Harassment and Hostile School Environment Lawsuits

Harassment in schools can occur when a student is discriminated against based on national origin, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or other identifiable class, creating a hostile learning environment for the student. It can also arise when a student experiences sexual demands or advances from a school staff member or fellow student.

A school district may be liable for harassment if there is no strong, widely disseminated, and consistently enforced policy prohibiting it and no effective complaint procedure is in place. Schools can also be held responsible for the consequences stemming from a failure to take immediate, appropriate steps to respond to a complaint about harassment or bullying, terminate it, and discipline the offending party, be it an employee or another student. When a school knows that a hostile learning environment exists but does not act on this knowledge, it can be viewed as giving tacit approval to this activity. In such cases, school districts have been found liable for enabling a hostile school environment that prevents students from peaceful learning.

A lawsuit predicated on a hostile educational environment is likely to prevail if there is a clear and compelling argument that the school failed to meet the professional standard of care, creating a circumstance that negatively affected a student’s education. On the other hand, a lawsuit is likely to fail if the school had no actual knowledge or reason to believe that an employee or student’s behavior created an environment of harassment.

For a hostile learning environment lawsuit to prevail, attorneys must understand what qualifies as a hostile environment, the responsibility of the school toward the student in a specific scenario, and knowledge of relevant education law and applicable statutes and regulations. Understanding how a school administrator should respond and whether the administrator acted reasonably, appropriately, and within the professional standard of care under a specific circumstance will assist with developing a complaint or the defense of a suit. In such cases, an education expert witness can help clarify what qualifies as a hostile learning environment, whether the institution breached a legal or professional standard of care, and whether this breach was the most probable cause of any harm to the student.

Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Example

Mike was a 14-year-old freshman in a small suburban high school. Since elementary school, he had near-perfect attendance and good grades and was well-liked by students and teachers. When his science teacher, Janet Frederick, asked Mike to help her set up science experiments for the following day’s classes after school, Mike was flattered. It wasn’t unusual for students to be seen in her classroom after school.

The school policy was that if a student stayed after school, the parent needed to provide permission. This policy was sent to parents and discussed with all students at the beginning of each school year. Mrs. Frederick, however, had yet to seek permission for Mike to stay after school. John Foreman, the principal, never approved of Mike’s staying late, and Mike’s mother didn’t ask why he was coming home late three days a week. Mike and Mrs. Frederick were often alone in her classroom, and, at one point, another teacher reported it to the office. Additionally, contrary to school rules and policies, she drove him home in her car. Other students noticed that Mrs. Frederick favored Mike, letting him turn in homework late and often calling on him in class.

Mrs. Frederick and Mike developed a relationship that any reasonable teacher would guard against. They were becoming too close. Mrs. Frederick knew that, under school policy, she should neither be in her classroom alone with Mike nor drive him home in her car. The relationship turned sexual and continued for three months.

No one understood why Mike became increasingly distracted from schoolwork. His grades fell, he began missing school, and he didn’t turn in homework. Eventually, his school counselor asked to see him. In their second counseling session, Mike told her of the affair. Alarmed at his confession, Mike’s counselor immediately went to Mr. Foreman and reported what she was told. Child Protective Services was called, and a report was made. Mike’s mother was contacted, and law enforcement was notified. The same day, Mrs. Frederick was suspended. Rumors flew, and some of Mike’s classmates started commenting to him about the affair. He became increasingly upset and convinced his parents to enroll him in a private school where he could get a fresh start.

A year after Mike left the school, his parents filed a lawsuit against the district. The suit claimed that a hostile learning environment had developed that became intolerable for him, forcing him to leave the school and costing his parents thousands of dollars in tuition and transportation fees. Let’s look at the legal elements of what qualifies as a hostile environment, the merit of this hostile school environment case, and the aspects of defense.

Legal Elements of Sexual Harassment and Hostile Educational Environment Lawsuits

Two types of sexual harassment have been established by law: quid pro quo and hostile environment. These are relevant in both workplace- and school-harassment claims. Quid pro quo harassment involves the satisfaction of sexual demands as a condition of receipt of some benefit in return. On the other hand, hostile environment harassment, particularly in learning institutions, can be created when unwelcome sexual conduct becomes so severe or persistent that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive environment that affects a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from an educational program or activity.

For this case analysis, I will apply the above legal aspect of what qualifies as a hostile environment theory and assume that a school employee who received the report about Mike being seen in Mrs. Frederick’s classroom after hours failed to act on it.

