{"id":925713,"date":"2021-10-26T18:44:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T22:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=925713"},"modified":"2021-10-26T18:44:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T22:44:29","slug":"breaking-mcauliffe-linked-law-firm-nsba-fighting-student-who-said-she-was-gang-raped-asks-supreme-court-to-alter-title-ix-to-diminish-victims-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-mcauliffe-linked-law-firm-nsba-fighting-student-who-said-she-was-gang-raped-asks-supreme-court-to-alter-title-ix-to-diminish-victims-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: McAuliffe-Linked Law Firm, NSBA Fighting Student Who Said She Was Gang-Raped, Asks Supreme Court To Alter Title IX To Diminish Victims Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">46<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbreaking-mcauliffe-linked-law-firm-nsba-fighting-student-who-said-she-was-gang-raped-asks-supreme-court-to-alter-title-ix-to-diminish-victims-rights%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=925713&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A law firm that employed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has made a cottage industry out of aggressively fighting victims of alleged sexual abuse in schools, being paid huge sums by school administrators whom the girls say ignored their accusations.<\/p>\n<p>In one case, the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huntonprivacyblog.com\/2019\/10\/22\/former-virginia-gov-terry-mcauliffe-joins-hunton-as-global-strategy-advisor-for-cybersecurity-at-the-centre-for-information-policy-leadership\/\">McAuliffe served as a senior adviser from 2019<\/a>&nbsp;until recently,&nbsp;is battling a young woman who says that she was repeatedly raped on her Fairfax County middle school campus as a 12-year old and that she was slashed with a knife, burned with a lighter, and anally penetrated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The law firm and McAuliffe\u2019s campaign refused to comment on whether the law firm still employs McAuliffe by the deadline but McAuliffe reported income apparently linked to the firm in 2021, after announcing his run for governor of Virginia on December 8, 2020. Later advertisements from the firm for McAuliffe fundraisers refer to McAuliffe as a \u201cformer colleague.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The girl said she was afraid of having her real name attached to the case because one of her alleged tormentors had threatened to kill her if she came forward. The McAuliffe-linked law firm is seeking to have the case thrown out because it was filed under a pseudonym, even though there is no dispute that the school system knows who she is. A judge rejected Hunton\u2019s argument, but the firm would not relent, filing an appeal on behalf of its client, the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).<\/p>\n<p>In a separate case, a girl alleged that after FCPS administrators were told of an unwanted sexual incident on a band trip, a school security officer told her there was no point in seeking criminal charges, and the school gave an award to her alleged abuser. Hunton told the court that the school system lost documentation showing its investigation of the allegations \u2013 in part because it was not using a sexual harassment allegation database that it had promised to use pursuant to a federal settlement in the other girl\u2019s case. In both cases, a women\u2019s rights group filed \u201camicus\u201d briefs to express opposition to Hunton\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n<p>Joining McAuliffe\u2019s former law firm and FCPS in the latter case was the National School Boards Association, which filed its own amicus brief. The trio is banking on an aggressive and novel interpretation of Title IX, a law that provides protections in sexual assault cases, that would be more favorable to school administrators and less favorable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A law firm that employed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has made a cottage industry out of aggressively fighting victims of alleged sexual abuse in schools, being paid huge sums by school administrators whom the girls say ignored their accusations.In one case, the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm, where McAuliffe served as a senior adviser from 2019\u00a0until recently,\u00a0is battling a young woman who says that she was repeatedly raped on her Fairfax County middle school campus as a 12-year old and that she was slashed with a knife, burned with a lighter, and anally penetrated.