Sexual Harassment: Feds Interview Berkeley School Officials

Doug Oakley
Staff Writer
BERKELEY -- Federal investigators are interviewing staff and administrators about sexual harassment at Berkeley High School following the discovery of an Instagram page, created by male students last fall, that included photos of female students accompanied by disparaging sexual comments. 

Five boys were suspended in October for their involvement in the page. Parent Heidi Goldstein filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in December, saying that incident, as well as others, led her to bring the action. 

On Thursday, she said the school district was barring students from being interviewed by investigators this week. 

School district spokesman Mark Coplan denied that claim but was unsure whether any students had been interviewed. A spokesman for the Office for Civil Rights was not immediately available for comment. 

The investigation is the second such inquiry by the federal government around sexual harassment at the school in five years. An investigation in 2010 was started after a 16-year-old student sued her counselor for sexual harassment and filed a complaint with the office. 

A settlement in that case led to the formation of a parent-led sexual harassment policy subcommittee. The counselor also agreed to keep his door and window blinds open when students are in his office as part of the settlement of the separately filed lawsuit. 

In a letter emailed to parents late Wednesday night, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Donald Evans and school board President Judy Appel said the school district has provided more than 1,000 pages of documents to investigators "in order for them to evaluate our best practices." 

Coplan said some parents at the school were "putting up posters saying BUSD is blocking the investigation and not letting kids talk to them." 

In the letter to parents, Evans and Appel said they worried the interviews would get in the way of teaching and they wanted parents to be notified beforehand. 

"We have raised these concerns with the office of civil rights, and we hope and expect that they will be resolved so that the investigation can be conducted and completed in a timely manner," the letter said. 

Goldstein said the school district has denied any student an interview with investigators. 

"The office of civil rights has asked to talk to students, but so far the district has not come forward and cooperated at all," Goldstein said. "Every proposal the office of civil rights has made with regard to how they engage with students, the district has said no." 

Rebecca Levenson, a parent on the school district's sexual harassment subcommittee, said the group worked for 38 months following the 2010 sexual harassment complaint to craft a new sexual harassment policy that included training for students and accountability for behavior. But the school board ignored the subcommittee and this month instead adopted a watered down "boilerplate" policy that did not include training or consequences. 

"We have a smart school board, but they are really just trying to cover their (expletive) instead of doing prevention work they are supposed to," Levenson said. "We begged each member separately and gave public testimony, and instead they turn around and adopt a boilerplate policy." 

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