The case decided by the court involved the alleged months-long behavior of a fifth-grade boy at Hubbard Elementary School in Forsyth, Ga., who was accused by a classmate and her parents of attempting to touch her sexually, of making repeated suggestive and vulgar statements to her, and of trying to rub against her. The girl and her parents repeatedly complained to school authorities, to no effect, they said. In ruling that the girl and her parents could sue, the Justices set a substantial burden of proof for potential litigants: For example, a plaintiff must show that the harassment occurred in a school setting or situation over which teachers and administrators exercised substantial control. The standards the justices adopted mirrored the ones they announced last June, when they ruled that schools could be sued when a teacher sexually harasses a student. "Schools are supposed to be safe," says Novak, and without attempting to micromanage the schools, "the court is trying to make sure, as best it can with these rulings, that they are."
Justices: Schools Can't Ignore Sex Harassment
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If there was ever any doubt, in the wake of the Littleton and Conyers tragedies, that school officials need to pay close attention to the students they supervise, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put the force of law behind that duty -- at least in the context of sexual harassment. By a 5-to-4 vote, with the high benchs two women jurists siding with the majority, the court ruled that public school boards may be sued if, after having been made aware of the situation, they remain "deliberately indifferent" to the serious sexual harassment in school of one student by another. The court made clear that the ruling did not outlaw normal teasing between the sexes, but rather "pervasive and eggregious situations," says TIME Washington correspondent Viveca Novak.