In May, we filed a Title IX complaint on behalf of Luis and Kerri Rivera, the parents of a 9-year-old girl in the third grade at Rochester Memorial School. Our complaint alleged that this girl was using the bathroom when a male student who identified as transgender entered the bathroom, saw there was someone in her stall, and opened the stall door on her while she was on the toilet. The girl was shocked and traumatized by this violation of her privacy and continues to be afraid of using the bathroom at school. Even though the Riveras had previously complained about the male student using the girl’s bathroom, the school took no steps to stop the incident from happening and told the parents it was just following state law.
The school conducted an investigation into our complaint and recently issued its final decision. While we have not released the school’s decision here in order to protect student privacy, we believe the public has the right to know its key findings. Importantly, the decision found that the male student did in fact open the stall door on our client after looking under the door and seeing her feet. The decision found it was “more likely than not” that the male student knew that there was someone in the stall when he opened the door. The decision also found that the male student looked into the stall at our client after opening the door.
Nevertheless, the decision concluded that this incident did not qualify as sexual harassment under Title IX because the male student’s conduct was not “severe, pervasive, or objectively offensive” enough to qualify under the legal standard. The school’s superintendent released a statement downplaying the incident as simply “a 9-year-old student opening an unlocked bathroom stall that was in use by another 9-year-old student”, completely failing to mention the decision’s conclusion that the male student knew that the stall was occupied.
We are deeply disappointed by Rochester’s failure to protect not only our client, but all female students in the school district, from violations of their privacy and dignity. The school’s policies have also failed the male student, who never should have been put in a position to be involved in an incident like this.
But despite the school’s decision here, our clients are undeterred in their efforts to hold Rochester schools accountable for this violation. As we previously reported, we also filed a federal Title IX complaint against the school district with the Office of Civil Rights and are continuing to pursue all legal avenues. Federal law requires equal educational opportunity for girls; but schools like Rochester undermine that promise when they allow male students into girls’ private spaces. We are determined to continue pressing forward to ensure that Rochester, and every other Massachusetts school district, is in compliance with Title IX.