A woman accuses a schoolmate of raping her at age 12. The school system says she is making it up. [View all]

Source: AP

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Updated 2:00 PM CDT, March 26, 2024

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A 24-year-old woman told jurors Tuesday that she was repeatedly raped and sexually harassed a decade ago as a seventh-grade student in Virginia, and that school officials reacted to her pleas for help with indifference.

Lawyers for the school system say she is making it up, and she wept on the stand when she was cross-examined about evidence suggesting her allegations were untrue.

An eight-person civil jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria will have to decide whether the woman — identified in court papers only by her initials B.R. — is telling the truth, and whether school officials should be held liable for their response.

The case is one among several high-profile sexual misconduct cases that have been filed in recent years against northern Virginia school systems. Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has faulted school systems for their responses to issues of student safety.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sex-assault-school-trial-fairfax-virginia-d4641afbd68f6c7687dddc91f0c74978