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U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
ISD Responded Appropriately to Claims
Of Student-on-Student Sexual Harassment
Ruling: A mother’s federal lawsuit claiming that a school didn’t do enough to protect her daughter from being sexually harassed by other students is dismissed because the district was able to show that the actions it took upon learning of the allegations “were not clearly unreasonable under the circumstances.” Sonya Brend, B.L. B/N/F, v. Copperas Cove ISD, No. 20-50090. Issued Sept. 15. Ordered “not published.”
The mother of former CCISD female student B.L. claimed in her lawsuit that in September 2015, when B.L. had just begun seventh grade at a middle school, she was subjected to predominantly male-on-female traditions among students of “slap butt Friday” and “titty twister Thursday.”
Her mother also alleged that in November 2015, two male students wrote B.L. a note containing sexual references, and that one of the male students who had written the note grabbed her by the hips and slammed her into his groin, and publicly announced that “if you want to have sex with [B.L.], she’ll do it.”
Other female students allegedly called B.L. a “snitch” and a “hoe.”
The record reflects school officials first became aware of the allegations starting in October 2015 when B.L. was called into an assistant principal’s office due to an altercation B.L. had with another female student that day and the day before.
While investigating the incidents, the assistant principal learned that B.L. herself had been “running around slapping everyone on the butt in the locker room that day and on the prior school day.
It was then that the assistant principal learned about the “slap butt Friday” tradition.
Subsequent inquiries by administrators resulted in several students being interviewed.
A male student was ultimately given detention after being involved in a subsequent “slap butt” incident that targeted B.L., and he was told to stay away from (and not talk to) B.L. and he was warned that future harassment would come with future disciplinary action.
B.L.’s teachers were also advised to be “extra viligent.”
The school’s administrators reportedly took several other steps to address the situation.
B.L. did not report any further harassment toward her after October 2015.
The mother withdrew B.L. from CCISD in December 2015, and sued the district alleging Title IX violations, which requires schools that receive federal funds to protect students from student-on-student sexual harassment.
Dismissal Upheld
A three-member Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, unanimously upheld the trial judge’s dismissal of the suit by citing the actions that the school officials took upon learning of the sexual harassment allegations.
The justices noted that the district was able to show that its response to the harassment met the requirements under Title IX because once the harassment became known to an employee authorized to actually rectify the harassment, the school’s actions — based on legal standards defined in prior federal Title IX court decisions — “were not clearly unreasonable under the circumstances.”
The bottom line, the justices said in their opinion, is that school districts enjoy flexibility in responding to student-on-student harassment, and that “courts should refrain from second-guessing the disciplinary decisions made by school administrators.”