Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Harassment on campus: As CCSD revamps its policy on sexual misconduct, one student speaks out about peer-to-peer problem

CCSD Sexual Harassment Policy

Steve Marcus

Alyssa Wilson, a Las Vegas High School junior, poses with her mother Sonja Palmer in Desert Breeze Park Tuesday, May 16, 2017. Wilson and her mother are upset at how the school handled an incident of sexual harassment.

Clark County School District officials last month held a news conference to address the 11 teachers or staff arrested this school year for sexual misconduct. The message: This is unacceptable, and we are doing something about it. A group was formed to revamp current policies for the internet age, and the district is on track to make changes by the next school year.

But for all the public outcry, the statistical reality is this: Students are far more likely to be sexually abused or harassed by a fellow student.

One study from the American Association of University Women found that 13 percent of girls in middle and high school reported being touched in an unwelcome sexual way during the school year they were surveyed, 9 percent reported being physically intimidated in a sexual way, and 4 percent reported being forced to do something sexual. (For boys, those percentages were 3, 2 and 0.2, respectively.)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — prohibiting educational institutions from giving out information regarding a student’s grades, transcripts and family — also protects disciplinary records, which means that few of these types of incidents are heard about beyond school offices, if they even get reported. That same study found that many teenagers view sexual harassment as a natural part of the high school experience, meaning they likely don’t report such occurrences to school officials.

That is what sets apart 16-year-old Las Vegas High School student Alyssa Wilson.

Upset by how her school handled the situation, she has spoken publicly about being sexually harassed by a fellow student, and her story illustrates some of the complexities involved with handling sexual harassment in the confines of public high schools.

Alyssa says that while she was on campus before the start of the school day May 8, a boy lifted up her dress and repeatedly asked what she was wearing underneath it. She rebuffed him and he eventually retreated, but the incident shook her.

“I kept asking, ‘Why would he do that?’ ” she recalled. “I kept asking that. I tried to ignore it and was just quiet. At lunchtime, I started crying out of nowhere.”

When a teacher asked what was wrong, Alyssa told her what had happened.

Teachers, administrators and staff are required by law to report incidents of sexual harassment they hear about or witness. Alyssa was taken to a counselor to fill out a report. The report was given to the administration, which also is required by law to investigate each claim.

According to Alyssa, the school pulled surveillance footage, but the feed contained a glitch and didn’t capture her dress being pulled up.

The following day, Alyssa was asked to sign a “no-contact contract” stating that she would avoid all forms of communication with the boy and “not continue to discuss the issue with others.” She was told the boy would be signing the same contract. The district says such contracts are standard and voluntary. They are designed to de-escalate situations, and in the context of feuding students, they often make sense. But in the context of sexual harassment, Alyssa saw it as victim blaming. Breaking the contract may result in disciplinary action, including suspension.

“I just signed it,” Alyssa says. “I didn’t know I didn’t have to sign it.”

She went back to class distraught, and her friends urged her to air her frustrations on social media. She did, tweeting out a photo of the document with the caption: “So you get sexually harassed at school and all you get is a contract????”

Her tweet was shared hundreds of times and received dozens of responses. Many expressed outrage at the school and the district. Some shared personal stories of being harassed on campus and receiving no support. Others accused her of seeking attention.

“I’m very proud of her for speaking up and standing her ground,” Alyssa’s mother, Sonja Palmer, said. “She was worried. She told me, ‘Mom, I’ll go to school and be suspended (for breaking the no-contact contract by talking about the incident).’ I told her, ‘I’ll be there to pick you up then.’ ”

Palmer called the resolution insufficient and said her daughter should not have been asked to sign the contract.

“It made her feel like she’d done something wrong,” she said, “and my understanding is (the boy) has a required parent conference. I don’t think that’s enough. It sends the wrong message to our young boys that this behavior is not really that serious.”

Palmer says the first time she heard of the incident was after the no-contact contract had been signed. She says the dean called her to explain the resolution and that the investigation would be closing. She says she wasn’t offered insight into the investigation process and felt blindsided.

Citing privacy laws, neither the school nor CCSD would comment on the specifics of the incident. Asked about the district’s overall policies regarding student-to-student sexual harassment, Assistant Superintendent Tammy Malich said discipline or punitive measures often aren’t the outcome of the investigations.

“There could be counseling, schedule changes, proximity guidance or monitoring,” she said. “The ultimate goal is to begin to change the behavior of the bully and to ensure we keep the victim safe.”

That can be achieved in many ways, she added. Codified punishments for all allegations would be counterproductive, because individual incidents are so varied.

And just as it is beyond the microcosm of high school, allegations can be difficult to prove.

“If we had a formula to tell us who is subject to behaving inappropriately, it would be easy, but we don’t,” Malich said. “We vet everyone. We conduct thorough investigations. But at the end of the day we make decisions on hiring (teachers and staff) and addressing students’ (behavior) based on what we have before us.”

Sexual harassment and discrimination fall under the umbrella of bullying. However, they do have some special protections because of Title IX, a federal civil rights law that many associate with universities and sports but which also applies at the K-12 level. For example, parents or students can appeal a school’s decision through the institution’s Title IX coordinator.

Sonja and Alyssa aren’t sure what their next step is. The latter says she is taking things one day at a time and trying to find comfort in knowing that others are gaining awareness about sexual harassment.

“Yesterday I was told by other students I was asking for it, I liked it, stuff like that,” Alyssa said. “That really set me off. Today? I don’t know. I was just kind of here, trying to get through.”