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"While the new Title IX regulations include a framework for how K-12 schools should respond to reports of assault and harassment, victims advocates and education experts say that public schools have fewer resources than colleges and less institutional expertise to investigate claims. These advocates and experts point out that many K-12 schools were already not following federal rules on responding to Title IX claims, so they doubt that new government rules alone will improve the handling of sexual misconduct allegations. And they warn that continued lack of attention to Title IX by these schools will leave the youngest and most vulnerable students unprotected."

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Martínez Vega, Michelle. “Sexual Harassment – Safe Learning Environments for All Students.” IDRA, IDRA Newsletter , 27 Aug. 2018, https://www.idra.org/resource-center/sexual-harassment-safe-learning-environments-students/.

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SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN K-12 SCHOOLS

Sexual harassment in K-12 schools create hostile environments and unwelcome behavior that interferes with the right to receive an educational opportunity. Schools nationwide proved ignorance of their duties by mischaracterizing sexual harassment, and evading their obligation to address the problem — which leads to schools essentially dismissing the harassment; where no action is taken. Despite the uproar surrounding the issue, many parents, staff, and students have advocated for a broader change. What solutions, consequences, regulations, enforcements, and etc, can K-12 schools do to try and combat the issue at hand, in order to firmly enforce a safe learning environment for students?

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SOURCE G: K-12 SCHOOLS mishandled their sex assault cases

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SOURCE G: K-12 SCHOOLS mishandled their sex assault cases

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Kingkade, Tyler. “K-12 Schools Keep Mishandling Sexual Assault Complaints. Will New Title IX Regulations Help?” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1212156.

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For months, her attacker's friends tormented her. They called her a "crazy bitch" and a "porn star" on social media. One suggested that they show her "what rape actually is," according to a lawsuit the Colorado student filed this year against her school district.

In the summer of 2017, the girl, a high school junior referred to as Jane Doe in court records, reported that she'd been sexually assaulted the previous year by a classmate, identified by the pseudonym John Smith. Smith later pleaded guilty to assault in juvenile court, and was placed on probation and required to participate in sex offender therapy. Yet throughout the 2017-18 academic year, his friends made Doe's life miserable at Glenwood Springs High School, she says in her suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against the Roaring Fork School District.

Doe and her parents told administrators multiple times about the harassment - including that one of Smith's friends threatened to strangle her - but the school did nothing to stop it, according to the civil complaint. Frustrated, Doe's parents met with administrators in March 2018. When they emailed the next day to ask what steps the school had taken to protect Doe from harassment, according to the suit, an assistant principal wrote back, "the school has taken no actions."

"From a parent's standpoint, from a father's standpoint, my blood curdles in anger," Doe's father told NBC News. "I have so much anger toward people who didn't protect kids and follow through with consequences."

Rob Stein, the district's superintendent, said he could not discuss the case due to federal privacy law. He said that Doe's complaint offers her "side of the story," and that "the school district always investigates incidents of sexual harassment or assault according to district policy and state law." The lawsuit is pending.

Doe's complaint is one of at least 330 suits filed across the United States since the beginning of 2018 alleging that K-12 public and charter schools failed to protect students from sexual assault and harassment or mishandled incidents that came to light, according to an NBC News count based on court records.

The lawsuits include one from a high school student in Georgia who said she was expelled after a student allegedly forced her to perform oral sex; she said the school's principal didn't believe her account and said he thought she wanted to do it for the boy's birthday. In another case, a Michigan district was accused of failing to investigate complaints that a fifth grade teacher was inappropriately touching boys; the teacher was later convicted of molesting seven children.

And in Texas, the parents of a 4-year-old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a classmate at school said in a lawsuit that the district initially lied to them about what happened, did not tell them they needed to file a formal complaint to force the school to investigate, and did not look into the matter for several weeks.

The Georgia and the Michigan lawsuits are still pending; the Texas lawsuit was dismissed after a judge ruled that the school's response had not subjected the student to additional abuse.

In recent years, colleges have faced intense public scrutiny around how they handle students' reports of sexual violence, leading the Department of Education to unveil regulations this month that create new standards for how schools must respond under the gender equity law Title IX.

But K-12 schools are often left out of this conversation, even though students reported about 9,700 incidents of sexual assault, rape or attempted rape at elementary and secondary schools in the 2015-16 academic year, according to the most recent federal data.

While the new Title IX regulations include a framework for how K-12 schools should respond to reports of assault and harassment, victims advocates and education experts say that public schools have fewer resources than colleges and less institutional expertise to investigate claims. These advocates and experts point out that many K-12 schools were already not following federal rules on responding to Title IX claims, so they doubt that new government rules alone will improve the handling of sexual misconduct allegations. And they warn that continued lack of attention to Title IX by these schools will leave the youngest and most vulnerable students unprotected.

"It's just not a priority until an incident occurs and the school gets bad publicity," said Joel Levin, co-founder of the advocacy group Stop Sexual Assault In Schools.

The problems are documented in the 43 investigations that the Education Department completed last year into how K-12 schools dealt with sexual misconduct, NBC News found.

Despite a long-standing federal requirement that schools publicly post their sexual harassment policies, a school district in Mississippi couldn't say whether its policy was available anywhere besides on a flash drive, according to one of the investigations. And while all schools are required to have a Title IX coordinator, federal officials discovered that the person an Alabama district identified as its coordinator no longer worked there.

