Charlotte woman reported rape at school, says CMS mishandled investigation
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Title IX complaints in CMS
From lawsuits at Myers Park High to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reassigning administrators amid controversy, this is the latest on sexual assault cases and Title IX issues in the district.
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Serena Evans remembers exactly what she wore to school nearly five years ago.
Patterned joggers with a tie at the waist. The tie had a tight knot — one she was forced to undo for a football player, nearly three times her size. She says he cornered her and forced her into a boys’ bathroom in the Myers Park High School gym, where he sexually assaulted her in a locked stall.
She was 15.
In recent weeks, Evans is one of many former students who have shared stories of harassment or sexual violence on the Myers Park High campus. Like others, she says Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials mishandled the response to her report of rape.
CMS officials refused to answer whether an internal investigation was done in 2016 following strict Title IX protocols in Evans’ case.
While recent public attention has focused on years-old cases, Evans’ experience calls into question how effective CMS’ attempts at Title IX reform were even after a federal investigation revealed problems.
If an official Title IX investigation was opened at Myers Park, Evans and her mother say, they were not notified and were not formally told of the outcome — both violations of federal rules, which CMS leaders have previously been ordered to correct in past cases, The Charlotte Observer has found through reviewing public records.
Several experts in how campuses should respond to student complaints told The Observer recently that CMS likely needs new investigations into allegations of past sexual violence as more survivors have come forth.
“Serena was raped by someone almost three times her size in a bathroom stall,” her mother, Kay Mayes, told The Observer in a recent interview. “She constantly gets asked, ‘Why didn’t you run away?’ or ‘Why didn’t you scream?’ or ‘Why didn’t you confront him more strong?’
“Serena was so incredibly scared. She couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t defend herself.”
Evans, who gave The Observer permission to use her name, believes what happened that day could have been prevented. She points to other cases of reported rape before her at the school. Former female students say they were not taken seriously and accuse Myers Park leaders of scaring them out of filing formal complaints against the male students involved.
Two students — one in 2014 and another in 2015 — were reportedly sexually assaulted on campus, police reports and lawsuits filed years later show. Both former students sought legal action, with their lawyer calling Myers Park High’s response inadequate. One case was dismissed with a $50,000 settlement. The other is pending, with a judge so far refusing to throw out the lawsuit against the school district, saying there is some evidence that officials made mistakes in responding to the student’s report of being sexually assaulted.
And before the lawsuits, CMS had been ordered by federal education officials to shore up the school’s response under Title IX. One case prompted the district in 2016 to implement a Title IX office, liaisons at each school and new reporting procedures.
Those were all supposed to be in place roughly six months before the assault Evans reported.
Myers Park Principal Mark Bosco, who’s been at the school since July 2013, did not return an email requesting comment. Instead of answering questions, CMS officials have directed a reporter to contact Bosco, who is out of his office, and district leaders refuse to say whether the district is investigating Bosco or the administration at Myers Park High.
‘I just eventually gave up’
Evans waited three days before she told Mayes what happened in 2016. They were on the way to see a doctor. Later, the teen would find out she had a ruptured ovarian cyst — mother and daughter believe the sexual assault was the cause.
“I knew something was off,” said Mayes, 63. “Serena was always full of life, just a typical teenager. She had so much energy. Before she told me what happened, I remember we were at a restaurant and I looked over at her and she was coloring. But she was just so lifeless.”
The Observer reviewed documents provided by Evans and her mother showing Mayes — soon after learning what happened from her daughter — reported to Bosco that the teen had been assaulted at school in October. An assistant principal talked with Evans and Mayes the following month. Evans wasn’t asked for an official written statement until about four months later.
Evans, then a freshman tennis player at Myers Park High, said it happened around 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. She was getting ready for a regional playoff match when, according to Evans, an older male student forced her to perform oral sex on him, raped her in a bathroom stall then forced her to perform oral sex on him for a second time.
By the time she was asked for a statement, Evans had already stopped attending in-person classes at Myers Park. The Observer is not using the male student’s name because there’s no record of him being criminally charged or disciplined at school.