\u00a0The law firm and McAuliffe\u2019s campaign refused to comment on whether the law firm still employs McAuliffe by the deadline but McAuliffe reported income apparently linked to the firm in 2021, after announcing his run for governor of Virginia on December 8, 2020. Later advertisements from the firm for McAuliffe fundraisers refer to McAuliffe as a \u201cformer colleague.\u201dThe girl said she was afraid of having her real name attached to the case because one of her alleged tormentors had threatened to kill her if she came forward. The McAuliffe-linked law firm is seeking to have the case thrown out because it was filed under a pseudonym, even though there is no dispute that the school system knows who she is. A judge rejected Hunton\u2019s argument, but the firm would not relent, filing an appeal on behalf of its client, the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).In a separate case, a girl alleged that after FCPS administrators were told of an unwanted sexual incident on a band trip, a school security officer told her there was no point in seeking criminal charges, and the school gave an award to her alleged abuser. Hunton told the court that the school system lost documentation showing its investigation of the allegations \u2013 in part because it was not using a sexual harassment allegation database that it had promised to use pursuant to a federal settlement in the other girl\u2019s case. In both cases, a women\u2019s rights group filed \u201camicus\u201d briefs to express opposition to Hunton\u2019s arguments.Joining McAuliffe\u2019s former law firm and FCPS in the latter case was the National School Boards Association, which filed its own amicus brief. The trio is banking on an aggressive and novel interpretation of Title IX, a law that provides protections in sexual assault cases, that would be more favorable to school administrators and less favorable to victims. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals forcefully smacked down their logic, but Hunton has filed to take the case to the Supreme Court. A win there would mean the same interpretation would apply to schools across the country.The Daily Wire\u2019s review of Hunton\u2019s work brings into stark relief themes that have come to define the race for Virginia governor. McAuliffe\u2019s statement that parents\u2019 role in schools should be limited; the National School Board Association\u2019s implication that parents angry at school policies could be akin to \u201cdomestic terrorists;\u201d and the financial ties between the McAuliffe-linked law firm, his campaign, school systems, and teachers unions.The cases tie thematically and legally to an earlier exclusive Daily Wire report about a sexual assault case in Loudoun County. Loudoun County Public Schools blamed its actions in that case on Title IX, saying it would lobby for changes to make it more favorable to victims. Yet the records show that the NSBA, the Virginia School Board Association, and the former law firm of the state\u2019s possible governor are actively seeking the opposite.\u00a0The review also revealed a pattern of alleged cover-ups of shocking mistreatment of girls in public schools by bureaucrats who may seek to avoid bad publicity, negative statistics, and accountability. The incidents highlight the often divergent interests of parents and the school system bureaucrats funded by their tax dollars.***On September 21, a 22-year old woman sat by her lawyer as a judge got unusually snippy at the opposing counsel. The lawyer from Hunton seemed to be implying, at times, that the woman might not exist.The woman had come forward to say that she had been repeatedly raped in a Fairfax middle school when she was 12. She\u2019d been saying so since the time, back in 2012. She\u2019d told school administrators, who she said ignored her. She\u2019d filed a complaint with a federal civil rights body, which ordered FCPS to make changes as a result, some of which FCPS failed to do. When she became an adult, just before the statute of limitations ran out, she sued her alleged rapist, the school system, and several school officials.\u00a0The story she tells is shocking and horrifying. One reason it went unnoticed: the efforts of the Hunton law firm. Considering her assailant had allegedly threatened to kill her if she came forward, and given the highly personal nature of the allegations, she filed the case pseudonymously. Though it\u2019s not uncommon for lawsuits to be filed by a \u201cJane Doe,\u201d Hunton sought to have the case thrown out because the plaintiff did not use her real name. The judge didn\u2019t buy Hunton\u2019s argument and ordered the case to head towards trial. But Hunton was relentless. It appealed.On that day last month, Hunton argued again and again to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals that the case should be thrown out for its reliance on a pseudonym. The judge made clear that he saw no valid legal basis for Hunton\u2019s argument. FCPS knew well who the woman knew in court filings by her initials, B.R., was.