"We have, in fact, talked to employees who were the Title IX coordinator and they didn't know that was assigned to them at some point," said Maha Ibrahim, a staff attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit that has studied how California schools deal with sexual misconduct.

School leaders and attorneys representing schools and victims say part of the challenge is a lack of resources. And it's a problem they expect to worsen with a looming recession threatening to cut budgets for public schools.

Like 'stepping into a different decade'

After Jane Doe went on a date with John Smith in October 2016, when she says he sexually assaulted her, she didn't tell anyone. But it soon became clear that something was wrong. At volleyball practice, Doe cried without explanation, her parents said. Teachers told her parents that she seemed to be struggling in class, according to her lawsuit.

In the summer of 2017, Doe told her therapist about the assault and then reported it to police. The district attorney's office told Glenwood Springs High School in September that it was prosecuting Smith on charges of sexual assault, Doe's suit states.

Smith's friends began harassing Doe soon afterward, according to her suit, by following her in the hallways, motioning like they would punch her and accusing her of "causing drama." In December 2017, the same day as a court hearing in Smith's case, he placed a suction cup dildo on his car, drove around the school's parking lot and posted it to Snapchat, according to Doe's family, who felt he was targeting Doe.

Doe and her parents complained to multiple administrators, her lawsuit states, but the school didn't enact a safety plan to stop the behavior, and her depression worsened.

As Doe suffered through repeated nightmares about people attacking her, her mother stayed up late, sitting in bed, doing research about Title IX on her phone. Doe's mother frequently woke up Doe's father - "You've got to see this," "You've got to hear this" - eager to relay what she'd just learned.

"I just can't believe how many cases and how many cities and how many places where the situation is the adult in charge does not step forward and act on behalf of the students," Doe's mother said. "It seems like the victim is typically revictimized."

Doe's parents eventually learned that the Roaring Fork district had policies in place requiring administrators to investigate assault and harassment allegations, prepare a written report for the superintendent, and if necessary, hold a hearing to determine a student's guilt and punishment. None of that happened in Doe's case, according to her lawsuit. Doe's family said the district's Title IX coordinator has never spoken with them.

"They needed to take action in some way, and they chose not to," Doe's mother said of the district.

In court filings this month, the district disputed the accusation that it failed to act, and said most of the offensive comments and threats from Smith and his friends, including the dildo incident, do not count as sexual harassment. "The comment that a student would 'strangle' Ms. Doe, while disturbing and inappropriate, is not indicative of 'sexual harassment,'" one of the district's court filings states.

"It feels like you're stepping into a different decade," said John Clune, Doe's lawyer. "It seems like the K-through-12 schools are a number of years behind even understanding the issues."

Higher ed woke up, K-12 didn't have its 'Oh, no' moment

In the mid-2000s, when Clune began representing sexual assault victims in cases involving college athletes, he had to educate judges and school attorneys on the basics of Title IX, he said.

All schools that take federal funding are required under Title IX to respond to allegations of sexual harassment and assault involving students, the Supreme Court ruled in a series of cases in the 1990s. The Education Department has issued guidance to schools since the Clinton administration explaining that they must have a process to investigate and resolve student complaints about sexual misconduct.

High-profile sex abuse scandals on college campuses, including those involving assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky at Penn State, athletes at Baylor University and college student Brock Turner at Stanford University, combined with nationwide activism by students, served as wake-up calls to higher education. Around the same time, the Obama administration launched a White House task force focused on sexual assaults on college campuses, and publicized the names of universities the Education Department was investigating for Title IX violations. Universities responded by boosting the cadre of administrators hired to handle these cases, sending them to trainings and hiring additional consultants.

But when it comes to K-12 schools, "They didn't have one of those 'Oh, no' moments of realizing they're on the hook," said Daniel Swinton, vice president of the Association for Title IX Administrators, a professional trade group.

Without public attention focused on how K-12 schools adhere to Title IX, the schools often lack staff hired and trained to deal with sexual misconduct. Even districts considered to be ahead of the curve may still only have one person focused on Title IX.

"Our district is pretty unique in Utah because I exist - my position exists - and it didn't exist until five years ago," said Tina Hatch, the Title IX coordinator for the Salt Lake City School District.

Hatch is the only Title IX officer for the district's 23,000 students. That's about the same as the undergraduate enrollment at the University of Utah, which has a Title IX coordinator, three deputies and eight consultants in its equal opportunity office. Hatch said she can't handle all of the cases related to Title IX, so she conducts annual training for campus administrators to handle less severe incidents, and to send cases involving more serious offenses to her.

In many districts, the role of Title IX coordinator is assigned to another administrator, like the superintendent or the human resources director, who may not have time to ensure everyone in the district is trained in legal requirements for handling sexual misconduct cases.

"The schools that get into more challenges and complaints are the ones who name someone as Title IX coordinator who doesn't have the proper training - it's just a name to meet the black-and-white requirements to have someone appointed," said Jill Yonkers, a New York-based attorney who has represented school districts. "It really should be someone who is trained. They must know the Title IX requirements. That's really the most important part."

Trump administration's new rules

Education Department officials argue that provisions in the new Title IX regulations clarify K-12 schools' duties and will ensure that they comply. For example, after an assault is reported, the Title IX coordinator must speak with the alleged victim about supportive measures available to them.

