BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A parent has sued the Palo Alto Unified School District after her kindergarten-aged daughter was allegedly touched inappropriately by three boys at Ohlone Elementary School.
The girl “has experienced profound institutional betrayal by trusted teachers and administrators at multiple levels,” said the lawsuit, filed in federal court on Friday by San Jose attorney Aaron Zisser.
Principal Elsa Chen, Title IX Coordinator Robert Andrade and an outside firm were unfair and incomplete in their investigation, the suit said.
Chen refused to move the girl to another kindergarten classroom away from the boys who touched her, forcing her to stay home from school for over two months, the suit said.
Chen “repeatedly minimized the incidents, referring to them as a mutual ‘game’ among the students,” the suit said.
The boys allegedly went under a lunch table and poked the girl over her clothes between her legs on Feb. 6, 2024.
The boys kept poking the girl after she kicked them and told them to stop, the suit said. One of the boys touched the girl again during recess on Feb. 8 and in a classroom on March 1, the suit said.
“The boys required ongoing redirection and supervision to ensure they remained separate and not at risk of inappropriate or abusive touching,” the suit said.
The girl’s parents filed a Title IX complaint on Feb. 10 and asked to move to another classroom on March 14, the suit said. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and other education programs that receive federal funding.
Alleged victim transferred
Ohlone Elementary School had five or six other classrooms available but didn’t move the girl, so she transferred to another school, the suit said.
The parents notified Superintendent Don Austin but he didn’t intervene, the suit said.
Austin and Chen haven’t returned a request for comment.
The investigation was initially handled by Chen and then Andrade, who brought in Kelly Whitney to investigate and Ashley Hull to make a decision based on Whitney’s investigation, the suit said.
Both Whitney and Hull are investigators with Grand River Solutions, and the suit claims they had a conflict of interest because they work together. Grand River is a consulting firm in Saratoga that advises school districts on issues such as Title IX compliance.
Objections over investigation
The lawsuit describes the alleged deficiencies in Whitney’s investigation over six pages.
For example, Whitney didn’t interview two of the boys and omitted any summary of her interview with the girl’s parents, the suit said.
Whitney also ignored how the incident impacted the girl, who needed therapy and had nightmares, the suit said.
“There was extensive documentation of this impact available to the investigator, including medical documentation,” the suit said.
Whitney instead portrayed the girl as happy and carefree, overlooking that children have unpredictable reactions to abuse, the suit said.
Incident explained
Based on Whitney’s investigation, Hull on Nov. 4 found the poking did happen but “cannot reasonably be compared to more sensual, lingering touches like massaging and fondling, or to grabbing,” according to the suit.
The parents disagreed, arguing that touching the genitals is inherently sexual if done on purpose.
Whitney and Hull haven’t returned a request for comment.
The family appealed the findings of the investigation. Attorney Chelsea Tibbs on Nov. 21 affirmed that the touching wasn’t sexual or “objectively offensive” because of the age of the children, the suit said.
Title IX monitor wanted
The suit spends another three pages alleging issues with Tibbs’ decision, claiming she mischaracterized the appeal and cherry-picked Title IX regulations to consider.
Tibbs said March 4 that she just learned about the lawsuit and couldn’t comment.
The parent is asking a judge to declare the defendants violated the girl’s rights under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
The parent also wants a judge to monitor the district’s Title IX practices.
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