Owasso Public Schools has agreed to roughly ten pages of stringent requirements designed to bring it back into compliance with Title IX rules regarding sexual discrimination.
In a rather scathing news release sent to KRMG, the U.S. Department of Education reported finding a number of violations, mostly centered on the district’s failure to take sexual harassment claims seriously, provide the correct support or services to alleged victims, or to report the incidents to the DoE.
The letter sent to OPS can be read here.
The agreement OPS has accepted is here.
Here is the statement sent to KRMG by the U.S. Department of Education:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that Owasso Public Schools in Oklahoma entered into an agreement to remedy violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 with respect to sexual harassment in its schools.
Sexual harassment prohibited under the Department’s Title IX regulation as amended in 2020 includes unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity. Following investigation, OCR determined that the district has a practice of handling reports of sexual harassment of students informally and inadequately.
OCR identified repeated instances over a three-year period in which district staff received notice of possible sexual harassment, yet district staff did not explain the process for filing a Title IX complaint or promptly contact a complainant to discuss the availability of supportive measures, such as counseling or schedule changes. The 2020 regulations to Title IX require school districts to follow these procedures after receiving notice of conduct that could constitute sexual harassment. These district failures to respond to notice of sexual harassment involved reports it received:
That a teacher was grooming female students on social media through sending more than 130 messages to them describing their physical appearance and requesting their photographs, among other topics,
That a very young elementary school student was subjected to repeated harassing remarks that were described as sexual in nature,
That a male student repeatedly hit and made unwelcome sexual comments to a female sixth grade student at school and on the school bus, and,
That multiple students were subjected to repeated sex-based slurs, harassment, and physical assault.
The district even failed to take these steps that the 2020 regulations to Title IX require in February 2024 after a district student died by suicide following an altercation in a restroom at Owasso High School. As a result, OCR found that the district’s pattern of inconsistent responses to reports it received of sexual harassment – infrequently responding under Title IX or not responding at all – rose to the level that the district’s response to some families’ sexual harassment reports was deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights.
Notably, the district had conducted only two formal Title IX investigations in the past three school years and was able to produce only limited records to OCR with respect to those two matters. OCR determined the district violated Title IX by not adopting a grievance process that contains the basic requirements enumerated in 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b) and by not fulfilling the District’s Title IX recordkeeping obligations, as required by 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b)(10)(ii).
“Owasso students and their families did not receive the fair and equitable review process from their school district guaranteed to them under Title IX; at worst, some students experienced discrimination Congress has long guaranteed they shall not endure at school,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “The district has signed a robust agreement to assure that students who attend school in the district will be afforded their rights under Title IX, including the right to file a complaint, learn about and receive supportive services individualized to their needs, and benefit from federal nondiscrimination protection when they experience harassment.”
The resolution agreement commits the district to:
Contact the parents of students affected by sexual harassment in the district to inform them of the process for filing a Title IX complaint and the availability of supportive measures;
Issue a public anti-harassment statement and nondiscrimination statement to the district community;
Review and, if necessary, revise its Title IX policies to ensure compliance with Title IX’s requirements about sex discrimination, including sexual harassment;
Provide training on Title IX to district staff and students, including the full scope of its sexual harassment coverage;
Conduct a climate survey on sexual harassment in the district;
Review all complaints of sexual harassment received in the past three school years and an audit of all complaints received in the next two school years to ensure that the district processes all complaints consistent with Title IX; and
Develop and implement a recordkeeping system that adequately and accurately documents and preserves all records required by Title IX.