"With clear legal obligations like this, any member of the public who sees that a school is violating the rules can call the school's attention to the violation or file a complaint with OCR," said Angela Morabito, a department spokeswoman, referring to the Office for Civil Rights. This will make it "more likely that K-12 schools will understand the importance of the role of their Title IX coordinator," she said.

The department also said in February that as part of a Title IX initiative focused on K-12 schools, it plans to launch sweeping investigations of school districts, known as compliance reviews, to examine how these cases are handled. Department officials have not said how many or which schools will be investigated.

In September, a compliance review of Chicago Public Schools determined that the district mishandled sexual violence cases for years, leaving teachers who harassed students to stay on the job, and often didn't complete investigations of abuse cases. The district, the nation's third largest, had no Title IX coordinator from 1999 through 2018.

The Education Department ordered the district to ensure there were no conflicts of interest with employees handling harassment and abuse cases, and to beef up efforts to inform students and parents about their Title IX rights. In response, Chicago Public Schools created a systemwide office dedicated to sexual misconduct and Title IX, with 38 staff members.

But the Education Department has also faced criticism for its Title IX changes. The new regulations, which go into effect in August, will limit investigations to a more narrow defintion of sexual harassment. Advocates worry that will give administrators an excuse not to act.

"If they maintain you can't file a Title IX complaint unless the case meets a certain threshold, then it gives the schools an opportunity to just ignore them," said Levin, of Stop Sexual Assault In Schools.

'It is unbelievable to experience the injustice'

After John Smith took a plea deal in April 2018, the spring of his senior year, Glenwood Springs High School administrators barred him from going to prom. In response, students circulated a petition demanding that Smith be allowed to go, and to block Doe from attending, according to the lawsuit.

Smith wasn't allowed to attend prom, but he graduated with his class that semester. Doe, who was a junior at the time, transferred to a different high school that spring to get away from the harassment, her family said.

After graduating, Doe had hoped to go to the University of Northern Colorado, where her parents and brother had gone. But she wanted to get farther away from her hostile peers, so she decided to attend college out of state. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, her parents recommended that Doe stay in her college town rather than quarantine at home - they worried the anxiety of returning to her hometown would be too much for her.

"Our daughter's treatment from the school has altered our respect and trust in any relationship we have here," her mother said. "It is unbelievable to experience the injustice that has permeated every ounce of our lives."

Doe's parents are planning to move out of town in the next few years. They hope that coming home to see them will be less stressful for Doe if she no longer has to return to the small town that her family feels turned its back on her.

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Hundreds of young students say K-12 schools mishandled their sex assault cases

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For months, her attacker's friends tormented her. They called her a "crazy bitch" and a "porn star" on social media. One suggested that they show her "what rape actually is," according to a lawsuit the Colorado student filed this year against her school district.

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While the Me Too movement led to greater awareness about the prevalence of rape, prosecutors in New York City still struggle to prove sexual assault accusations.

Credit... Alexia Webster for The New York Times

Cammy Duong woke up in a Manhattan hotel room in July 2017 and, dazed, called a friend she was supposed to meet later that morning: "I think I was raped," she said, crying.

The police investigation lasted months. But when the case reached the Manhattan district attorney's office, prosecutors quickly declined to bring charges, records show. It would be seven more months before Ms. Duong got an explanation.

"I remember leaving and crying and feeling helpless," said Ms. Duong, now 32. "I felt like nobody believed me."

The Me Too movement led to heightened awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault, an increase in reports to police, and a new hope that people accused would be more frequently held accountable. But in New York City, statistics and the accounts of women who say they were attacked suggest that little has changed about the way the criminal justice system grapples with rape accusations.

Most New York City prosecutors' offices rejected a greater percentage of sex crime cases in 2019, the last year for which reliable data is available, than they did roughly a decade earlier, before the case against Harvey Weinstein touched off a national reckoning.

In the Manhattan district attorney's office, prosecutors dropped 49 percent of sexual assault cases in 2019 - among the highest rates in the city, and an increase from 37 percent in 2017, state data shows. Only the Bronx rejected a greater percentage of cases. The data excludes most sex crimes against children, and certain nonviolent offenses like stalking.

The low prosecution rate partly reflects the inherent challenges of prosecuting sexual assault, particularly cases like Ms. Duong's, in which the attacker is not a stranger and alcohol is involved. For cases that are not dropped, conviction rates for sexual assault cases are typically much lower than for other violent crimes: 44 percent in Manhattan in 2019, compared with 79 percent for first-degree murder.

"There aren't really any third-party witnesses to these things," said Carl Bornstein, a former state and federal prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "This is tough sledding. The prosecutor has to assess: is this going to hold up under the scrutiny of 12 people?"

But some who study the matter believe the high drop rate also reflects prosecutors' unwillingness to tackle those challenges. The issue became a focus of the race to succeed the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who did not run for re-election.

Mr. Vance, who heads one of the largest and most prominent district attorney offices in the country, has faced harsh criticism over his office's handling of sex crimes, including the 2015 investigation into Mr. Weinstein, the former Hollywood producer who was convicted last year of rape and sexual assault, and the no-jail plea deal in 2016 for a Columbia University gynecologist accused of molesting dozens of patients.

Some who have sought justice in Manhattan, like Ms. Duong, said their reports were treated dismissively by Manhattan prosecutors. Others said they were brushed off, or berated.

