Prompted by Berkeleyside’s investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against a Berkeley High teacher, Wicks is considering changes to the California Public Records Act and Education Code.
The suit argues that the Berkeley school district’s inaction reveals a pattern of protecting “predators over students.”
After years of sexual misconduct complaints, the school district signed a gag order allowing Matthew Bissell to quietly resign.
Changes are coming to the district’s sexual harm reporting process, the result of mounting community pressure to better protect survivors.
A Berkeley High student gave a harrowing account of what happened when she tried to report her sexual assault in 2019, hoping to spur action.
Mardi Walters resigned as Title IX coordinator in February 2020 after trying to fix how the Berkeley school district handles sexual misconduct. Now she’s speaking publicly for the first time about why she left.
Matthew Bissell was finally served on Aug. 19, two months after the lawsuit was initially filed.
Last March, Genevieve Mage saw a 2003 yearbook photo of her colleague Matthew Bissell inappropriately hugging a 17-year-old student. She couldn’t let it go.
Shortly before the suit was filed, a district Title IX investigation found that former chemistry teacher and football coach Matthew Bissell engaged in a years-long pattern of inappropriate behavior.
The students hope that the lawsuit, if successful, could pave the way for more safeguards for survivors in the future.
Campus culture and safety issues have bubbled to the surface at Berkeley High School this week, with students publicly accusing their classmates of sexual assault and their administration of failing to prevent it.
A female student at Berkeley High School has sued the Berkeley Unified School District over how administrators handled her attempted rape on campus last year, new records show.
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