A new federal lawsuit accuses the Miami-Dade County school district of punishing a student for reporting alleged sexual assaults.
The National Women's Law Center filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Miami on behalf of its client, identified as Jane Doe. The lawsuit says Jane was a 14-year-old student at Miami Carol City Senior High School in 2017 when she was allegedly sexually assaulted three times by older male peers in school bathrooms.
WLRN's Jessica Bakeman reports on a federal lawsuit against the Miami-Dade School District.
The lawsuit claims the school district and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho violated Jane's rights under Title IX, a federal law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education, in how it handled the incidents. Jane's attorneys argue school employees "coerced" her into recanting written statements regarding the alleged assaults. Jane was eventually suspended for "sexual misconduct."
Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesman John Schuster said the district had not yet been served with the lawsuit as of Tuesday afternoon. He said the district takes all reported incidents seriously.
A state attorney's office investigation into Jane's reports of assault could not determine, based on testimony and evidence, if the sexual encounters were consensual. Therefore, the three boys accused of assaulting her were not charged.
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