“10 days is not enough! 10 days is not enough! 10 days is not enough!”
“Fire Holland! Fire Holland! Fire Holland!”
“Who’s next?”
“He had to walk the halls with the people who assaulted them!”
“They don’t have to be in the classroom with the kids they attacked!”
These were the messages on Monday, June 11 from at least 40 concerned parents and high school students who protested outside a school board meeting at Lamar Middle School. The protest came after the district’s Title IX investigative team released their decision to suspend three students accused of sexual assault and harassment for 10 days when school resumes in August.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces Title IX, part of the Education Amendments of 1972.
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Title IX protects students from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Lamar School district has its own Title IX policy cited on its website.
Other recommended disciplinary actions included in the official Title IX report obtained by the Times Record include:
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10 days of out-of-school suspension (OSS).
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Upon return from OSS, a No Contact Order (NCO) is put into place, addressing: students found responsible aren’t allowed to contact the complainants within a timeframe that may include summer, meaning summer school or school-sponsored camps or events.
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Students found responsible be provided “mini-courses related to harassment.”
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A school administrator may decide that the agreement will continue into the 2022-2023 school year.
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Schedule a time before the 2023-2024 school year to review the NCO with students found responsible and their parents/guardians.
The original Title IX complaint was filed on March 11, 2022, accusing four students of sexual assault on March 8.
According to the district investigator’s findings, only three of the four students accused were found “responsible” for the assault after their voices were identified in an audio recording of the sexual assault.
The district’s Title IX coordinator, Brittney Schluterman, also received other reports including the three students responsible for sexual assault were “reaching under the stall” and assaulting a fellow student in the bathroom.
A separate report was made about another student who reportedly inappropriately touched another student after pinning him up against a wall, the student was deemed responsible.
The students, who are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, said they experienced these assaults from the summer through November of 2021.
The protestors stayed through the entirety of the school board meeting to hear any update on the case.
Attorneys Joey McCutchen, Chip Sexton and Stephen Napurano from Fort Smith represent the three students who alleged that they were sexually harassed and sexually assaulted.
McCutchen said both the complainant and respondent parties appealed the 10-day suspension and other disciplinary actions to obtain a higher level of accountability.
“Right now we’re just letting the process play out,” McCutchen said. “We’ve seen the decision-maker say 10 days out of school suspension, which we think is ridiculous. And conduct rewarded is conduct repeated. We’ve appealed because we don’t think the punishment fits the crime.”
McCutchen’s legal team is hopeful for the full expulsion of the students responsible.
“The decision-maker can talk about a no-contact order all she wants but the bottom line is, this is a small school district, these kids are in athletics together, in school together and…
Read More: Audio recording of sexual abuse in Lamar locker room results in three students suspended