Supporting students through traumatic incidents at schools

When issues of sexual assault or harassment from hazing and bullying come to light, it can rattle a community. When that assault or harassment takes place in a school, the impact is two-fold.

Survivors and their families may experience trauma, isolation and, even, community retaliation. On the flip side, other students or families may feel fear or loss of trust in their school district to protect them and their peers. The Lane County District Attorney's Office describes sexual assault as "any sexual contact without consent," and notes it can happen to anyone, regardless of factors such as age, gender or sexual orientation.

Schools across Oregon have witnessed this following student harassment incidents over the last few years. The most recent example is in Cottage Grove after a junior varsity football player was reportedly physically harassed last month during a hazing incident in the high school boys locker room.

District parents criticize lack of response

South Lane School District sent out its first notification to families about the incident this week after community backlash spurred by a Register-Guard report.

Since then, parents and the community have sought answers about support for students and how the district will prevent hazing, bullying and assault in the future.

The district sent out three emails last week, including a note from Superintendent Larry Sullivan on Thursday.

Sullivan's note acknowledges the district did not communicate to the community about the issue because the investigations by the district and the police department were ongoing. Communication before the inquiry was complete "may have slowed or hindered those investigations," Sullivan said.

However, the district wrapped its investigation on Oct. 4, two weeks after being made aware of the incident on Sept. 27.

Sullivan also cited protecting the privacy of students, which limits what administrators can share, as the reasoning for not disclosing disciplinary measures taken in response to the investigation. He did say the district was "deeply upset by the actions of the students involved in this incident, and the high school administration addressed the actions of the students involved with consistent and appropriate consequences."

Sullivan acknowledged the district could have notified parents after the investigation was closed and failed to do so, and noted the district would make changes in locker room supervision schedules as well as remind athletes of the hazing, harassment and bullying policy.

But this is not enough for some parents and students.

Amanda Cluske, a Cottage Grove High School parent, said she is upset by the school's lack of communication with parents as well as a lack of discipline for the kids involved. She participated in a small peaceful protest outside the school Friday.

"We have students that are still in class, they haven't been suspended. I want to know what's going on," she said.

Cluske said she's expressed her frustration with the school's administration but has been given no answers because of student privacy.

"You can tell me what you're doing to discipline them without giving their names," she said. "I don't understand that."

She said her son was expected to begin at the high school next year, but "that won't be happening," she said. "Now he's terrified to play sports here. Why are these kids still in school?"

In conversations with the district last week, and in letters to parents at no point did the district note supports for the victim or non-athlete students. According to the state's latest school report card data, Cottage Grove High School has two counselors on staff. Calls were not returned to the Register-Guard on Thursday or Friday to answer questions about support resources in place for students, either in general or in response to the hazing incident.

"I'm sure it's coming up in certain classes as well, and so our teachers are obviously addressing that and talking about it as it comes up," Cottage Grove High School Principal Kevin Herington said on Tuesday.

When asked about students who may be concerned about the accused athletes being on another sports team later in the year, Herington said safety is "something we continue to address with our coaches in our preseason meetings and throughout the year."

Past action

When similar hazing and assault incidents have happened in Oregon high schools in the past, they have been handled in a variety of ways and even spurred change in legislation.

When students on the Philomath football team were cited for a similar method of hazing and harassment in 2016, the Benton County District Attorney, who was a special prosecutor on the case, released the names of the cited students despite them being minors.

Philomath School District also cancelled the rest of its football season after finding the hazing was a longtime issue.

In the Salem case of a Sprague High School student who was "hazed" in 2015 when his teammates held him down, thrust a "TV remote into his buttocks" and yelled anti-gay slurs at him, that student transferred to West Salem High School after not feeling supported by Sprague leadership.

The perpetrators were allowed to stay on the team and played against the victim despite the family's pleas to not let them play against him, as reported by The Oregonian. At the time, the district would not give the family of the harassed student any information about the investigation or discipline on the other boys.

In 2018 -- three years after the incident occurred -- Oregon lawmakers passed a law stating a school district shall notify the victim and/or the victim's family once an investigation is finished, if the accusation was found to have occurred, and creating an internal complaint process victims and their families can go through. The notification also must include information about school and community-based resources for survivors, including counseling.

Holistic support for students

It takes more than school districts fulfilling the legal duty to investigate through Title IX to fully support a student in the aftermath of sexual assault or harassment. It requires wraparound support from educators, those close to the student and their community.

"State law and federal law creates for us a floor, but the thing is, is it doesn't create a ceiling," said Jackie Sandmeyer, founder and principal of TIX Education Specialists, an Oregon-based firm that provides training to schools across the state and the U.S. on how to fulfill legal requirements of Title IX reporting. The organization also works as third-party investigators, trains educators to respond to survivors with support and resources, and opens conversations about the impact on youth when sexual assault happens.

"There's a huge weight on a student as far as trying to access their education after an incident like this," Sandmeyer said. "All the elements of everything we know about trauma, or even the more nuanced pieces involved in sexual harassment and sexual assault having to do with self blame and shame -- all of that deeply impacts how a student can still access their education."

There also can be links to depression or the tendency of a person to commit suicide, the organization said. Because of this and the many barriers students must overcome to talk to someone about what they've been through, it's crucial to remember that the way people respond to a student's initial disclosure is likely the most important moment in that student's experience.

"Oregon is a very diverse state and this conversation around child abuse or even more, adolescent-based violence, as a society and as the larger community, we are so terrified to have conversations around this," Sandmeyer said.

"So we try to divert conversations around instances of violence -- we focus on victims or we focus on how somebody may have put themselves in danger as opposed to asking ourselves: How have we, as a community, not upheld our side of the bargain to instill that students have safe places access education?"

It takes building a supportive network around that student so they feel as though they can move forward -- and it also takes schools and communities being willing to face the issue head on.

This includes a school offering accommodations for students, and the adults around them putting the decision-making power back in the students' hands.

"In general we like to make decisions for our young people that maybe they're not comfortable with," said Michele Roland-Schwartz, Oregon Sexual Assault Task Force executive director. "Really being mindful of: They know what they need and we need to honor that and really put that power back in their hands, particularly for youth," and because so much of sexual assault and harassment is about power and control over another person.

Accommodations are important for students' ability to participate in their education after an incident, Roland-Schwartz said. This could mean schedule changes to avoid a particular school space or if the student feels unsafe around certain peers. It could also include counseling, extra academic support for students who fall behind, and taking note of the students who suddenly skyrocket to straight As.

"For many survivors, they might dive so far into their studies and be pulling straight As and focus so much on their education as a way of coping because they're wanting to maybe not think about what happened," Roland-Schwartz said. "Those students still deserve to have options laid out for them about ways they may want to modify their education."

Schools and communities also should reflect on whether they are equipped to handle a report and to talk to students about issues of sexual assault and harassment after.

"Who that student goes home to, who that student relies on, when they talk to a friend -- every person that student tells their story to, it's going to have as much of an impact on them," Sandmeyer said.

"So I always try to impress on folks that it is important for us to hold our school districts accountable, and we should similarly be asking ourselves the question: Do we feel confident in how to support somebody if they came to us with their story, and if not, what does that look like for us?"

Follow Jordyn Brown on Twitter @thejordynbrown or email at jbrown@registerguard.com.

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