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Supreme Court turns away school's appeal of sex-assault case
Home » Fairfax County, VA News » Supreme Court turns away…
Supreme Court turns away school’s appeal of sex-assault case
The Associated Press
November 21, 2022, 6:02 PM
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a Virginia school board that says it shouldn’t be held liable for the alleged sexual assault of a student by a classmate on a band trip. ... The court without comment on Monday rejected the appeal from the Fairfax County School Board. The case will now go to trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The case turned on whether a school system can be held liable under Title IX for a single alleged assault when there had been no prior notice of a problem. Title IX is the federal law that prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. ... The female student who says she was assaulted, identified only as Jane Doe, filed the lawsuit in 2018. She said a male classmate at Oakton High School sexually assaulted her on a school bus during an out-of-state band trip in 2017.
In 2019, after a two-week trial, a civil jury acquitted the school system of wrongdoing. It found that the girl had indeed been assaulted, but it said the school system had not received “actual notice” of the assault.
In 2021, though, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit in a 2-1 ruling. The majority opinion said it was clear that the school system had notice of the assault because the girl herself told administrators she’d been touched without her consent. A dissenting opinion, though, concluded that the trial verdict should stand because after-the-fact notice about an isolated, one-time incident afforded no real opportunity for the school district to take preventive action.
{snip}
Supreme Court turns away school’s appeal of sex-assault case
The Associated Press
November 21, 2022, 6:02 PM
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a Virginia school board that says it shouldn’t be held liable for the alleged sexual assault of a student by a classmate on a band trip. ... The court without comment on Monday rejected the appeal from the Fairfax County School Board. The case will now go to trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
The case turned on whether a school system can be held liable under Title IX for a single alleged assault when there had been no prior notice of a problem. Title IX is the federal law that prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. ... The female student who says she was assaulted, identified only as Jane Doe, filed the lawsuit in 2018. She said a male classmate at Oakton High School sexually assaulted her on a school bus during an out-of-state band trip in 2017.
In 2019, after a two-week trial, a civil jury acquitted the school system of wrongdoing. It found that the girl had indeed been assaulted, but it said the school system had not received “actual notice” of the assault.
In 2021, though, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit in a 2-1 ruling. The majority opinion said it was clear that the school system had notice of the assault because the girl herself told administrators she’d been touched without her consent. A dissenting opinion, though, concluded that the trial verdict should stand because after-the-fact notice about an isolated, one-time incident afforded no real opportunity for the school district to take preventive action.
{snip}