“I tried hard to be strong and not let all this stuff get to me, but I failed,” Evans wrote in the statement she gave the assistant principal. “So now I am at eLearning Academy to be away from all this. I am also in trauma counseling at Pat’s Place. I also see my regular counselor. I also have to take self-defense classes. I have to do all this stuff.
“We still haven’t been told what (he) has to do because of all this. What will he have to do,” Evans asked of the male student who she says assaulted her.
What ensued was, Evans and Mayes say, months of being ignored. Evans said administrators told her “I would be the one who’s in trouble.”
Mayes sent repeated emails to Myers Park school leaders. While they were told Assistant Principal Tyson Jeffus would be handling Evans’ case, they say they received few updates and still don’t know if school officials investigated.
Title IX regulations require specific protocols be followed by federally funded schools when responding to reports of sexual assault. Students must be informed of their rights to file a formal complaint and when a formal complaint is open, school leaders are required to notify involved students of both the ensuing investigation and the outcome.
After several emails Mayes sent to Bosco beginning at the end of October that year, she fired off a long email to the principal in May 2017.
Part of Mayes’ email read: “But just remember, not all parents are like me, so I suggest that you figure out a way to handle things better the next time, and the next time, etc. I know for an absolute fact this was not the first time this has happened on campus, and it won’t be the last time either.”
Bosco responded — the only time, according to Evans’ mom, that he ever responded to one of her emails. A copy she showed to The Observer shows Bosco wrote: “The tone of your email suggests that we’ve done something wrong. That would never be our intention and if we have done something wrong , I would certainly like an opportunity to address it.”
Evans said in a recent interview: “I tried for weeks to go back to school at Myers Park, because I really wanted to go back, but it felt very overwhelming and upsetting, and I just couldn’t make it work. I felt really anxious, scared, and depressed. Finally my mom and me talked and we both said enough.”
Mayes said she ended up selling her house so Evans wouldn’t have to go to Myers Park High. Evans, who turns 20 in September, graduated from Charlotte Catholic High School in 2020. Mayes — a psychotherapist for more than 20 years in Texas before moving to Charlotte — let out her frustration in an email to Jeffus on March 10, 2017.
“Instead of experiencing any significant, productive progress, I continued to be met with superficial, sabotaging, judgmental … and dead-end responses from Myers Park High School administration,” Mayes said.
“I just eventually gave up.”
Forced hugs and illicit gestures
Evans, like many former and current students at Myers Park High, said sexual harassment on campus is widespread. Those concerns were raised at a recent protest and school board meetings.
Boys at Myers Park, Evans says, would “grab my butt, forced hugs and make illicit gestures when walking behind” her. She says teachers would see it “and do nothing.”
Those complaints sound familiar, says Diana Levitt, a Charlotte-licensed counselor who served Myers Park families from 2012 to 2018. Levitt was a facilitator of the Love and Logic curriculum, providing courses to parents and faculty on campus.
Through what parents have shared with her while attending those courses and her own interactions with Myers Park High faculty, Levitt said Evans’ is not alone in her experiences.
“This administration has sent a clear message that it does not want to hear from its students as they avoid communication and stick their heads in the sand,” Levitt said of Myers Park High.
“Unfortunately, this has created a toxic culture on campus as students are aware rape and sexual assault does happen with no consequences to the perpetrator and even if it is reported, not only will no one do anything about it, but they will attempt to silence you so they do not have to deal with it.”
Evans’ road to healing includes her dog Luka and four guinea pigs Luna, Ginny, Sterling and Cali. Once a promising tennis player, she’s been sidelined with injuries. She has a lot of friends, a restaurant job she loves and will be a sophomore at UNC-Charlotte, where she has a double major in psychology and criminal justice, and she’s pre-law.
For years after the assault, she tried to forget about what happened. But she still has trust issues, flashbacks, anxiety and depression and mood swings. She participated and spoke at a student-led protest in front of Myers Park High at the end of June.
“It’s getting better,” she said. “Going to the protest was the first time I had been back, near where it happened. It was surreal.”
Evans and Mayes are watching closely what happens at Myers Park and whether an investigation is conducted not only into her case, but the dozens of other female students who have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault this summer.
“To the board (of education),” Evans said. “Have you all not heard enough?”
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
