CMS to add more Title IX training for high school students this fall
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is boosting its Title IX training for high school students, the district informed families this month.
CMS will provide additional in-person lessons each quarter beginning the 2023-24 school year to expand high school students’ understanding of sexual harassment, dating violence and sexual assault, said Mary Webb, executive director of the district’s Title IX office. The lessons will be in addition to the annual back-to-school Title IX training students receive.
Webb told The Charlotte Observer the lessons are designed to “equip them with information needed in an ever-evolving social climate.”
Title IX is federal law that requires public schools to methodically investigate reports about possible harassment or sexual violence as well as take steps to prevent further victimization or harm.
The district has continued to enhance its training since it came under fire for how school leaders responded to issues at Myers Park High School, where former students sued following alleged sexual assaults on campus. Other students held protests over alleged Title IX violations.
Title IX allegations also surfaced on other CMS campuses, including Hawthorne Academy and Olympic High. In each case, students allege they were sexually assaulted and school officials failed to properly address it.
District wants parent feedback
Webb said additional lessons and content are based on feedback from the CMS Title IX Task Force. The group of mostly students and community members was formed in the fall of 2021 to help improve the school district’s handling of sexual assaults.
“The task force recommended training and reinforcement of training at least four times per year,” Webb said.
Lessons include discussions on boundaries, flirting vs. sexual harassment, unhealthy relationships and laws of consent, among other topics. CMS is asking families to preview drafts of lessons and provide feedback by June 30.
All district staff are required to complete annual Title IX training, Webb said, and there will be quarterly training for school level Title IX liaisons to support their staff and students throughout the school year.
The Myers Park case
There’s been renewed attention on Title IX after multiple cases involving former Myers Park High students.
In 2021, CMS settled a lawsuit brought by a former Myers Park High student who claimed school officials did not properly respond to her claims of sexual assault.
In January, a federal jury in Charlotte cleared CMS of wrongdoing in a case involving a different former Myers Park student, Jane Doe, who claimed school officials failed to prevent or properly investigate her 2015 sexual assault claim.
Doe claimed she was sexually discriminated against by CMS when Myers Park High officials inadequately responded to a violent assault she says she endured on Nov. 3, 2015, by another Myers Park student.
Doe and her attorney filed an appeal in February to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Serena Evans, a former Myers Park High student, who said her report of being raped in a high school bathroom in 2016 wasn’t properly investigated, dropped her federal complaint against the district in March.
Last November, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation of a pending Title IX case of sexual harassment in CMS. Superintendent Crystal Hill told the Observer in May the case is an incident that happened a year prior.
Superintendent: ‘Report, report, report’
There were 295 sexual misconduct reports made during the 2022-23 school year, according to district data.
“Not all sexual misconduct falls under the definition of Title IX but schools report this,” Webb said. “For example, schools can report mutual sexual activity, which would not fall under Title IX but does fall under CMS sexual misconduct for students.”
Hill, who the school board named as the district’s permanent superintendent May 19, told the Observer she is “always looking through the lens of continuous improvement” when it comes to Title IX.
Beginning in the fall, all meetings with school leadership will include Title IX tabletops, where officials will consider scenarios and ask: “What would we do? What should we do?”
“The reality is that, even when folks are trained, a complaint is not something you deal with on a daily basis,” Hill said during an interview in May. “It’s not necessarily top-of-mind. We need to make sure it is top-of-mind all the time.”
Hill also wants to make sure students, parents, staff and volunteers “report, report, report” any situation.
“And if parents feel like they’ve made a report and they haven’t gotten an immediate response, I want them to reach out to my office,” Hill said.