The plaintiff’s attorney will argue that the harassment by the teacher became so pervasive and objectively offensive that it deprived Mike of access to educational opportunities provided to all students. Mike’s drop in grades and the fact that he left the school attest to this. The facts leading up to these circumstances are compelling: During the affair, he missed 30 days of school and wasn’t completing homework. Because of his continual discomfort with being around the teacher, the rumors swirling around their relationship, and the harassment he received from classmates, Mike left the school. His attorney will argue that the hostile learning environment conditions amounted to deprival of an educational opportunity.

In Vance v. Spencer County Public School District (231 F.3d 253 [C.A. 6th Cir., 2000]), the Sixth Circuit Court found that when sexually harassing behavior becomes so pervasive that it forces the victim to leave school on several occasions and ultimately forces the student’s withdrawal from school, the behavior rises to the level of systematically depriving the victim of access to education. The court sided with the student in this hostile educational environment lawsuit. By contrast, the 11th Circuit Court ruled in Hawkins v. Sarasota County School Board (322 F.3d 1279 [11th Cir., 2003]) that three female students were not entitled to damages for student-on-student sexual harassment, despite the persistency and frequency of the behavior. In this hostile learning environment lawsuit, none of the students’ grades suffered, no observable change in their classroom demeanor occurred, and none reported the harassment to their parents until months passed.

So, the defendant’s attorney in our earlier hostile school environment example can raise a strong argument that even though an inappropriate relationship occurred, no official with authority to stop the behavior had noticed it. Without notice, it is reasonable that Mike and Mrs. Frederick would not have been supervised differently than any other student or teacher in the school. The defense might also point out that, beyond a hostile learning environment, many factors in a child’s life can cause distractions from schoolwork — any of which could have contributed to Mike’s drop in grades, frequent absences, and transfer to another school. The defense attorney can argue that Mrs. Frederick was acting outside her scope of employment when she engaged in sexual behavior with Mike, and at no time did any sexual act take place at school.

The school must overcome the fact that an administrator knew that Mrs. Frederick was meeting with Mike alone in her classroom after school. Suppose it cannot reasonably explain why the school did not investigate her breach of school policy. In that case, the school may have difficulty persuading a court that it could not have known that inappropriate behavior was occurring. If the principal had followed up, interviewing Mike and Mrs. Frederick to learn why he was frequently with her after hours, that would have weighed in the school’s favor. If the principal reprimanded Mrs. Frederick for breaching policy and told her not to have students in her classroom after hours, this also would support the school’s case. A school’s follow-up to a report of potential misconduct or a violation of school policy may not prevent inappropriate behavior. Still, a school that fails to do anything in response can be argued to have acted deliberately indifferent, giving way to a hostile learning environment.

Hostile Educational Environment Due to Racial Discrimination and Harassment Case Study

A sixth-grader of Mexican origin brought a three-inch pocket knife to school against school rules. A teacher saw it and reported it to the principal, and the student received a three-day suspension. His father was called, and the boy was not allowed back to school until a conference with the principal and a re-entry plan could be developed.

Even before the student returned to school, his classmates spread rumors. “Carlos is Mexican. They always carry knives,” they said. When Carlos returned to school, some students began commenting so that he and the teacher could hear, “Go back to your own country! We don’t need any criminals here.” Mr. Marks, the teacher, listened to this and told the students to stop, and they did. In another class, the same students made the same remarks loud enough for the teacher, Ms. Romano, to hear. This time, the teacher didn’t say anything to the students. Neither teacher reported anything to the principal. The school had an anti-harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy requiring teachers to file written reports of incidents that can breed a hostile learning environment. Still, the teachers were routinely instructed to deal with discipline in the classroom.

Over time, the harassment increased. In Ms. Romano’s science class, Carlos stopped paying attention to the lessons; he was too worried about what the kids would say to him and that they might physically hurt him. After two months, Carlos — an otherwise good student — started failing science quizzes and not turning in his math homework. His grades began to go down.

When Carlos brought his report card home, his father started to worry. Finally, he called Mr. Boyd, the principal, and complained that Carlos was being picked on. Mr. Boyd said he knew nothing about it and would check into it. He spoke with Carlos’s teachers and discovered they heard the harassing comments. They had not followed the school’s anti-harassment policy, requiring a formal written report to the principal. Mr. Boyd thought this was odd, considering that these teachers did report other inappropriate behavior to him.