\u00a0It had known for ten years.She was a real person, with real scars. And she was sitting right there in the room.In one invoice from March alone, Hunton billed FCPS $47,628.16 for its work attempting to keep B.R.\u2019s case from reaching a jury, accounting for nearly a third of its total bill that period.***If the power of a school bureaucracy were personified, it might take the form of Hunton Andrews Kurth, a law firm that has represented school districts in these types of situations ever since its predecessor firm, Hunton &#038; Williams, fought to preserve school segregation in a case that \u2014 grouped with several others on appeal \u2014 became the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board.\u00a0In recent years, the nation\u2019s tenth-largest school district, Fairfax County Public School, has paid Hunton more money than it has paid almost any other company. Hunton\u2019s work for FCPS frequently took the form of fighting parents who alleged problems, and it had a reputation for doing so aggressively. Last month, it filed a lawsuit against the mother of a special-needs student for possessing records that the school district provided her under the Freedom of Information Act. The records included Hunton\u2019s billing invoices; FCPS says it mistakenly forgot to redact as much information as it meant to, and it is holding the mom responsible for its mistake.\u00a0Its lawyers on school issues included attorneys like Reiko Koyama, whose career highlights \u201cDefend[ing] a major alcoholic beverage producer in a consumer class action alleging claims of false and misleading advertising.\u201d\u00a0Hunton has close ties to the Virginia government. The running point for Hunton\u2019s FCPS work was Stuart Raphael. In 2014, when McAuliffe began his first term in the governor\u2019s mansion, Raphael was tapped as the state\u2019s solicitor general. In 2017, as McAuliffe\u2019s term came to a close, his lieutenant governor Ralph Northam replaced him in the governor\u2019s mansion; Raphael returned to Hunton, and\u00a0McAuliffe soon joined him there.From 2014 to 2018, the Fairfax school system paid Hunton some half a million dollars a year. In July of 2019, it appointed McAuliffe \u2014 who is not a lawyer \u2014 as a senior advisor for cybersecurity. FCPS\u2019s payments to Hunton ballooned to about $4.4 million in calendar year 2019, $2.5 million in 2020, and $3 million so far in 2021.In October 2020, FCPS data was held for ransom by foreign hackers, and Hunton was paid at least $250,000 to handle the situation.In August 2021, Virginia Democrats sought to wrest control of the courts from conservatives by packing the court \u2014 dramatically expanding an appellate court. Raphael was appointed to a judgeship through a fast-track process. As Raphael returned to government, McAuliffe sought his own return: Virginia\u2019s constitution bars governors from successive terms in office, but nothing prevented a former governor from resuming his post after a spin through the so-called revolving door.McAuliffe reported receiving more than $250,000\u00a0in 2021 for \u201ccybersecurity\/law\u201d \u00a0on an ethics form marked as covering the period of 2021, though it is not possible to know how much because that is the maximum dollar range broken out on campaign ethics forms. When he announced his new bid for governor, Hunton contributed $16,000 to his campaign. Among his campaign\u2019s largest funders are teachers\u2019 unions: the two national teachers\u2019 unions donated nearly a million dollars combined.As the Daily Wire reported previously, McAuliffe promised to minimize the role parents would play in schools, infamously barking in a debate: \u201cI don\u2019t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.\u201d His embrace of teachers union priorities, including coronavirus restrictions, pitted him against parents who juggled both work and watching their children as Virginia districts kept schools closed for longer than almost any other state.But if teachers union cash flowed to McAuliffe\u2019s campaign based on the prospect that, once in control of the purse strings of government, the favor would be returned many times over, a similar dynamic was at play with FCPS and Hunton. FCPS shoveled enormous quantities of taxpayer cash to Hunton. But if Hunton did its job, the district and its administrators would not face liability in cases when lawsuits alleged that problems had occurred, then been swept under the rug.Problems like B.R. being abused.