For more than 180 years after the nation’s founding in 1776, America’s attitudes toward sexism and sexual discrimination, harassment and violence were deeply troubling. But by the mid-20th century, there was an increasing understanding that these toxic problems were inevitable with a societal power dynamic in which men dominated nearly every aspect of life. This understanding, and a racial reckoning in U.S. politics in the late 1950 and 1960s, led to a series of civil rights breakthroughs meant to guarantee that not just Black but female Americans would receive equal, fair treatment under the law.
For women, the most epochal moment came in 1972, when Title IX became the law of the land. It prohibited educational institutions that received federal assistance from barring or limiting access to benefits or to program participation based on gender. In the 40 years that followed, the federal government built on this framework. Of particular note: a unanimous 1986 Supreme Court decision holding that employers’ tolerance of sexual harassment and a “hostile environment” amounted to punishable violations of civil rights, and the steps taken in 2011 by the Obama administration to make more colleges consistently investigate and seriously address allegations of sexual harassment or abuse.
But did these developments translate into real change? Or did they create complacency by encouraging the idea that society’s job was largely done in acting to limit pervasive gender bias?
With the accelerating movement of women into many previously male-dominated fields — and the emergence of an America in which there are far more women college students than men — the case for progress is plain.
But with the rise of the “Me Too” movement in 2017 — in which thousands of women professionals in industries from the sciences to the arts to philanthropy to journalism documented their mistreatment at the hands of powerful men — it was fair to question whether progress has been overrated.
Now comes a similarly wrenching development in our own backyard: the Aug. 9 release of a report by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that found the San Diego Unified School District had failed to meet its obligations under federal law in responding to 253 reports and complaints of sexual harassment and assault of students from 2017 to 2020. The district routinely failed to investigate the allegations, to act to prevent further harassment and to provide support to student victims. As The San Diego Union-Tribune reported, “In every single one of the 253 case files the federal office reviewed, key information and documents were missing — including police reports and investigative notes, witness statements, interview notes [and] discipline records … . Every district employee interviewed who was responsible for investigating sexual harassment reports said they had received no training on their duties under Title IX.”
Every single case. Every single responsible employee. Incredible. This is a gigantic stain on the record of Cindy Marten, SDUSD superintendent from 2013 to 2021 — who now, perversely enough, is the U.S. deputy education secretary who oversees the civil rights office that produced the report documenting her former district’s abject failures.
This stain is particularly indelible because long before the Aug. 9 report, there were immense warning signs that Marten and the district weren’t doing their jobs. In 2013, the parent of a student at Hamilton Elementary School in City Heights said authorities didn’t take seriously her report that her child had been sexually assaulted in a school bathroom. That same year, parents made strikingly similar allegations about the abuse their child had faced at Green Elementary School in San Carlos. The same scenario played out again in 2017 at Miller Elementary School in Tierrasanta. Based on the federal report, it is close to a metaphysical certainty that there are far more such cases that were ignored by callous and incompetent district officials
In a just society, Marten and many of these officials would immediately be exiled from the world of education. But based on San Diego Unified’s phlegmatic response to the federal report, here’s what residents can expect: nominal displays of concern, followed by a reprise of officials’ what-me-worry response to the 253 claims the district mishandled from 2017 to 2020. The district cares more about image control and limiting legal exposure than protecting its students from being sexually assaulted on campus. Disagree? Actions speak louder than words.
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