In June 2017, an unnamed high school freshman, with her mother by her side, told officials at the school in Northwest Washington that she’d been sexually assaulted in a boy’s bathroom. At first, Roosevelt High School principal Aqueelha James said all the right things.
“I’m here to support and be of assistance,” James told the girl and her mother. The principal promised a swift and thorough investigation. “I don’t like the idea that your daughter has been assaulted sexually,” James said. “It is a crime.”
It’s what Principal James said after the girl and her mother left the room that’s placed the school administrator in the center of a civil rights lawsuit, filed this week against the District of Columbia.
I’m sick of her. I’m sick and tired of her and her mom. So I’m gonna call MPD, I’m gonna have a long, drawn-out email, just so I can embarrass her ass.
[...]
And you should see the dress she’s got on...you should see the dress.
[...]
I’m hoping I get the right officer.
[...]
This is a bunch of bullshit.
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The recording reveals James’ side of a phone conversation with Dean of Students Reginald Stevens, the lawsuit alleges. Stevens was listening in on the girl’s report of the assault, along with Assistant Principal Michael Moss and guidance counselor Maurice Butler, who were in the room.
The alleged assault took place in the Northwest Washington school on June 13, 2017, and the student reported it to police the next day, per the Washington Post.
The girl who filed the lawsuit promptly reported the alleged attack, in which, she said, a male student pulled her into a bathroom, forced her into a stall and began kissing her and trying to put his hand up her dress. She said that she escaped but that he left a hickey on her neck, which she cites as evidence of the incident in the recording of her meeting with Roosevelt officials.
A D.C. police report shows the girl reported the incident June 14, 2017, the day after the alleged attack.
Charges were not filed in the case.
While reporting the assault to school authorities, the complainant grew emotional and left the room. Her mother quickly followed after her, inadvertently leaving her phone—which she’d been using to record the meeting—behind. The mother later forwarded the recording to D.C. Public Schools’ civil rights office, in addition to complaining to multiple high-ranking officials within the school district. DCPS confirms that an internal investigation was launched, but refused to release the results.
One result was crystal clear: James and the other officials didn’t lose their jobs.
The girl’s attorney, Kasey Murray, tells WaPo it was only when the family found no recourse that they resorted to litigation.
“This mother tried to go through a lot of different avenues to get this addressed before seeking counsel,” Murray said. “The last thing this family wanted to do was bring publicity to themselves.”
The Post shared the recording with D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Wednesday afternoon; by Thursday morning, a spokesman for Bowser’s office said the mayor had ordered the James investigation re-opened after listening to the audio.
While nobody disputes the audio’s validity, James and the other Roosevelt officials have either evaded WaPo reporters or declined to comment; meanwhile, at least one D.C. city council member, David Grosso, has called for James’ immediate termination.
The federal lawsuit seeks “at least $5 million in actual and punitive damages,” and asserts that James not only “defamed the girl by impugning her credibility to police officers,” but that the DCPS failed to properly investigate the allegations, as required by federal law, under Title IX.
Title IX, of course, has been under constant attack by the Trump administration, led by Betsy DeVos, the heiress masquerading as his education secretary. If this is how schools act under the old rules, how much worse will it get for student survivors if DeVos and Trump get their way?
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