Johnson v. Northeast School Corp.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-high school’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-student’s Title IX claim, alleging that defendant provided inadequate response to her allegations of sexual harassment. Record showed that: (1) plaintiff told her grandmother that she had been raped off campus by classmate, who had previously been accused by another classmate of rape; (2) grandmother told school’s principal that plaintiff was being examined by trained professional, that she did not want plaintiff to be interviewed by school officials, and that she wanted accused rapist to be immediately removed from school; (3) principal told grandmother that investigation needed to occur before any disciplinary decision were made; (4) principal placed accused rapist and plaintiff on no-contact order; and (5) prosecutor eventually decided not to bring charges against accused rapist. Thereafter, principal received reports that plaintiff was being harassed by other female classmates, and principal told said accused harassers to stop the harassment. Plaintiff failed to show that defendant was deliberately indifferent to known acts of sexual harassment, where: (1) principal issued no contact order after learning of rape accusation, and plaintiff did not report that she received any subsequent harassment from accused rapist after issuance of said order; and (2) defendant’s attempts to get information from police investigation and to initiate its own Title IX investigation, as well as to respond to individuals claims of harassment were not unreasonable.