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This week, the Sacramento City Unified School District reached a settlement with an alleged childhood sexual abuse survivor, a former student who claimed that the district gravely mishandled her allegations of sexual assault against two other students.
The Sacramento sexual assault was a high profile one, says the Sacramento Bee. The Bee goes on to say that an unnamed former student claimed that when she was 17, she was drugged and gang raped by two other students at McClatchy High School. She says that the district did not do much to handle the issue.
In settling the allegations, the Sacramento City Unified School District admits no wrongdoing in the case. As part of the settlement deal with the alleged childhood sexual abuse survivor, the school district has reportedly agreed to create new policies around sexual assault reporting that are supposed to help to protect alleged victims from retaliation.
However, the district’s officials made a statement saying that in light of the settlement, “our district wants to be adequately prepared to identify and help any student that is suffering from emotional trauma. We will be working hard to ensure proper training and documenting procedures are in place to assist our students in their time of crisis.”
Allegedly, the school did not investigate the allegations brought forward by the childhood sexual abuse survivor. The former student claims that a school official asked her questions about the rape, including whether or not she was a virgin before the alleged incident.
She also said that she was harassed even after she returned to the school, and the school did nothing to stop it. Allegedly, a school official told her that she should not return to campus for the rest of the semester, because her presence was distracting to other students.
The Sacramento sexual assault lawsuit names the school district, the Sacramento Police Department, several school officers, and a social worker involved in handling the alleged assault as defendants in the incident.
The student says that she suffered harm because of the assault, and because of its aftermath. She says that her alleged rapists taunted her after she came back to the school, especially over phone calls and text message. Allegedly, she was hospitalized for depression and even attempted suicide.
The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN) notes that emotional trauma including depression and self harm can be responses to sexual violence.
The Sacramento Bee reports that other students also objected to the school district’s handling of the allegedly assault — hundreds of students at the high school staged a walk-out to protest the school district’s response.
Additionally, the Sacramento City Teachers Association complained to the Public Employment Relations Board about the issue, claiming that the school district made false accusations that teachers helped students stage the walk-out.
Unfortunately, this case was not the only case of sexual abuse in the Sacramento City Unified School District. In May, the school district paid a $12.5 million settlementto an alleged victim of abuse by a school district employee, who was convicted of abusing multiple students, and was sentenced to 150 years, up to life, in prison.
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