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"Prosecutor negligence is often part of the problem," said Jane Manning, a former sex crimes prosecutor and the director of the Women's Equal Justice Project. "There's a long disgraceful legacy in our criminal justice system of not taking rape seriously."

Alvin Bragg, a former federal prosecutor who won the Democratic primary for district attorney, making him the heavy favorite to succeed Mr. Vance, has promised to revamp the office's beleaguered sex crimes bureau.

Mr. Bragg, in an interview, said he planned to "reboot" the sex crimes bureau "from the ground up," by assessing its leadership and staff with input from survivors. He said he also intended to evaluate why certain cases are rejected, and that the likelihood of a conviction should not be a determining factor.

Though the number of rape reports made to the police jumped around 20 percent after Mr. Weinstein's behavior was exposed, it is difficult to determine how strong or weak those additional cases were. The number of cases closed by Manhattan prosecutors - by winning convictions, dropping the cases, or securing pleas to lesser charges - has not deviated much each year from the average over the past decade.

Facing protests over his office's handling of sexual assault cases, Mr. Vance commissioned a study of his sex crimes bureau by AEquitas, a nonprofit that provides prosecutors with resources on violence against women.

The study, completed in November and provided to The New York Times by Mr. Vance's office, found that prosecutors "do not always fully explore alternative ways of achieving a just result," like bringing different charges or searching for more evidence.

The study, based on interviews with prosecutors, police investigators, victims and others, described a perception that decisions about which cases to pursue were based on the likelihood of a conviction, and that more challenging cases - such as those that involved acquaintances or intoxication - were often rejected. The report also found that someof those interviewed believed that prosecutors "default to disbelieving victims" until they prove their credibility.

Based on that view, the report said, the culture within the office "creates an expectation" that prosecutors win cases, and that they tend "not to pursue cases that they believe to be especially challenging."

Responding to ongoing public criticism, Mr. Vance has implemented trainings for the bureau centered on the effects of trauma on victims, as well as on sexual assault in the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and on alcohol-facilitated rape, said Audrey Moore, a first assistant district attorney. The sex crimes unit also has new leadership.

Mr. Vance, in an interview, said his office must reckon with its handling of people who report sexual assault.

"At the end of the day, if the perception is that lawyers in our office are short, or in anyway disrespectful to victims - that's unacceptable," Mr. Vance said. "We as an office need to deal with it and educate our assistants on how to be better at their interactions with survivors and victims."

The experiences of women like Ms. Duong raise questions for prosecutors like Mr. Bragg and lawmakers, who have been reconsidering New York's rape laws. How should prosecutors approach cases where victims' accounts are credible, but may be difficult to prove in court? Should the state's laws make convictions in such cases easier to win? And how should the criminal justice system balance the rights of the accused with a modern understanding of sexual violence?

The Times reviewed three cases from 2017 in which prosecutors eventually decided not to pursue charges against the men accused of rape, interviewing more than two dozen witnesses, friends, relatives, lawyers and investigators - as well as reviewing police documents, medical records, emails and audio recordings.

The Times learned about the cases from an advocate for victims of rape and a Manhattan defense lawyer troubled by a case's outcome. Ms. Duong contacted The Times directly about her case.

The women who reported being raped said prosecutors appeared overworked, were unresponsive, and treated initial conversations like cross-examinations. Their cases also demonstrated the inherent complications in prosecuting cases beyond a reasonable doubt - even when the accuser herself has no doubt at all.

It was Sept. 30, 2017, and the woman, then a graduate student at Fordham University, had been drinking heavily at her sorority's party at a venue in Brooklyn. She said she recalled trying to help a drunk friend in the bathroom, when, she said, a male friend came in and raped her. (The Times does not publish the names of rape victims unless they choose to be identified.)

Later that night, she said, she woke up to the man raping her again while choking her in his room at City College in Manhattan, where he was a student. She said that she did not remember how she got there from the party, and that the man was recording her with his cellphone.

When she realized what was happening, she said, she grabbed the phone and ran into the bathroom. She then showed the video to another student, Carlos Colon, who had been in the next room. After seeing the video, Mr. Colon fought with the man, and was later charged with assault. Mr. Colon said in an interview that the woman had appeared to be unresponsive in the video.

Soon after the encounter with the woman, the man spoke by phone with one of his fraternity brothers, who recorded the call and provided it to The Times. During that call, the student admitted to filming the woman, and said that was where he had "messed up." He later told his fraternity brothers that he had had sex with the woman while she was asleep, two of them said in interviews.

The woman reported the attack, but during the three-month investigation that followed, she said prosecutors seemed skeptical. They asked her how much she had had to drink, why she did not fight back and whether she had wanted to cheat on her boyfriend, she said.

Prosecutors told the woman that the intoxication she described did not constitute being "physically helpless" under the state's law and that they could not prove that she did not consent, according to a recording of the conversation. They never found the video.

In New York and most other states, a person is considered incapacitated - and thus unable to consent to sex - if he or she is intoxicated, but only if the intoxication is involuntary, such as if it was caused by a drug surreptitiously dropped into a drink. If the drinking was voluntary, prosecutors have a more difficult path to conviction: They must prove that force was used, that the person was unconscious or that the victim said or signaled that they did not want sex.