***\u201cA 12-year old was repeatedly sexually assaulted and egregiously betrayed by an institution all kids have drilled into them that they\u2019re supposed to trust almost like a god. She was violated by the perpetrators but also by the administrators who did nothing,\u201d Monica Beck, a longtime Title IX attorney with the Fierberg National Law Group who is representing B.R., told The Daily Wire.B.R. filed her lawsuit in 2019 based on conduct she says occurred from late 2011 to early 2012. The complaint says that she was \u201craped, sexually assaulted, sexually harassed, terrorized, extorted, bullied, and threatened with death by other students at Rachel Carson Middle School.\u201dIt says she made \u201cspecific and repeated complaints to FCPS administrators\u201d and \u201cbegged them for help\u201d but \u201cthey did nothing.\u201dFor example, the complaint says that on November 21, 2011, B.R. and her mother met with assistant principals and a guidance counselor, taking with them a sexually explicit voicemail from the student, and saying that she \u201cfeared for her safety.\u201d The assistant principal said the suspect \u201chad been in enough trouble\u201d and asked B.R. and her mother not to \u201cruin a kid\u2019s life,\u201d according to the lawsuit.The administrators said they would move B.R.\u2019s locker away from her victimizers \u2014 but did not actually take even that modest measure, the complaint said.Hunton did not provide a comment for this story. A spokesperson for FCPS said, \u201cFCPS does not comment on active litigation.\u201d Lawyers for two fellow students who are named in B.R.\u2019s complaint did not return a request for comment; Michael E. Kinney, who represents school employees who are named individually in the lawsuit, declined to comment except to note that the students and staff members have denied the allegations in court filings.\u00a0\u201cAs a result of FCPS\u2019s half-hearted investigation into Jane Doe\u2019s reports of sexual harassment and bullying at RCMS, FCPS emboldened Jane Doe\u2019s peers to retaliate against her for \u2018snitching\u2019 \u2026 As FCPS students grew more confident in their ability to assault Jane Doe and escape the consequences, they became more overt with their advances,\u201d B.R.\u2019s complaint says. \u201cBeginning in December 2011 and continuing through February 2012, [a peer, who she named] and other students raped Jane Doe on RCMS campus during and after school hours.\u201d\u201cOn January 27, 2012, Jane Doe emailed [the school\u2019s principal] and recounted the \u2018sexual harassment, physical harassment, and name calling\u2019 she endured at the middle school. An administrator told her in February that the school system would investigate.On March 1, 2012, the twelve-year-old confided in her parents that the abuse was worse than she had initially let on: that she had been raped. B.R.\u2019s \u201cparents filed a police report on March 2, 2012. [A detective, who she named], a former FCPS employee, interviewed Jane Doe on March 5, 2012. Jane Doe underwent a SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) evaluation on March 5, 2012. The evaluation revealed contusions inside Jane Doe\u2019s anus which ultimately corroborated her report of anal penetration. [The detective] met with [the school\u2019s principal] on March 6, 2012 to discuss Doe\u2019s rape. FCPS permitted Jane Doe\u2019s rapist to remain on campus but took no steps to facilitate Jane Doe\u2019s return to a safe and supportive school environment,\u201d the complaint says.The alleged rapist was not criminally charged, Beck said. B.R. stayed home from school. School officials \u201cdirected that [B.R.\u2019s] homebound instructors use \u2018code names\u2019 in emails regarding Jane Doe so as not to be subject to discovery in a lawsuit and to avoid public disclosure requirements,\u201d the suit says.The lawsuit says that at the time, she submitted a complaint to the federal Department of Education\u2019s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) \u201cadvising of additional instances of rape, anal rape, and physical assault with weapons she endured, as well as death threats directed to her.\u201dA letter from OCR, which has been on the agency\u2019s website for years, says \u201cOCR\u2019s initial investigation found that [FCPS] did immediately conduct an inquiry into most allegations of sexual harassment brought by the Student and her parent. However, OCR identified some possible concerns with the adequacy of the Division\u2019s investigation.