The U.S. Department of Justice has found that the Burlington School District satisfied the terms of a sex discrimination settlement, the district announced in a press release on Wednesday.
“We have observed that District employees’ compliance with your policies and procedures regarding harassment has increased tremendously since our initial investigation,” the Vermont U.S. Attorney’s office wrote in a March 17 letter to the district.
In 2019, the Justice Department and school district agreed to a settlement that mandated special monitoring and training following an investigation of sex discrimination.
The investigation followed complaints from parents who alleged that their children “had been subject to severe and pervasive sex-based harassment, including assault, that went unaddressed by the District,” according to a case summary from the department. “As a result, their children feared for their safety and several withdrew from the school.”
Under the agreement, the school district worked with the Mid Atlantic Equity Center to review policies, practices and procedures related to sex-based harassment. The district was also expected to provide training to students and faculty and to conduct surveys to monitor for harassment and bullying, according to the justice department’s summary.
The school implicated in the complaint was The Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes, an elementary school in the city’s Old North End.
In Wednesday’s press release, Superintendent Tom Flanagan said the district worked to address its hazing, harassment and bullying procedures and made “changes to the way we report, how we investigate, and how we educate students, staff, and the community around (harassment), and, most importantly, gender identity and bias. Though it was hard work, BSD is now better able to support and keep students safe.”