At least 14 states - including California, Arizona, South Carolina and Maryland - have expanded the definition of incapacitation to include voluntary intoxication. Mr. Vance and women's advocacy groups have called on New York to do the same, but a proposal to do so has stalled in Albany, over concerns that such a change could criminalize a common situation - one in which both partners have been drinking, communication is impaired and memories after the fact are hazy.

In January 2018, a judge granted prosecutors' request to dismiss the case against the City College student. Through his public defender, the student declined to comment on the case.

But the Fordham student was not the only woman to accuse him of rape.

In defending Mr. Colon against the assault charge, his lawyer, Nathaniel J. Broughty, filed a court motion in January 2018 saying that the student faced another rape accusation, and that City College campus police had found videos on his phone that showed him having sex with unconscious women. But the videos were gone by the time prosecutors searched the phone. Citing privacy concerns, college officials did not respond to questions from The Times about the videos and their investigation.

The Times also interviewed another woman, Maria Guzman, who said that she and a friend had been drinking at the man's home in Queens in 2016. Ms. Guzman, now 25, said she awoke in pain to him raping her. While in and out of consciousness, she said, she saw him rape her friend, who was completely unconscious.

Ms. Guzman, after learning through friends about the alleged rape in 2017 at City College, said she reported her attack to the police in Manhattan, who told her to speak with detectives in Queens. Feeling dismissed, she dropped the matter.

Though the City College student was never charged in relation to the other accusations, prosecutors could have used their testimony to try to bolster the case they had against him.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the former Manhattan chief assistant district attorney, acknowledged that the office had erred in this case by not following investigative leads.

"It was a missed opportunity, and we can do better and we will do better," Ms. Friedman Agnifilo said, adding that the office revamped its case management system to require that a second set of senior prosecutors review cases to ensure investigations were thorough.

A 2018 investigation by City College found that the student had engaged in "nonconsensual sexual intercourse" with the woman whose case had been dropped by the district attorney. The student was suspended for four years, university records show.

But the only person punished was Mr. Colon, now 27, whose charges were dismissed only after the completion of community service.

Rachel Lesser said she was raped in a Manhattan hotel room by an ex-boyfriend who wanted to reunite. They dated for a year before breaking up in 2016, she said, but they agreed to spend a platonic weekend together the following year.

While she was napping the first evening in the bed they shared, Ms. Lesser woke to him kissing her, she said, and she told him she was not interested in him sexually.

On the second night, after she drank several glasses of prosecco and took NyQuil for a cold, Ms. Lesser said she woke to him shaking her.

Her underwear was on the floor and her anus was bleeding, she said. She had a vague recollection of sexual activity, but could not recall details. But the man, in a bizarre phone call to Ms. Lesser's mother, told her he had had sex with the woman, her mother said.

Doubtful she would get justice, Ms. Lesser, now 30, said she waited two days to go to a hospital and contacted the police a month later.

Detectives had her place a "controlled call" to the man, in which she confronted him over the phone while detectives secretly recorded him, she and her grandmother said. He acknowledged having sex with Ms. Lesser, though he said that he thought she had been awake, prosecutors said. Four months later, in October 2017, the man was arrested, prosecutors said.

But as the case proceeded, in Ms. Lesser's recollection, the prosecutor, Justin McNabney, peppered her with questions about her relationship with the man, and questioned how she could sleep through a rape, she said. The office disputed they had questioned the latter, and said that questions about her history with the man were relevant to the investigation.

Prosecutors said the man stated during an interview with them that he believed she had consented because she was moving, and that he had stopped when he realized she might be asleep.

Mr. McNabney advised her to get on with her life, Ms. Lesser recalled.

Once when she called for an update on the investigation, she said, the prosecutor yelled that he had a lot of cases on his plate, including an attempted murder, before abruptly ending the call. The office disputed her characterization, and said the prosecutor had told Ms. Lesser that he would respond to emailed questions.

Prosecutors dropped the case a month later because of insufficient evidence, the office said. With no memory of what had happened, prosecutors said, they could not prove Ms. Lesser did not consent.

Ms. Lesser thanked Mr. McNabney for his attention to her case in an email, which she described sending as an attempt to keep the peace and because she thought she might need his help if she pursued a civil case.

But she said she had largely felt dismissed.

"I was treated like an annoyance, a troublesome obligation, like what happened to me didn't matter," said Ms. Lesser, who is also known as Petra. "I was poorly represented in a broken system."

The ex-boyfriend and his lawyer did not return requests for comment.

Ms. Duong told the police she was raped on July 9, 2017, by a friend who invited her to travel from her home in Boston to a celebration in New York, she said in an interview corroborated by police records.

Ms. Duong remembered throwing up on the ride to her SoHo hotel after a night of barhopping, and her friend helping her to the room. She vaguely remembered feeling lips on her face and body, she said.

Then, she was pulled to the end of the bed and penetrated from behind, she said. She was unable to move, and kept blacking out.

Ms. Duong shared the same account with the friend she was scheduled to meet that morning, she sought help from a victim's advocate and she later described the ordeal to her sister - all of whom recounted various details in interviews.

The police were skeptical of Ms. Duong's story, she said. One female detective asked Ms. Duong why she did not fight back or scream, she recalled.

Ms. Duong said she believed she was drugged. A toxicology report found she had an anti-nausea medication in her system that can cause drowsiness and fatigue. Ms. Duong said she never knowingly took the drug, but investigators explored no further, records show.

