Fairfax High School’s response to reports that a student was groping female peers was fully consistent with Fairfax County Public Schools protocols for handling sexual misconduct, Superintendent Michelle Reid says.
FCPS hired an outside law firm in March to conduct a review of how staff and administrators handled the complaints against 18-year-old Israel Flores Ortiz after multiple parents of victims told WJLA that they felt the school had “diminished” their children’s experiences and “attempted to sweep it under the rug.”
The review is now finished, and it found that Fairfax High’s administration and staff “responded with the utmost urgency,” Reid said yesterday (Monday) in a message to families, though the law firm’s actual report wasn’t released.
“Fairfax High School administration and staff fully complied with Title IX protocols,” Reid wrote. “Immediately upon receiving reports of the misconduct, staff utilized hallway surveillance footage to identify the suspect. Once identified, he was immediately removed from class and separated from the general student population.”
According to the City of Fairfax Police Department, Fairfax High School administrators alerted officers on May 5 that “multiple assaults” had occurred at the school, and a subsequent investigation confirmed that a male student who was legally an adult had assaulted “numerous” underage female students between Feb. 25 and March 4.
Flores Ortiz was arrested two days later when he turned himself in to the police. He was charged with 13 counts of misdemeanor assault and battery, and found guilty of nine of them by a Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Court judge.
Judge Melinda VanLowe ultimately sentenced Flores Ortiz on April 21 to serve 180 days in jail for each of the nine counts on which he’d been convicted.
She suspended 140 days for each count, contingent on him exhibiting good behavior in jail and complying with the terms of his probation, so he was expected to serve a total of about 140 days, including the time he’d spent in custody since his March 7 arrest.
Though Flores Ortiz was only a junior at Fairfax High, Reid confirmed that he won’t return to FCPS following his conviction and incarceration.
“The external investigation confirmed that our administration acted promptly and appropriately to stop this behavior,” Reid wrote.
“We extend our deep gratitude to Fairfax High School administrators, staff, and our law enforcement partners for their swift, collaborative efforts to keep our learning environments safe and ensure accountability when the law is broken,” she added.
The U.S. Department of Education launched its own investigation into FCPS on March 30 over its handling of the complaints against Flores Ortiz as a possible violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination in public education on the basis of sex and has long been used to address sexual harassment claims.
The Education Department indicated that its investigation is ongoing, telling FFXnow that it doesn’t comment on open investigations.
