DECATUR, Ga – The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has announced it will investigate a complaint brought by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys along with a local family law attorney against the City Schools of Decatur on behalf of a kindergarten teacher who was sexually abused there have submitted school pool. The complaint explains that the school's new transgender restroom policy opened the door for a boy to attack a 5-year-old student in the girls' restroom at her elementary school.
“This situation was both profoundly tragic and avoidable,” said ADF legal counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Schools have a duty to protect the privacy and safety of all students, and Decatur Schools clearly failed this young girl. The current approach that many schools are taking in adopting these transgender restroom policies is not working. They do not provide basic privacy or security for all students.”
According to the complaint filed May 22, Superintendent David Dude announced to staff “a policy requiring all Decatur schools to accept boys who identify as females in girls' restrooms, locker rooms and shower areas on school grounds…on the sole basis.” of the information mentioned.” Preference of the individual student…”
After the policy was adopted, the complaint states, “Superintendent Dude and the Board were repeatedly warned through written statements and public comments that the policy would result in an unacceptable loss of privacy and the loss of safe private spaces for girls.” The School district made no changes to the policy and in November 2017, the policy allowed a boy to enter the girls' restroom where he assaulted the girl, known by the initials “NT.”
The DOE OCR enforces Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity receiving federal assistance. The agency is investigating whether the school district's failure to promptly respond to a report that NT was sexually abused and whether its implementation of that policy contributed to creating a hostile environment for the student and other girls in violation of Title IX , and whether the district retaliated against the student's parent who reported the sexual harassment.
The school refused to modify or change its policies, forcing the mother to expel her daughter for her emotional and physical safety.
“A school’s top priority is protecting the safety and physical privacy of its students,” said ADF-allied attorney Vernadette Broyles of the Georgia Adoption & Family Law Practice, which filed the complaint along with the ADF. “Decatur School’s policies have created a stressful, unfair and, as in this case, even unsafe environment – particularly for girls. We are grateful that OCR is investigating this tragedy, and we hope the agency will help this school district and others adopt common-sense solutions that protect the privacy and safety of all students.”
Broyles is among nearly 3,200 lawyers allied with the ADF and is acting as local counsel for the student and her family.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, nonprofit legal organization that advocates for people's right to freely practice their faith.
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