Superintendent Nikolai Vitti interviewed for the job on March 30, Erin Einhorn. The district was hit with the complaint soon after a newly elected school board and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti took control of the district in In response, the district made a number of changes to the way sexual misconduct is handled in its schools.
Federal officials have dropped the legal case against the district, though they are still monitoring progress. The complaint was publicized for the first time this week in an article published by The 74, an education news publication.
The story points out that little public attention has focused on the way K districts address sexual assault even as a debate rages around the handling of sexual assault on college campuses. According to a letter federal officials sent to the Detroit district, the district did not investigate the incident at the time and the victim — a student with special needs who was 5 years old when the incident occurred — missed several months of school without any follow-up from the district.
Howard said the district has already gone further than it was required to under a deal it reached with the U. Department of Education. For the first time, the district paid to send employees to a training on Title IX — a federal law governing sex crimes in schools.
The board created a new policy designed to protect people of all genders and sexual orientations from sexual misconduct. Principals have received two annual trainings from the Association of Title IX Administrators on the law, Howard said. Many of these changes are brand new, and it remains to be seen how effective they will be.
