TLC Faculty members Eddie Schmidt (Nashville,TN) and Ann Johnson (Houston, TX) recently sued the school system for violation of Title IX, which prohibits sexual harassment of students. The plaintiffs claimed that school officials had actual knowledge of the harassment and acted with deliberate indifference by failing to institute an appropriate disciplinary response.

The jury found the school board responsible and awarded $100,000 to each student.    

Here is a summary of the Case:
TRIAL NEWS
Verdicts & Settlements: Schools
August 4, 2011
School district fails to respond to students' sexual harassment  

While on their middle-school basketball team, 12-year-old seventh graders Doe and Roe were sexually harassed by four eighth-grade teammates in the school locker room. On one occasion, three of the eighth graders grabbed Doe and held him down, while the fourth removed Doe’s shorts and attempted to sodomize him with a marker. On other occasions, the eighth graders subjected Doe and Roe to “lights out” sessions in which the older boys blocked the door, turned off the lights, and simulated sexual gyrations on the younger boys. Another time, one of the eighth graders attempted to pull down Roe’s shorts. On yet another occasion, the eighth-grade students taunted Roe into doing a sit-up while blindfolded and, and he was trying to sit up, one of the students dropped his pants and placed his naked buttocks in Roe’s face.