Detectives wanted Ms. Duong to conduct a controlled call, she said, but it was too late. The man had moved to California, where it is illegal to record someone without their permission.

The Manhattan district attorney's office quickly declined to prosecute, investigative records show. Ms. Duong waited months for a prosecutor, Jennifer Gaffney, to meet with her, and the meeting took place only after a victim advocate pressed for it, the advocate and Ms. Duong said. Ms. Gaffney told Ms. Duong that her allegation did not fit the definition of second or third-degree rape, the advocate and Ms. Duong said.

Ms. Duong said Ms. Gaffney told her to go heal, and suggested she sue her attacker. Ms. Gaffney did not return requests for comment.

The man, in a phone interview, said he believed the sex was consensual and that Ms. Duong appeared to be participating. He said they were drunk and he now believes there was a misunderstanding.

Ms. Duong said she wanted her day in court and for the man to be convicted and registered as a sex offender. "It's not fair that you can do that, live your life, and you get no consequences," she said.

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'Nobody Believed Me': How Rape Cases Get Dropped

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While the Me Too movement led to greater awareness about the prevalence of rape, prosecutors in New York City still struggle to prove sexual assault accusations. Credit... Alexia Webster for The New York Times Cammy Duong woke up in a Manhattan hotel room in July 2017 and, dazed, called a friend she was supposed to meet later that morning: "I think I was raped," she said, crying.

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SOURCE H: Sexual Abuse Cases in California Schools 

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SOURCE H: Sexual Abuse Cases in California Schools 

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-More than 53% of sexual abuse happens on school premises, and 19% of it occurs online.
-While we are on the topic, it is worth noting that 56% of students in California public schools who are victims of sexual abuse are girls.
-The average age of boys and girls who are victims of sexual abuse is 15.

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One of the most atrocious acts anyone can involve themselves in is intentionally harming a child. And this is especially true when it comes to any form of sexual abuse, an atrocity that can profoundly impact their young life. That said, sexual abuse cases in the U.S., especially in California, are not exactly new.

What is new, however, is the growing incident rates of sexual abuse cases substantiated by child protective services and other agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys in the U.S. are victims of sexual abuse. To add insult to injury, the people doing the victimizing are teachers, coaches, family members, and others who children often trust the most.

When Schools Fail Our Kids: What Parents Should Know About School Sexual Abuse in America's Public Schools

Most of us believe our children are in good hands when we drop them off at school, but a recent study proves we should probably think otherwise. According to a study published by the Independent Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan, public-policy research and educational organization, public schools might very well be one of the worse places we, as parents, can send our children.

This is especially true if we care anything about protecting their innocence. To understand why that is the case, we need only refer back to the Independent Institute study, which revealed that around 10% or roughly 4.5 million children are victims of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct by school employees.

Such sexual abuse or misconduct can increase a child's chances of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STI). It can also leave them suffering from a variety of psychological symptoms, some of which include the following:

Depression

Anxiety

Suicidal ideations

Confusion

Withdrawal

Sexual dysfunction

Eating disorders

Substance use disorders

How Prevalent Is Sexual Abuse in California Schools?

Like the rest of the nation, sexual abuse is a problem in many of California's public schools, with 79% of schoolchildren experiencing sexual abuse that consists of direct contact. Meanwhile, 14% are victims of non-contact sexual abuse, which is usually in the form of lude texts and emails. Lastly, 8% of schoolchildren are on the receiving end of both.

More than 53% of sexual abuse happens on school premises, and 19% of it occurs online. While we are on the topic, it is worth noting that 56% of students in California public schools who are victims of sexual abuse are girls. And the average age of boys and girls who are victims of sexual abuse is 15. Lastly, 49% of all victims, irrespective of gender, are minorities.

Sexual Abuse Compensation: Holding California's Public Schools and School Employees Accountable

According to an article published by Forbes, psychotherapy in the U.S. is between $100 and $200 per session. And this is the type of therapy children will need if they've been the victim of sexual abuse.

Failing to partake in such treatments with a licensed therapist can increase a child's chances of struggling with the long-term effects of abuse, such as an unyielding desire to engage in risky sexual behavior, intimacy issues, self-harm, suicidal ideations, substance abuse, and much more.

Therapy can help keep all of these long-term effects at bay, but it doesn't come cheap. For this reason, many parents of children victimized in California public schools are filing compensation claims. A public school sexual abuse lawyer can help victims seek justice.

Who Is Eligible to Make a Claim for Compensation?

Parents of children enrolled in a California public school can file a civil lawsuit against not only the abuser but also the school district and other parties involved if their child was a victim of sexual abuse.

That said, making a claim for compensation and receiving a favorable verdict is not easy. However, it is not impossible either, especially with the right public school sexual abuse lawyer in your corner.

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Statistics of Sexual Abuse Cases in California Schools | Attorney at Law Magazine

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One of the most atrocious acts anyone can involve themselves in is intentionally harming a child. And this is especially true when it comes to any form of sexual abuse, an atrocity that can profoundly impact their young life. That said, sexual abuse cases in the U.S., especially in California, are not exactly new.

