Perry County school district among 20 nationwide in sexual abuse reporting probe
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating an Eastern Kentucky school district’s polices and procedures regarding staff-on-student sexual misconduct.
Perry County Public Schools is one of 20 districts across the country targeted by a DOE Office for Civil Rights probe stemming from its responses to a biennial survey the department conducts for information about access to education, school climate and resources. It was the only Kentucky district targeted by the investigation, which was launched late last week.
The DOE said it is cracking down on sexual predators in schools and wants to address a “troubling and recurring pattern” of sexual abuse and harassment going underinvestigated. Suspected adult offenders are often transferred to new schools or roles in a district, effectively “passing the trash,” the department said in a news release Friday.
Directed investigations that the Office for Civil Rights has opened against Perry County Schools and the other districts will determine whether policies and procedures are in place to ensure officials accurately collect data and report sexual misconduct. Investigators will review whether districts comply with federal law when they handle allegations of sexual harassment, including sexual assault by district employees.
Sexual abuse in Kentucky’s public schools has come under renewed scrutiny as a growing number of lawsuits and criminal prosecutions have raised questions about whether school districts are doing enough to protect students and respond to allegations against employees. The cases have prompted calls for stronger reporting requirements, increased oversight and greater accountability from school leaders, while highlighting the lasting impact abuse can have on victims and communities long after allegations first surface.
A 2022 Herald-Leader investigation found that nearly two-thirds of teachers whose licenses were surrendered, suspended or revoked in Kentucky between 2016 and 2021 traced back to sexual misconduct.
Title IX of the 1972 federal Education Amendments prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal assistance. That includes sex-based harassment, sexual violence, and sex-based discrimination in certain educational fields, according to the DOE. The No Child Left Behind Act conditions federal funding for schools and state educational agencies on laws, regulations or policies that prohibit helping teachers who have likely engaged in sexual misconduct involving a student from gaining employment elsewhere.
Kentucky lawmakers passed legislation this year criminalizing sexual grooming and prohibiting non-disclosure agreements between schools and employees that would have shielded teachers’ past sexual misconduct allegations. The law also implements required training for teachers that focuses on preventing sexual misconduct and grooming.
Perry County Schools confirmed that it received a letter regarding polices and procedures for accurate data collecting and reporting under Title IX.
“At this point, we are unsure of the reasoning of our selection, however, we are eager to work with OCR and the U.S. Department of Education regarding any of our policies and procedures regarding Title IX,” said Jody Maggard, the district’s chief financial officer. “Student safety is paramount in the Perry County School district, and we remain committed to ensuring our students are receiving a quality education in the safety environment.”
The department is at the beginning stages of data collection and responding to the OCR investigators, Maggard said.
DOE Secretary Linda McMahon wrote a “dear colleague” letter putting districts across the country on notice of their legal obligations to combat sexual abuse in schools.
“Nationwide, too many boys and girls are being subjected to unthinkable sexual misconduct, including harassment, assault, abuse, and molestation, by the very teachers, staff, and administrators entrusted with their educational and physical well-being,” she wrote.
Research conducted by the DOE and U.S. Justice Department under former Republican and Democratic administrations has concluded that about 10% of students in K-12 public schools suffer some sort of sexual misconduct at the hands of their teachers or school staff, ranging from inappropriate verbal comments to physical assault, said John Manly, a California attorney who specializes in representing victims of sexual abuse victims.
The DOE’s targeted investigations are “long overdue,” he said.
“The federal government and the Department of Education can’t put these people in jail, but they can certainly wield a lot of power, namely cutting off funds,” he told the Herald-Leader. “Think of it as a financial death penalty. And my hope is that parents in Kentucky and all these other school districts in all these other states will wake up and say, ‘What is going on here?’”
There are about 650,000 students in public schools in Kentucky, meaning that, statistically, 65,000 will experience misconduct by a public school employee, Manly said. In no other American institution or industry would that level of abuse be acceptable, but it’s been swept under the rug by teachers unions and school districts that don’t want negative headlines, he added.
All 50 states require sexual abuse to be reported not only to school district personnel, but to a third party, such as child protective services or the police, but cases Manly said he’s had in California and across the country suggest that many districts are failing to alert others of a problem within their walls.
“Institutions that investigate themselves rarely find themselves guilty,” he said.
