Attorney General Rob Bonta both filed and settled a lawsuit against the Redlands Unified School District’s protection of students on May 29.
The settlement, negotiated since April, tightens the school’s investigation policies.
The suit was filed after the California Department of Justice investigated the district’s responses to sexual assault, harassment and abuse complaints. In the complaint, the DOJ accused the Redlands Unified School District of breaking Title IX, the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, and Education Code Section 33315, which requires the creation of a system to process complaints.
The school district will be monitored by the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Attorney General for the next five years.
“The District is fully committed to complying with the terms of the judgment. We take the findings seriously and are dedicated to making necessary improvements to ensure a safe and equitable learning environment for all students and staff as this continues to be our number one priority,” said RUSD Superintendent Juan Cabral.
The stipulation
RUSD will have to:
- Hire, train and properly authorize an assistant superintendent that would investigate complaints of sexual impropriety
- Centralize reports and complaints of sexual harassment, abuse and assault
- Provide the DOJ with all responses to and complaints of sexual harassment, assault and abuse
- Revise its policies to be in line with state law
- Provide education and mental health services to victims
- Provide annual training to students and parents on how to report sexual assault, harassment and abuse
- Provide annual training to staff and investigators on their duties to address sexual assault, harassment and abuse
- Provide an anonymous survey at the end of each semester to assess students’ experiences with sexual harassment, assault and abuse
- Establish an advisory committee to study the district’s responses to sexual harassment, abuse and assault
- Audit each school for their compliance with posting required notices
The investigation
The Attorney General’s investigation reviewed the district’s response to 64 claims of impropriety, including 53 between 2016 and 2023. Part of the investigation included review of 80,000 documents and interviews with 49 people, including RUSD employees, students, alumni and parents, according to the complaint.
RUSD failed to put a coordinator in charge of ensuring compliance with sexual harassment, assault and abuse laws, the DOJ’s complaint said. It also failed to respond properly to allegations of sexual harassment, assault and abuse. The district did not have policies up to state law, the complaint said.
The complaint referenced multiple instances of RUSD not following rules around complaint investigations.
In the 2021-22 school year, RUSD received written complaints that a male teacher often walked into the girls’ locker room and looked at students, touched female students’ shoulders, made female students perform exercises in front of their cameras during distance learning, and called some female students sluts. The school district investigated only the claims about the locker room, in violation of the law that requires investigation of all complaints, the complaint said. RUSD also did not provide a report to the complaining students, as required.
In the 2022-23 school year, RUSD received a complaint that a teacher had touched a female student’s buttocks. After investigating, the school district found the allegation unsubstantiated, but did not provide the complaining student an investigation report, again in violation of rules.
During the 2022-23 school year, RUSD was notified that an instructor had sexually harassed a student. It took a year before the Title IX coordinator contacted the complaining student. The same year, the district was notified that a student was sexually harassed by another student, and the Title IX coordinator again took a year before contacting the student, the complaint said.
RUSD did not give the complaining student the opportunity to respond to evidence gathered during the investigation, in violation of federal law. The district found the accused student innocent at first, then later found they did commit the sexual assault, but did not offer any remedies to the assaulted student, the complaint said.
In 2023, RUSD did not investigate multiple students’ allegations that one substitute teacher was sexually harassing them.
During the 2023-24 school year, the district had an unwritten policy to not investigate allegations until law enforcement gave them a green light to go ahead.
After a substitute teacher was found to have sexually harassed, assaulted or abused a student, RUSD would block them from teaching at the campus the act occurred in—but would not block them from teaching at other campuses in the district, the complaint said.
Case No. 24STCV13334
Read the complaint here.
Read the judgment here.