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SOURCE E: How we can end sexual harassment at work (Ideas to end sexual harassment in general)

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SOURCE E: How we can end sexual harassment at work (Ideas to end sexual harassment in general)

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When Gretchen Carlson spoke out about her experience of workplace sexual harassment, it inspired women everywhere to take their power back and tell the world what happened to them. In a remarkable, fierce talk, she tells her story -- and identifies three specific things we can all do to create safer places to work. "We will no longer be underestimated, intimidated or set back," Carlson says. "We will stand up and speak up and have our voices heard. We will be the women we were meant to be."

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Gretchen Carlson: How we can end sexual harassment at work

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When Gretchen Carlson spoke out about her experience of workplace sexual harassment, it inspired women everywhere to take their power back and tell the world what happened to them. In a remarkable, fierce talk, she tells her story -- and identifies three specific things we can all do to create safer places to work.

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The reporting system that sexual assault survivors want

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The reporting system that sexual assault survivors want

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We don't have to live in a world where 99 percent of rapists get away with it, says TED Fellow Jessica Ladd. With Callisto, a new platform for college students to confidentially report sexual assault, Ladd is helping survivors get the support and justice they deserve while respecting their privacy concerns. "We can create a world where there's a real deterrent to violating the rights of another human being," she says.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

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Jessica Ladd: The reporting system that sexual assault survivors want

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We don't have to live in a world where 99 percent of rapists get away with it, says TED Fellow Jessica Ladd. With Callisto, a new platform for college students to confidentially report sexual assault, Ladd is helping survivors get the support and justice they deserve while respecting their privacy concerns.

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SOURCE E: How online abuse of women has spiraled out of control

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SOURCE E: How online abuse of women has spiraled out of control

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Enough with online hate speech, sexual harassment and threats of violence against women and marginalized groups. It's time to take the global crisis of online abuse seriously. In this searching, powerful talk, Ashley Judd recounts her ongoing experience of being terrorized on social media for her unwavering activism and calls on citizens of the internet, the tech community, law enforcement and legislators to recognize the offline harm of online harassment

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Ashley Judd: How online abuse of women has spiraled out of control

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Enough with online hate speech, sexual harassment and threats of violence against women and marginalized groups. It's time to take the global crisis of online abuse seriously. In this searching, powerful talk, Ashley Judd recounts her ongoing experience of being terrorized on social media for her unwavering activism and calls on citizens of the internet, the tech community, law enforcement and legislators to recognize the offline harm of online harassment.

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According to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, there were 14,938 incidents of sexual violence in K–12 schools in 2017 – 2018 compared with 9,649 in 2015 – 2016, representing a 55 percent increase. These include incidents of rape or attempted rape and sexual assault. Why the number of incidents jumped that much hasn’t been determined. Some experts attribute at least part of the spike to more awareness (the #MeToo Movement became well known in late 2017) and more effective reporting methods.

NEA Today

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It's unnerving and uncomfortable to talk about, but student-on-student sexual assault and harassment happens with alarming frequency in school bathrooms, on school playgrounds, and in the backs of school buses. It happens at every level of education from pre-K to college.

According to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, there were 14,938 incidents of sexual violence in K-12 schools in 2017 - 2018 compared with 9,649 in 2015 - 2016, representing a 55 percent increase. These include incidents of rape or attempted rape and sexual assault. Why the number of incidents jumped that much hasn't been determined. Some experts attribute at least part of the spike to more awareness (the #MeToo Movement became well known in late 2017) and more effective reporting methods.

Still, as Shiwali Patel of the National Women's Law Center told the Washington Post, reports of sexual violence in school are probably still being undercounted. The problem will undoubtedly reemerge as the country slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and more students return to school.

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It's unnerving and uncomfortable to talk about, but student-on-student sexual assault and harassment happens with alarming frequency in school bathrooms, on school playgrounds, and in the backs of school buses. It happens at every level of education from pre-K to college. According to recently released data from the U.S.

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SOURCE C: WHERE WE STAND: SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SCHOOL

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SOURCE C: WHERE WE STAND: SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SCHOOL

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main intakes-
-Sexual harassment and violence in schools create hostile environments and can negatively impact students’ learning, mental health, and wellbeing. Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature and can be verbal, nonverbal, or physical—including sexual assault. Though sexual harassment and violence in schools are unlawful as a form of sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, AAUW’s own research revealed that harassment in schools starts early and affects most students. AAUW is committed to protecting the right of all students to be free from sexual harassment and violence.

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When education environments are hostile due to sexual harassment, assault, or violence, students cannot learn and end up missing out on true educational opportunities. AAUW's own research revealed that two-thirds of college students experience sexual harassment and nearly half of students in grades 7-12 face sexual harassment. In addition, many studies have found that around 20% of women are targets of attempted or completed sexual assault while they are college students.

Middle and High Schools

Sexual harassment is the unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature and can be verbal, nonverbal, or physical - including sexual assault. AAUW research shows that harassment in schools starts early and affects most students. The prevalence of sexual harassment in grades 7-12 comes as a surprise to many, in part because it is rarely reported. One-half of students who were sexually harassed in the 2010-11 school year said they did nothing afterward in response to the sexual harassment.

Boys and girls are both negatively affected by sexual harassment. But girls are more likely than boys to say sexual harassment caused them to have trouble sleeping, not want to go to school, or change the way they went to or home from school. Too often, these negative effects take a toll on students' education, resulting in decreased productivity and increased absenteeism from school.

