Brighton Area Schools denies charges in federal lawsuit alleging sexual assault on school grounds
BRIGHTON — In their response to a federal lawsuit filed in April by a former student in which she claimed she was sexually assaulted and the district retaliated against her for reporting it, Brighton Area Schools challenges the allegation that an assault took place or that school officials pressured the teen into recanting.
In the federal lawsuit, the Brighton woman is seeking unspecified damages because, she says, the district violated her 14th Amendment rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title IX, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
She's also claiming the defendants violated the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act including creating and failing to prevent a sexually hostile education environment, retaliation and sex discrimination; as well as violation of the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act including harassment, retaliation and discrimination.
In the district's July 15 response, officials disputed the key allegation, saying the male student accused of assaulting the teen girl in a school restroom wasn’t at school the day of the reported assault because he was suspended.
BAS's response also claims that when the female student told law enforcement about what occurred in the restroom she said it was consensual.
In her suit, the woman claimed the district retaliated against her for filing a police complaint, including by not allowing her to take a picture with a teacher's classroom dog and issuing her a broken iPad. The district denied those incidents took place.
According to the district, iPads are not issued to students individually, but are issued to each classroom. The response claims the classroom iPad was not broken. The district also claims the student did not receive approval for a photo with the dog that was later rescinded.
Additionally, the district denied that the student was bullied and harassed by students after making the report. The response claims she never reported any bullying.
After initially filing a police report about a sexual assault, the female student later met with police again and recanted the assault report. Her suit claims she changed her story because of bullying and harassment.
Her attorney, Zachary T. Runyan of Runyan Law Group, said the the woman "looks forward to engaging in extensive discovery which will further validate her allegations."
In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names Superintendent Matt Outlaw; principals Gavin Johnson, Jennifer Sprys-Tellner and Henry Vecchioni; special needs teacher Jody Renicker; a teacher identified as Mrs. Levine; and 10 others who weren't identified by name.
No court dates have been scheduled in the suit.
Contact Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com about news coverage.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton Area Schools denies allegations in a sexual assault lawsuit
