The Maple Run Unified School District in Franklin County has lost its bid to dismiss a Vermont Human Rights Commission investigation into the school district’s handling of a student’s sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations.
The Vermont Supreme Court, in a unanimous 12-page ruling authored by Justice Karen Carroll, upheld an earlier decision by Judge Robert Mello in Washington County Superior civil court to dismiss the school district’s legal challenge that hinged, in part, over the use of discretion by the Human Rights Commission.
“This decision enables us to continue our mission of promoting full civil and human rights for all, including conducting this investigation,” Big Hartman, the executive director of the Human Rights Commission, said Friday.
Hartman said they couldn’t comment on the status of the investigation and whether it had continued while the court case was pending.
Adrienne Shea, a lawyer for the school district, said in a statement that the school district followed procedures dictated by federal law, as prescribed by Title IX, in response to the student’s allegations three years ago.
Shea contended that those federal requirements preempt the state’s Public Accommodations Act, which was at issue in the family’s complaint to the Human Rights Commission. She wrote that the court’s decision did not address that point and was limited to finding that “the HRC’s determination to move forward with an investigation is not subject to judicial review.”
“The District remains confident that an investigation will demonstrate its compliance with the mandatory procedures prescribed by Title IX,” Shea wrote. “The District will not ignore its responsibilities under federal law and incur those liabilities without a judicial ruling that it may do so.”
The high court’s ruling stated that it is the Human Rights Commission that decides whether a complaint meets a “prima facie” standard, meaning that an initial review of a matter shows that it warrants an investigation.
“The Commission’s ‘exercise of professional expertise and discretion’ is fundamental to its decisionmaking in this context,” the ruling stated. “The Legislature has charged it alone with determining whether a complaint states a prima facie case during the investigation phase, a determination which necessarily involves the application of expert judgment to a unique set of facts.”
The Maple Run Unified School District includes Bellows Free Academy, St. Albans City School and Fairfield Center School.
The complaint to the Human Rights Commission stems from a sexual harassment complaint filed by a student in November 2020 with her school in the Maple Run School District alleging that she was sexually assaulted multiple times by a student while on school grounds and on a school bus, according to the Vermont Supreme Court’s summary of the case.
The ruling does not name the school, but other court records in the case identify it as Bellows Free Academy.
The school started an investigation the next day, the summary stated, and “unintentionally” disclosed the first name of the student who brought the complaint to the mother of the other student, referred to as the “responding student,” in a letter seeking an interview with that student.
“The parties dispute whether the responding student’s schedule changed during the course of the investigation such that the complaining student and the responding student were not in the same student cohort between early December 2020 through late April 2021,” the case summary stated. “The District closed its investigation in June 2021, 202 days after initiating it.”
In November 2021, the summary indicated, the mother of the student who brought the initial complaint then filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, alleging that the school district engaged in discrimination by not complying with the Vermont Public Accommodations Act and anti-harassment provisions of state law.
That complaint, according to the summary, also alleged that the school district violated requirements that the investigation conclude in less than five days, violated confidentiality rules by disclosing the student’s name to the responding student’s mother, and failed to take “immediate steps to alter” the responding student’s schedule.
The Human Rights Commission reviewed the complaint and determined that “it stated a prima facie case of discrimination and retaliation” under the Vermont Public Accommodations Act and started an investigation, the summary stated.
The school district then sought unsuccessfully to have that investigation dismissed by the Human Rights Commission and then through legal action in Washington County Superior civil court.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which represented the Human Rights Commission, said in a statement Friday that it was pleased that the Supreme Court ruling agreed with its interpretation of the law.
“We believe this decision upholds the Human Rights Commission’s ability to effectively conduct their important work,” the statement added.
