On May 5, 2006, plaintiffs, individually and on behalf of their children, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Allentown School District ("ASD"), Lehigh Valley Hospital, Inc. ("LVH"), and various other parties including a minor student. The plaintiffs alleged they were sexually harassed at school and that the district officials failed to provide the plaintiffs, six- and seven-year-old African American students, with the same adequate levels of protective services, procedures, and policies they provided to other students. Represented by private counsel, the plaintiffs alleged the defendants' actions violated their Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1988, and various state law claims such as intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiffs sought compensatory and injunctive relief.

On September 21, 2007, the Court (Judge Thomas M. Golden) issued an opinion granting defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1985, and 1986, and the Equal Protection Clause, as well as the plaintiffs' claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress as to the employees of Allentown School District and Lehigh Valley Hospital and intentional infliction of emotional distress as to Allentown School District. 2007 WL 2814587. The Court (Judge Thomas M. Golden) denied the plaintiffs' motion to reconsider the previous dismissal of their Equal Protection Clause claims on September 23, 2008. 2008 WL 4427136.

On April 21, 2009, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint to include an additional minor plaintiff and a sex discrimination claim pursuant to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681.

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") filed a motion for leave to intervene solely against ASD pursuant to Title IX on June 18, 2009, which the Court granted. 2009 WL 2058726. The DOJ alleged that sexual harassment occurred at ASD on at least five separate occasions, that ASD was made aware of each incident immediately after it occurred, and that despite this notice, ASD did not take appropriate action, and in some circumstances took no action, to prevent the harassment from recurring. The DOJ alleged, in addition, that, both before and after the sexual harassment of the students, ASD failed to adopt and implement adequate and effective sexual harassment policies and procedure as required by federal law and that, had ASD adopted and implemented such policies and procedures, ASD would have prevented the continued sexual harassment of students. Id.

The plaintiffs filed their final amended complaint, adding another minor plaintiff as a party, on August 3, 2011. The Court (Judge Paul S. Diamond) dismissed LVH without prejudice on January 20, 2012 and severed plaintiffs' lawsuit from plaintiff-intervenors' lawsuit on March 13, 2012. The plaintiffs' claims against ASD were dismissed without prejudice in an order acknowledging, but not specifying, the terms of the parties' settlement by the Court (Judge Diamond) on July 16, 2012.

On July 30, 2012, the court approved a consent decree between the DOJ and ASD providing for substantial systemic relief, including the creation and implementation of new sexual harassment policies and age-appropriate sexual harassment training for students, parents, and staff. Effective July 30, 2015, the consent decree was extended until July 30, 2016. The consent decree was extended for an additional year on August 17, 2016.

There has been no additional activity, and the case now appears closed.

Heather Turner - 06/03/2014
Mackenzie Walz - 11/08/2017


compress summary