The administrators responded to their allegations of sexual harassment with «continued indifference,» the complaint says. After Riley reported that a classmate had called her a «big, fat, ugly whore,» the school’s principal told Riley that she «sometimes the truth hurts,» according to the complaint. And when Riley reported the ongoing bullying to a school counselor, she told Riley, «We knew this was going to happen because of the sexually explicit video» and didn’t help her, the complaint says.
“I think this situation is a perfect example of why schools have Title IX obligations,” said Chloe Neely, the attorney representing Riley in her Title IX complaint. If the bullying «had been addressed in a timely manner, it would have prevented her from leaving the school district entirely.»
The federal Department of Education opened an investigation into Riley’s complaint last August, a spokesperson confirmed. The agency does not comment on the ongoing investigations.
A Cherokee County Schools spokesperson declined to comment.
Riley’s Title IX complaint accuses Cherokee County Schools, which has about 2,900 students, of failing to adequately train school staff on how to respond to a complaint of bullying.
Inadequate training on Title IX, the law that protects students from discrimination based on sex, is common in small districts, like Cherokee County, which have fewer resources than larger districts and may have less experience. in handling sexual harassment complaints, said Elizabeth Meyer, associate. professor of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Typically, there are no accountability measures in place to ensure Title IX compliance,” said Meyer, who was not referring specifically to Cherokee County. And “there is little incentive to be proactive in Title IX education and prevention because there are no regular checks from the Office for Civil Rights.”
The Office for Civil Rights focuses largely on responding to complaints it receives, rather than monitoring district compliance. In fiscal year 2021, the federal agency conducted 17 proactive investigations on issues such as racial discrimination, while resolving more than 8,000 complaints it had received. If the department finds that a district mishandled a case, federal officials can require the district to make changes to the policy.
The Biden administration has proposed changes to Title IX to better prepare school officials to respond to complaints, including requiring training for all school staff on recognizing sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. The changes would also require all school employees to report allegations of bullying to the district’s Title IX coordinator, and would require additional training for the coordinator and all other staff members involved in resolving complaints.
The proposed changes to Title IX are currently going through a federal review process and could be finalized later this year.
In the fall of 2021, Cherokee County administrators told Marcella they could not investigate Riley’s bullying allegations because she had reported the rumored video and alleged assault to police, and the school needed to wait for the investigation to conclude. criminal investigation, the Title IX complaint says. .
But federal regulations require school officials to offer «support measures» to students who report being sexually harassed, regardless of whether the students file a formal Title IX complaint or report the problem to the police. Even if there is a related criminal investigation, school officials must «respond meaningfully to allegations of sexual harassment,» according to the Education deparment.
Cherokee County Schools only opened its own investigation in early 2022, after Marcella filed the Title IX complaint and more than three months after the alleged assault. When the district began interviewing the students, many said they couldn’t remember the details, according to notes from the district’s investigation that Marcella shared with NBC News.
“If they had been more proactive in talking to the students, they would have gotten a lot more information,” Neely said.
The district ultimately recommended disciplinary action for two students, based on the district’s final determination, shared by Marcella. By this time, Riley had already withdrawn from the school.
Jeana Conley, who was a superintendent at the time, told NBC News that it was the district’s practice to defer to police.
“Now we know we could have probably done those investigations in parallel,” said Conley, who retired last fall, but “compared to a criminal charge, Title IX seemed to pale in comparison.”
The football player, who NBC News is not identifying because of his age, was charged in juvenile court last spring with second-degree forcible rape, sexual assault, criminal restraint, third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor related to “a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexual activity,” according to court records provided by Marcella. Juvenile court records are not publicly available in North Carolina.
Last August, the district attorney’s office dropped the sexual exploitation and restraint charges, and shortly thereafter a district court judge ruled there was no probable cause to prosecute the soccer player on the remaining charges, according to the judge’s order. Provided by Marcela.
The soccer player’s mother and attorney declined to comment.
