Karen Truszkowski is the attorney for a young woman who says she spent her high school days in fear because she was being followed and sexually assaulted by another student.
"Very intimidating... Frightening," Truszkowski said.
Truszkowski says that although the school district did take actions to help the victim-- administrators didn't fulfill their promises to have the student constantly monitored and to keep him separated from the plaintiff.
She says that constitutes a violation of Title 9, which lays out how districts have to respond to sexual assault reports.
"If the school does not comply with Title 9, they are in danger of losing their federal funding,"Truszkowski said.
Trusszkowski says these sexual assaults in schools unfortunately are not uncommon.
"People don't realize it,” Truszkowski said. “Parents don't realize it. It happens a lot more than people realize."
She says one of the main goals of the lawsuit is to spread awareness that changes need to be made in how school districts deal with sexual assaults.
"School districts, the people that work for the school districts have to pay attention and believe the students when they tell them we're frightened, we're scared, this happened to me," Truszkowski said.
She hopes this lawsuit brings the victim peace of mind, and also opens up the eyes of the schools
"We just want school districts to stand up and take notice," Truszkowski said.