After four months of falling grades and tolerating the harassment, Carlos attempted suicide. One year later — after Carlos had been placed in a treatment center and transferred to a private school at considerable cost — his parents filed a lawsuit against the school on various state and federal claims. Again, let’s examine further what qualifies as a hostile environment based on the issues in this particular hostile learning environment lawsuit and the legal elements relevant to the work of the plaintiff and defense attorneys.

Environmental Harassment in Schools Involving Race or National Origin

Environmental harassment, also known as a hostile work or school environment, arises in the school context when racial discrimination is so severe and pervasive that it distracts a student from his education. A racially hostile educational environment may be created by oral, written, graphic, or physical conduct related to an individual’s race, color, or national origin in a way that interferes with an individual’s ability to participate in or benefit from school programs. Plaintiff and defendant attorneys should start by determining whether the school has created or allowed the existence of a racially hostile learning environment that prevents a student from adequately learning or thriving.

The most common form of racial discrimination in education is harassment by students. On the part of teachers, discrimination is most frequently related to in-class discipline. This behavior is especially prevalent among African-American and Latino high school students. Other teacher-related discrimination can range from unfair grading to acceptance of discriminatory behavior from students in the classroom. Administrator-related discrimination is more common than teacher discrimination. Administrators may over-penalize minority students. Minority students are more likely to be suspended or expelled than their majority peers.

In a lawsuit based on an allegation that a racially hostile learning environment exists, the attorney’s focus should be on whether any difference in treatment of the student created a circumstance that limited the student’s ability to participate in and benefit from a program. In this situation, I will assume that both parties agree that Carlos experienced harassment and that his grades went down due to the hostile educational environment.

Carlos’s attorney will argue that the school breached the professional standard of care when its teachers and principal failed to act reasonably and appropriately. He will say that the school ignored the students’ behavior, let the harassment continue, and gave the students tacit permission to continue their behavior, allowing a hostile learning environment to thrive.

The plaintiff’s attorney will have a strong argument if he can demonstrate that the teachers who heard the harassing comments of students fostered a hostile educational environment by merely telling the students to stop but doing nothing more. The school had a written policy that this behavior would be reported to the principal and that appropriate action would be taken according to the student code of conduct. Suppose Carlos’s attorney can produce the policy, obtain deposition testimony from the teachers and the principal that reinforces the policy, and demonstrate that the policy was breached. In that case, he will have a strong position in this hostile learning environment lawsuit. The next focus of the case will need to demonstrate how this breach caused Carlos’s grades to decline and eventually force his withdrawal from school. Suppose these elements of a hostile school environment can be shown. In that case, the attorney might successfully recover the tuition the parents paid and damages under specific Constitutional provisions.

The defendant’s attorney will likely argue that intervening variables, such as the recent divorce of Carlos’s parents, caused distractions that resulted in the drop in Carlos’s grades. He might also argue that the decision for Carlos to attend a private school was not predicated on him being forced out but was a deliberate decision by one parent to place financial pressure on the other and for Carlos to receive a better education than provided in the public school. The attorney must show that the teachers acted reasonably when the students teased Carlos and that they followed established school procedures in telling them to stop. He must show that it was reasonable and appropriate for the principal to suspend Carlos for bringing a knife to school. This was within the professional standard of care and backed by school policy. Finally, it can be argued that the school can’t control rumors or how students talk about one another.

Key Takeaways: School Liability in Hostile School Environments Lawsuits

In lawsuits alleging a hostile learning environment, a school can be held liable if it can be shown that this hostile educational environment prevented a child from benefiting from educational opportunities afforded to all students. In isolation, the facts of a case are not enough to establish liability; the merit of a lawsuit or successful defense against one hinges on whether the facts stem from deviations from accepted standards of practice.

Attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant will need to determine whether the facts contradicted school policies, resulted from disregard for professional standards or care, or could be foreseen given other relevant issues unique to a particular case. Concerning school administrators’ actions, the questions of “What did you know?”, “When did you know it?” and “What did you do about it?” are particularly relevant.

Suppose it can be shown that the totality of circumstances created a hostile learning environment that effectively deprived a student of an educational opportunity. In that case, plaintiff attorneys will have a strong argument. On the other hand, if it can be shown that the school had no knowledge of the circumstances that created a hostile educational environment, or it did know and acted reasonably and appropriately under the circumstances, or that forces outside the school environment caused harm to a student, then the defense may prevail.

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