Virginia Beach schools violated Title IX for years, feds find. It may be more complicated

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A review by the federal Department of Education found the public school system of Virginia Beach had violated federal Title IX law for years, asserting that school officials failed to “adequately investigate and record reports of sexual misconduct against students.”

The federal agency’s Office of Civil Rights and the Virginia Beach school system reached an agreement last month that resolved the review, which concerned issues reported between 2017 and ’20. The agency concluded Virginia Beach schools had, among other things, not adequately ensured “that it responds to all reports or complaints of alleged sexual harassment, including employee-on-student sexual harassment, in a manner consistent with Title IX, including ensuring that it fully investigates allegations, regardless of whether an employee/respondent resigns,” the documents read.

In a letter outlining the office’s findings, Dan Greenspahn, regional director for the federal office, wrote that there had been 697 reported incidents of student-on-student and employee-on-student sexual misconduct during those school years. The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press obtained the letter and agreement through the Freedom of Information Act.

Of those, there had been 117 reported incidents of sexual harassment, 88 incidents of indecent exposure by a student, one incident of forceable rape and eight incidents of inappropriate touching by an employee or sexual intercourse between an employee and a student.

According to the education department, Virginia Beach schools could only produce 12 investigation reports. Many investigative files were incomplete and missing records deemed necessary for federal officials to properly evaluate the division’s response of the reported incidents. The school district “treated the majority of reports of sexual harassment as disciplinary matters,” the letter of findings said, failed to “provide notice of the outcome to both parties” and in many cases relied on school-level administrators to investigate.

The letter included multiple specific examples of alleged sexual misconduct involving students and staff and a brief description of how the incident was said to be mismanaged.

The resolution agreement was signed Sept. 14 by Superintendent Donald Robertson Jr. It charged Virginia Beach schools with completing seven regulatory changes that would bring the school division into compliance. In a statement, the school district described the agreement as something that “strengthens” its Title IX procedure.

“The school division was already operating in those areas based upon regulations that have been changing over a period of time,” Robertson said. “That’s the reality. That’s every school division.”

He noted how the law surrounding Title IX had changed several times in the past few years.

Under the Trump administration in 2020, changes were made to the 1972 law to codify the prohibition of sexual harassment, strengthen victims’ decisions in how a school responds to their complaint and prescribing a grievance process for the accused. Starting in 2021, the law was placed under review by the Biden administration. By 2024, Title IX regulation was expanded chiefly to include protections for discrimination against gender identity and sexual orientation.

Once the second Trump administration began, legal efforts stymied the previous regime’s expansion of the law. It culminated on Sept. 28, with the education department formally rescinding the “Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. The federal department is now enforcing the first Trump administration’s 2020 rules.

“We are encouraged by the district’s willingness to work with OCR to remedy its Title IX violations and take the necessary steps to comply with federal law,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey, in a statement.

Virginia Beach was not the only school district placed under review. The education department said 20 unnamed divisions were under investigation for staff-on-student sexual misconduct as of July.

“Every school division has been modifying and adapting to changing regulations during each of those periods to ensure that they’re complying with the new law,” Robertson said. “Many of the things that we’re doing, we were already doing. Changes in the law required minor adjustments.”

The federal agency’s attention to Title IX seems to be a sudden pivot, said Courtney Bullard, founder and CEO of Institutional Compliance Solutions, but hopefully a good one. Her Tennessee-based firm specializes in supporting school districts and universities with Title IX compliance, training and related services. Clients include some Virginia school districts, she said, and the firm studied the situation in Virginia Beach.

Compared to lengthy past probes, OCR’s investigation of Virginia Beach schools, among others, appears to have been conducted with “unprecedented” speed, she said. Additionally unusual, many school districts have learned they were under investigation through media coverage.

“The timing matters,” Bullard said. “It’s pretty nuanced.”

The period in which Virginia Beach schools was investigated, she said, were the years leading to but before the formal adoption of the Trump administration’s changes to Title IX in 2020.

“One thing I don’t think the public understands is the sheer volume of reports that school districts are getting every day of alleged misconduct either by students or employees. From our experience, they’re working really hard to do the right thing,” Bullard said. “But there’s always room for improvement.”

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