Public Schools building to watch a surveillance tape in which she was seen zigzagging in and out of hallways trying to avoid him and seek help. She thought she had made a breakthrough.
Weeks later, the district issued its final report. Among its findings: She could not possibly be in distress because in one segment, she had smiled minutes after she saw her attacker.
“That’s when I realized that instead of investigating my complaint, they were investigating me,” the girl, now 15, said in an interview.
Efforts by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to overhaul federal rules on sexual misconduct have focused public attention on college campuses, where assault, rape and harassment have made headlines for years. But her efforts to change those rules, put into place more protections for the accused and offer relief for educational institutions have prompted concerns from elementary and secondary school leaders, public school superintendents and other educators that highlight how schools grapple with sexual misconduct involving much younger students.
The new rules would apply to any elementary and secondary school district that receives government funding, hundreds of which — like Winchester — are already under investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights over claims of violating Title IX, the 47-year CONTINUE READING: ‘It’s Like the Wild West’: Sexual Assault Victims Struggle in K-12 Schools - The New York Times
