Thread by @NBCNews

K-12 schools keep mishandling sexual assault complaints. Will new Title IX regulations help? nbcnews.com/news/us-news/k… (1/8) #NBCNewsThreads

At least 330 lawsuits have been filed across the US since the beginning of 2018 alleging that K-12 public and charter schools failed to protect students from sexual assault and harassment or mishandled incidents that came to light, according to an @nbcnews count. (2/8)

The lawsuits include one from a high school student in Georgia who said she was expelled after a student allegedly forced her to perform oral sex; she said the school’s principal didn’t believe her account. (3/8)

In another case, a Michigan district was accused of failing to investigate complaints that a 5th grade teacher was inappropriately touching boys.

The teacher was later convicted of molesting 7 children. nbcnews.to/2ZA41Bz (4/8)

In recent years, colleges have faced intense public scrutiny around how they handle students’ reports of sexual violence, leading the Dept. of Education to unveil regulations that create new standards for how schools must respond under the gender equity law Title IX. (5/8)

But K-12 schools are often left out of this conversation, even though students reported about 9,700 incidents of sexual assault, rape or attempted rape at elementary and secondary schools in the 2015-16 academic year, according to the most recent federal data. (6/8)

While the new Title IX regulations include a framework for how K-12 schools should respond to reports of assault and harassment, victims advocates and education experts say that many K-12 schools were already not following federal rules on responding to Title IX claims. (7/8)

Continued lack of attention to Title IX will leave the youngest and most vulnerable students unprotected, advocates warn.

“It’s just not a priority until an incident occurs and the school gets bad publicity,” said Joel Levin, co-founder of Stop Sexual Assault In Schools. (8/8)