Higher Education

Research shows that incidents of sexual harassment and its most extreme form, sexual assault, are shockingly prevalent on college campuses nationwide. Sexual assault disproportionately affects college women, though both men and women are targets of violence on campus, and impedes survivors' ability to participate fully in their education. Educational equity for women and girls requires fair, responsive, fully developed campus sexual assault policies; knowledgeable administrators; and ultimately an end to sexual violence on campuses.

Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Title IX protects students from unlawful sexual harassment in all of a school's programs or activities, whether they take place in the facilities of the school, at a class or training program sponsored by the school at another location, or elsewhere. Title IX protects both male and female students from sexual harassment, regardless of who the harasser may be.

Title IX has long required schools to evaluate their current practices, adopt and publish a policy against sex discrimination, and implement grievance procedures providing for prompt and equitable resolution of student and employee discrimination complaints. Sex discrimination includes sexual violence.

Under Title IX, schools are required to eliminate sexual harassment and sexual violence, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects. The law and guidance issued over decades by the Department of Education requires schools to

Define sex discrimination (including sexual violence) and publish a policy stating that the school does not discriminate

Have and make known procedures for students to file complaints when sexual harassment, discrimination, or violence takes place

Appoint a Title IX coordinator to oversee these activities, review complaints, and deal with patterns or systemic problems (even when there are not formal complaints). The school must notify students who the coordinator is.

The Clery Act

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) requires colleges and universities who participate in federal financial aid programs to disclose campus crime statistics and security information. Every school provides this information publicly. Currently, sexual assaults that are reported to local law enforcement are included in these disclosures.

In 2013, Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act and included provisions to improve campus safety. Schools are now required to report additional crime statistics (on domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking), update procedures following an incident of sexual violence, and provide prevention and bystander intervention training to all students and employees.

These new requirements are in addition to the long-standing obligations that schools have under Title IX. These laws can work together to ensure that students have the information they need regarding campus safety, as well as a clear course of action when sexual violence occurs.

The Civil Rights Data Collection

Since 1968, the Department of Education has administered the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which collects data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. In the past several years, the CRDC has been improved to shed additional light on the pervasiveness of sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and violence, in our schools. AAUW specifically appreciates that the CRDC now includes several important, school-specific gender equity points that are helpful to advocates, parents, students, educators, and Title IX coordinators at schools nationwide.

Next Steps to End Sexual Harassment and Violence

AAUW is committed to protecting the rights of all students to be free from sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Since 2009 the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education has steadily increased technical assistance and enforcement and provided critical guidance to schools, which has led to better outcomes and safer climates for students at every level nationwide. And, for the first time ever, the Department of Education published the names of every Title IX coordinator across the country, helping to connect students and parents to the resources they need in their communities.

Moving forward, AAUW will continue to protect existing laws that bar sexual harassment and violence in schools. In addition, we will advocate for the necessary funding for the Department of Education to do its job to protect and educate students, faculty, and staff.

There are additional policies that would also help improve school climates. A component of stemming the tide of harassment and violence in higher education is to update our federal policies, not only to guide colleges and universities in supporting students but also to provide strong incentives for these institutions to improve their campus climates. One way to make strides is to implement climate and victimization surveys to better understand both reported and unreported incidents as well as contributing cultural issues on campuses.

AAUW also urges Congress to pass legislation that requires states and schools to develop policies for K-12 schools to prevent sexual harassment and violence and procedures to effectively respond to such behavior.

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Where We Stand: Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence in School

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When education environments are hostile due to sexual harassment, assault, or violence, students cannot learn and end up missing out on true educational opportunities. AAUW's own research revealed that two-thirds of college students experience sexual harassment and nearly half of students in grades 7-12 face sexual harassment.

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SOURCE B: How we talk about sexual assault online

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SOURCE B: How we talk about sexual assault online

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Sometimes not reacting instantly is, ironically, the best immediate course of action we can take. Because we might be angry, upset and energized by injustice, but let's consider our responses. Let us hold people to account, without descending into a culture that thrives off shaming and injustice ourselves. Let us remember that distinction, so often forgotten by internet users, between criticism and insult. Let us not forget to think before we speak, just because we might have a screen in front of us. And when we create noise on social media, let it not drown out the needs of those affected, but instead let it amplify their voices, so the internet becomes a place where you're not the exception if you speak out about something that has actually happened to you.

Ione Wells

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We need a more considered approach to using social media for social justice, says writer and activist Ione Wells. After she was the victim of an assault in London, Wells published a letter to her attacker in a student newspaper that went viral and sparked the #NotGuilty campaign against sexual violence and victim-blaming. In this moving talk, she describes how sharing her personal story gave hope to others and delivers a powerful message against the culture of online shaming.

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SOURCE A: Why women stay silent after sexual assult

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SOURCE A: Why women stay silent after sexual assult

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"Why do we do this? It's so we can believe her; so we can feel confident that she really was a victim. I call this "victimization of the victim." "Victimization," because in order to believe she's innocent, that she's a victim, we need to think of her as helpless, paralyzed, mute. "

Ines Hercovich

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Inés Hercovich: Why women stay silent after sexual assault

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Why do women who experience sexual assault rarely speak up about it? "Because they fear they won't be believed," says Inés Hercovich. "Because when a woman tells what happened to her, she tells us things we can't imagine, things that disturb us, things we don't expect to hear, things that shock us."