\u201d\u201cOCR has further concerns that the Division does not have a system to track reports of sexual harassment to determine whether there may be a hostile environment at a particular school, whether individual schools are responding in a prompt and appropriate manner to reports of sexual harassment, whether the Division\u2019s efforts to educate students regarding sexual harassment are effective, or whether school-based investigations of reports of sexual harassment are prompt and equitable.\u201dOn November 11, 2014, FCPS entered into a Voluntary Resolution Agreement with the federal government that required the school system to take certain steps. B.R. says they never took them.One required FCPS to create and use \u201ca centralized database in the Division in which documentation of Division investigations and outcomes of sexual and gender-based harassment allegations are compiled and maintained.\u201dAnother case involving FCPS and aggressively fought by Hunton was ruled on by an appeals court in June 2021, and it was made clear that the school district did not do this.***That case involves an Oakton High School student known as Jane Doe, who alleges that she was subject to non-consensual sexual activity by an older boy on a school bus during a band trip in 2018. There are conflicting accounts about what actually happened that day, and even if it happened as the complaint alleges, the incident is less shocking. At issue, rather, is how administrators reacted when they heard about it. And its true significance is the way Hunton is arguing in court to adopt a legal definition that could shield school administrators from liability in a vast array of situations.\u00a0The complaint alleges that after the incident, a school security officer told Doe to pen a written statement; she wrote that she had been subjected to sexual activity despite initial physical resistance. The security guard asked if her parents planned to take legal action, and \u201ctold Doe that if she went to court she would lose, it would be a waste of money, and \u2018the most that could happen to [Assailant] is being charged with battery,&#8217;\u201d her lawsuit says. (The school denied this, and many of Doe\u2019s claims, in legal filings, and said Jane had \u201crage\u201d when she found out the student had a girlfriend.)\u201cThe school did not notify Doe\u2019s parents that their daughter had written and signed a statement about what happened on the band trip until several days later,\u201d the lawsuit added. When the parents met with the principal and her mother told the principal her daughter had been sexually assaulted, the \u201cschool seemed concerned only about the school\u2019s potential exposure to liability, not the safety of its students,\u201d per the filing.Emails showed administrators joking about the incident, making references to the number of \u201cinches\u201d of the alleged assailant\u2019s penis and to the American Pie quote, \u201cone time at band camp.\u201dA staff member who was aware of the alleged assault later gave the \u201c[a]ssailant an award reserved for the band member with exceptional skill and personal leadership,\u201d the complaint says.After the suit was filed, FCPS erased the contents of its security computer and told the court that as a result, it did not have statements it gathered about the incident, which would have had to be provided in discovery, Doe\u2019s attorneys said. The evidence should have also been in a second system: the sexual harassment complaint database that FCPS was obligated to create and maintain under the B.R. federal settlement. It turned out that many schools simply weren\u2019t using the database at all.\u00a0A jury found that Jane Doe had been sexually harassed but that school administrators were not responsible for it. But the case went to appeal based on a dispute over the meaning of legal terms that trigger requirements under Title IX: administrators\u2019 \u201cactual knowledge\u201d or \u201cactual notice\u201d of an incident.Hunton seemed to argue that administrators don\u2019t have a duty under Title IX unless they subjectively knew an incident occurred, not that they were objectively told of one. \u201cThere was a discrepancy in their stories about whether Jane initially pulled her hand away from Jack\u2019s penis: she said she did, he said she didn\u2019t. [The principal] didn\u2019t know which was true,\u201d Hunton argued.It said the precedent set in an earlier case called Baynard would \u201crequire proof that [the principal] had actual knowledge, subjectively measured, that Jane was sexually harassed.\u201d In other words, though the principal may have been told that an incident of sexual harassment occurred, she had to understand it that way before Title IX kicked in.\u00a0Baynard is a case in which a principal was repeatedly told that a teacher was a child molester, then a librarian told a principal she saw a child (Baynard) sitting on his lap, but the principal \u201cna\u00efvely believed [the teacher]\u2019s assurance that he was only having an \u2018innocent \u2018father-son chat.