Jury to decide if Chapel Hill elementary school ignored sexual assault claims
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jury will weigh claims that CHCCS concealed student assaults and mishandled reports.
- Plaintiffs allege failures in supervision, reporting, records access and trauma care.
- District denies negligence, cites reasonable hiring, investigation and oversight.
A jury will consider in April whether Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools officials were negligent and tried to sweep assault allegations between students and involving a substitute teacher under the rug.
The school district denies any wrongdoing or liability in this case, spokesman Andy Jenks said in an email Monday.
The lawsuit was filed last year in Orange County Superior Court against the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, former Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe Elementary School Principal Emily Bivins, and former FPG Spanish teacher Pablo Valencia.
It seeks a jury verdict on gross negligence, failure to comply with public-records laws, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, retention and training failures, and argues that the district and its staff “engaged in a coordinated pattern of concealing sexual abuse, failing to report, and creating a culture of silence that harmed” students.
The plaintiffs are asking the jury for actual and punitive damages, including the cost of several years of private-school tuition for two students, and the cost of medical treatment, therapy and counseling.
Former FPG parent and speech language pathologist Rebecca Fox filed the local case in April 2025 after a federal court judge dismissed her November 2022 federal lawsuit. Fox has been appointed guardian ad litem to represent her child and two other alleged victims, identified only by their initials in court documents.
The News & Observer is using Fox’s name, despite her child’s anonymity, because she has spoken publicly about the case.
New lawsuit adds to federal claims
The lawsuit filed in Orange County last year repeats claims that Fox made in the federal lawsuit, accusing CHCCS officials of not addressing allegations that a male kindergarten student repeatedly assaulted Fox’s daughter in 2019.
Fox contacted Bivins and former Assistant Principal Karen Galassi-Ferrer, now the school’s principal, after her daughter said a male classmate inappropriately touched her. Fox asked the school to acknowledge the situation and create a safety plan.
But the male student remained in class, and her daughter felt unsafe returning, the lawsuit says. In late November, after Fox says she contacted district officials, teachers started supervising recess and made in-school therapy available, the lawsuit says.
Her daughter returned to class, but the boy “threatened her again on the playground and ... no teachers were around,” it says. Fox, who had learned about a first-grader in a similar situation, enrolled her children in private school and resigned her position, it says.
The latest lawsuit claims the male student may have acted inappropriately after learning “problematic sexual behavior” from a male substitute teacher. It claims the teacher “repeatedly and violently” sexually abused a female student in 2019, and also made male students in the class “watch” him abuse female students.
Those allegations have not previously been reported but allege a female student alerted a teacher after finding the substitute sexually abusing a crying girl with her pants down in a bathroom adjacent to the class. The substitute fled when the female student returned with Valencia, who unsuccessfully gave chase, it says.
Valencia took both students to Principal Bivins to report the assault, and Bivins confirmed the allegation through hallway camera footage, the lawsuit says. However, Bivins told the students not to tell their parents and said she would take care of it, it says.
Neither Bivins nor Valencia reported the assault to police, and the substitute teacher later returned to class, the lawsuit says. The school also did not provide students with mental health treatment or tell their parents, it says.
District denies claims about teacher
The district denies that a male substitute teacher abused students in the class, Jenks, the district spokesman, said Saturday in an email. No one by that description “served at the school during the relevant time period” or has been identified, he said.
“We look forward to presenting our evidence to the court, where a more complete factual record can be developed,” Jenks said.
He referred to U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen Jr.’s ruling when asked about the previous lawsuit, saying the decision “outlined the detailed and meaningful response taken by the school.”
Osteen’s March 2025 summary judgment dismissed Fox’s Title IX and constitutional claims, saying the district took steps to address the issue that included immediately investigating the allegations and reporting them to law enforcement, talking with both students and their parents, and implementing a safety plan and “safe touch” lesson for the class.
Bivins also followed up with Fox, giving her the option to switch classes, and advised the teacher and teaching assistants how to handle the situation, Osteen said. She referred the situation to district officials, who met with Fox and advised other steps, he said.
“No reasonable jury could find that Defendant School Board responded to Plaintiff’s report of sexual assault with deliberate indifference,” Osteen concluded, while leaving the plaintiffs with the option to seek relief under state law in Orange County courts.
Annual reports filed with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction show no assaults or sexual offenses committed against students were reported at Frank Porter Graham between 2011 and 2025.
The Chapel Hill Police Department has not yet responded to a request for information about Frank Porter Graham assault reports.
This story was originally published March 30, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Jury to decide if Chapel Hill elementary school ignored sexual assault claims."
