District to pay $165,000 in Reagan High student's death

Austin American-Statesman ^ | 28 February 2006 | Raven L. Hill

[Racehorse]

The Austin school district will pay $165,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a slain Reagan High student.

The settlement, which does not include admission of wrongdoing by the district, ends a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by the estate of Ortralla Mosley, who was fatally stabbed by her former boyfriend, Marcus McTear, at Reagan in 2003. The plaintiffs had sought $13 million in the lawsuit, which was dismissed Tuesday.

The Austin American-Statesman obtained details about the settlement agreement under the Texas Public Information Act. Under the terms that the school board approved Feb. 20, Mosley's mother, Carolyn Mosley, will volunteer with the district to counsel students on dating violence.

RaeAnne Spence, who was also a plaintiff, settled Tuesday for $35,000. She said McTear, a former classmate, had sexually harassed her.

[. . .]

The district was sued under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools. Mosley family lawyers claim it is the first time the federal law was used against a school district over a student's death. They planned to argue that school officials knew that McTear had harassed the girls but did not take reasonable steps to stop him.

[Racehorse]

. . . if, upon notice of hostile environment harassment, a school takes immediate and appropriate steps to remedy the hostile environment, the school has avoided violating Title IX. Thus, Title IX does not make a school responsible for the actions of harassing students, but rather for its own discrimination in failing to remedy it once the school has notice.

Sexual Harassment Guidance 1997 (last updated 03/14/2005)

[steel_resolve]

Nanny State Ping

[Mark was here]

The School District has a duty to protect it's taxpayers from such a lawsuit. The district should cease operations, sell all assets and return the balance to the taxpayers. If the Federal Government wants to call the tune, they can then pay for the band.

[libstripper]

Sexual harassment is a difficult thing in the context of a consensual boy-girl relationship. When two teenagers are going together and getting it on hot and heavy, what would be sexual harassment becomes consensual sexual activity. I wonder what real evidence the school even had that these two were anything other than an ordinary teen age couple and what evidence it had that he had any real proclivity to try to hurt her. Absent such evidence, the settlement seems to be a very bad idea. Of course the whole sexual harassment thing in the context of high school social life is a pile of garbage, since an unwanted request for a date can easily be interpreted as sexual harassment.

[BJClinton]

In court she said the boy was just misunderstood and she petitioned the judge to reduce his sentence and not put him on death row. But she takes my tax dollars because the school couldn't stop a violent thug her daughter made a mistake with.

BTW, the murdering thug will probably get out on parole in less than 8 years.

[BJClinton]

Oopsie! I was just informed that he flunked out of Giddings State School and will not have a chance at parole.