\u201d The principal was therefore not liable because she did not believe he was molesting a child even if she should have. Under that precedent, school officials\u2019 \u201csubjective\u201d judgment, not what they are actually told, is key, Hunton argued.B.R.\u2019s attorney Monica Beck \u2013 who was not involved in Jane Doe\u2019s case but is familiar with it because of the overlap with her own case \u2013 said that interpretation was a catch-22 that would have a dramatic impact on other cases. \u201cIn essence, a school administrator would actually have to witness a rape or have it recorded on video to have it be a real Title IX complaint,\u201d she told The Daily Wire. \u201c\u2019We didn\u2019t have \u2018actual knowledge\u2019 [and therefore have to investigate] because we didn\u2019t actually know a rape occurred?\u2019 If you don\u2019t investigate, how are you ever going to know for sure that it happened?\u201dApparently recognizing the way that such a definition, if endorsed by a high court, would shield school officials who allegedly failed to act to protect children across the country, the National School Board Association, as well as the Virginia School Board Association, filed amicus briefs supporting Hunton\u2019s position. The National School Board Association\u2019s position was that it should be up to \u201ctrained school officials,\u201d not the second-guessing of a \u201creasonable person,\u201d whether they had awareness of an incident.\u201cTitle IX neither requires nor permits this Court to substitute its views, or the views of a \u2018reasonable person,\u2019 for that of trained school officials. Affirming a subjective \u2018actual knowledge\u2019 standard is both necessary and appropriate to protect those officials\u2019 judgment,\u201d the NBSA wrote.\u00a0Twenty-four women\u2019s and human rights groups sided with Doe, filing or joining amicus briefs opposing Hunton\u2019s proposed definition.\u00a0On one side in court was a progressive, nonprofit law firm called Public Justice that represents Doe and works to \u201ccombat social and economic injustice, protect the Earth\u2019s sustainability, and challenge predatory corporate conduct and government abuses.\u201d (The firm did not return a request for comment.)\u00a0 On the other side was Hunton.\u00a0 In June, the Fourth Circuit of Appeals smacked down Hunton\u2019s logic.\u00a0\u201cIf these facts do not show that the School Board had actual notice, we don\u2019t know what would,\u201d it wrote. \u201cThe record brims with unrebutted evidence demonstrating that the School Board, through appropriate officials, received multiple reports that objectively provided notice of an allegation,\u201d the appellate court wrote.Hunton\u2019s \u201creliance on Baynard is misplaced for two reasons\u2026\u00a0 Moreover, regardless of what we held in Baynard, our subsequent en banc decision in Jennings is the controlling law,\u201d it wrote.But Hunton would not relent. It has\u00a0signaled that it plans to take the case to the Supreme Court, where if successful, it would dramatically loosen Title IX protections for school children across the country while protecting administrators who failed to act.After an alleged school bathroom rape in Loudoun County \u2014 Fairfax\u2019s immediate neighbor to the west \u2014 and repeated denials by school system officials that it had occurred, Loudoun County Public Schools this month blamed Title IX.\u00a0Loudoun superintendent Scott Zeigler said that \u201cThroughout these recent events, the Loudoun County Public Schools complied with our obligations under Title IX. However, we have found the process outlined under Title IX by the U.S. Department of Education to be insufficient in addressing issues at the K-12 level. We believe the process could be strengthened with some reforms. I am recommending to the Loudoun County School Board that this issue is placed on our legislative agenda and that the board and its allied groups actively lobby for changes to allow more protections to victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault.\u201d\u00a0But the court filings show that the National School Boards Association, FCPS, and the former law firm of the Democratic gubernatorial candidate are actually seeking the reverse.The response illustrates one final, disturbing element in the complex web between Democrat politicians, lawyers, government employees, and teachers unions: the way partisanship among school employees may have contributed to failures to investigate sexual assaults in recent years.