Senior, 18, sues Bucks school district after alleged rape

An 18-year-old senior at Pennridge High School has filed a sexual-discrimination suit against the school district and two administrators, alleging they did not protect her from harassment by a classmate who she says raped her at a nearby restaurant.

The incident occurred on Dec. 17, 2014, when she was a sophomore, in the parking lot of the Country Place restaurant in Perkasie, according to the suit filed Wednesday on her behalf by the National Women's Law Center in federal court in Philadelphia. After she reported it to police and school officials, her alleged assailant and some of his friends sent threatening texts, shoved her in the hallway, and cursed at her, the suit said.

It is the second law center suit filed against the Pennridge School District alleging that administrators ignored pleas for help with harassment. In January, former student Modupe Williams contended in a suit that she was subjected to racial and sexual slurs, received harassing phone calls, and was tormented in and out of school. Administrators were aware of the episodes, she said, but didn't act.

The district is seeking to have that case dismissed. Law center attorney Alexandra Brodsky said that after Williams' case received publicity, several other Pennridge students or alumni came forward to say something similar had happened to them. More lawsuits may be forthcoming, she said.

"We are particularly troubled by a pattern and policy of telling students, if you were raped or otherwise harassed off campus, it's not our problem, it is their problem," Brodsky said of district officials. "The courts have said just going to school with someone who has harassed or assaulted you creates a hostile environment."

Superintendent Jacqueline A. Rattigan declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Both suits contend that the district violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex and race discrimination in education.

In the latest case, the student said that for two years, she and her mother begged school administrators, including Rattigan and principal Gina DeBona, for intervention. They contend that school officials did not investigate the alleged assault, for which no criminal charges were filed, or discipline students for the in-school harassment, according to the suit.

Instead, school officials suggested that the student, who had excellent grades and was active in school activities, attend an alternative school, the suit says.  After having difficulty making it through full days of school, Goodwin spent the last month of her sophomore year working from home, and left in April of her junior year to attend a cyber school, returning to the high school for her senior year.

Her education suffered as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder and the school's failure to make her feel safe, with her grade-point average dropping from 3.9 to 3.2, she said. The school initially agreed to her request that she not be assigned the same classes as her alleged assailant, she said, but she ended up in a study hall and lunch room with him.

The alleged assailant and the companions she accused of sending threatening texts graduated last year were not in school for her senior year, but two of the companions joined the military and came back to campus for recruiting events, which triggered her PTSD, she said. One will also be attending this Friday's senior prom, which she is attending.

"With PTSD, knowing that they're in the area near me, I can't focus, I feel as if I'm in danger," she said. "When I found out they were there, even though they were not speaking to me or in the vicinity, it still made me feel that I was unsafe."

She said the experience has shaped her choice of careers. While she originally wanted to be a teacher, she now plans to major in social work and psychology.

"After all this that happened to me, I realized that … teenage girls and students in high school have a much harder time going about life than I realized," she said. "It helped me understand I needed a person to be there for me, and I didn't have that. My hope is to be someone who can assist students in need."