\u00a0During the Donald Trump presidency, left-leaning media ran articles painting his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, as making changes to Title IX, particularly at colleges, in a way that adds protections for the accused. News outlets like HuffPost were rife with headlines like \u201cBetsy DeVos\u2019s Campaign To Roll Back Sexual Assault Survivor Rights Is Complete.\u201dThe longtime Title IX women\u2019s-rights attorney Beck said that soon after, she noticed K-12 school systems pulling back on taking action in sexual assault cases.But this may have been more because the educational establishment\u2019s partisanship leanings primed it to believe headlines that a president they disliked would actually block them from protecting victims and punishing assailants.Unsurprisingly, Beck said that the federal government did not actually stop K-12 schools from taking action against rapists.The changes under DeVos were thousands of pages long, most of them simply codifying best practices. Some involved how college campuses deal with rapes, but at the K-12 level, DeVos\u2019 changes made it easier for schools to handle alleged sexual assault.\u201cSome of the DeVos changes address how much training should administrators have, how much should the people investigating have? There were some really good takeaways in those changes,\u201d Beck said. Previously \u201cin K-12 in order for a school to be on notice that a student had been sexually assaulted, the child had to tell a principal or assistant principal. If they told a teacher it didn\u2019t count. DeVos changed it because a child trusts and knows his teacher, and doesn\u2019t know who the Title IX coordinator is.\u201d\u201cSomehow a lot of schools are interpreting this as prohibiting them from taking any actions against perpetrators whatsoever\u2026 the way schools are interpreting it, I\u2019ve seen them interpreting it in ways that aren\u2019t supported.\u201dLCPS has claimed that the reason it moved the alleged May 28 rapist to a different school \u2014 where he was arrested for a different classroom assault on October 6 \u2014 was because Title IX required it to do its own investigation, which it could not do until after the police had completed their work. FN But the federal government has long been clear that schools do not need to wait until a criminal case is closed to conduct their own investigation.In the federal agreement in B.R.\u2019s case, the Department of Education reminded FCPS that \u201cAlthough a school division may need to delay temporarily the fact-finding portion of a Title IX investigation while the police are gathering evidence, once notified that the police department has completed its gathering of evidence (not the ultimate outcome of the investigation or the filing of any charges), the school division must promptly resume and complete its fact-finding for the Title IX investigation.\u201dIn the case of the May 28 rape, a rape kit was administered the same day, and the suspect was arrested in July, well before he started the next school year at a new school.\u00a0Title IX under DeVos also requires that a school is \u201cobligated to conclude a grievance process within a reasonably prompt time frame.\u201dLCPS did not return a request for comment on how Title IX was actually to blame for its handling of the assault, and what changes it intended to lobby for.***As for B.R., she is just hoping to heal.\u00a0\u201cAs much as the school system tries to deny her a day in court\u2026 If you knew the family they were fighting against it would sicken you,\u201d a family friend and parent of a classmate who has known B.R. since she was six told The Daily Wire.\u201cHer parents were very involved and came from an intact family,\u201d the parent \u2014 speaking anonymously to help shield B.R.\u2019s anonymity \u2014 said. The school system basically gave her a choice: \u201ccontinue being raped or go to school.\u201d\u201cThis weight has sat on us for years as a community,\u201d the parent said.Beck, B.R.\u2019s attorney, said Hunton\u2019s strategies are unusually cutthroat. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a very aggressive school district here that makes it very hard for students who are seeking justice,\u201d she said.\u201cHow about they put that money towards real training and compensating the victims they failed instead of paying a law firm millions of dollars?\u201dThe Daily Wire is building up its investigative reporting team to bring you more stories like this one and hold those in power to account.\u00a0 Help us expose the stories the legacy media refuses to report on by becoming a Daily Wire member today:\u00a0dailywire.com\/subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-925713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}