Mira Costa High School’s #metoo moment
Editors at La Vista, Mira Costa’s student newspaper, believe the time has come for a change to campus culture. From left to right, La Vista editors Claire Dumont, Kyra Williams, Kaelie Macaulay, and Naomi Tsuang. Photo
Two female students from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach have accused a male Mira Costa student of sexual assaults in incidents that occurred off-campus last year. One of the incidents was reported to MCHS administration and to police in July.
A group of editors at Mira Costa’s student newspaper, La Vista, published a story on Dec. 14 that reported the allegations and further suggested that Principal Ben Dale and Manhattan Beach Unified School District leadership have failed to provide a safe campus environment. The students say that the lack of communication that has occurred since the allegations went public via social media last November has exacerbated a problem that already existed: a campus culture in which female students do not feel safe.
“I think the fact that the administration has yet to address the sexual assault allegations, or sexual assault in general, is very unsettling,” said Naomi Tsuang, La Vista editor-in-chief. “I think the administration could simply hold a student assembly to talk about this, and to just allow students to be more informed about these issues. Because [these issues] are more widespread, and more victims have been coming forward to talk about it.”
The issue became public on Nov. 27, when Manhattan Beach resident Tom Loversky, an attorney, posted on the NextDoor social media app that he’d learned of an alleged rape by a Mira Costa student-athlete. The mother of a female Mira Costa student posted a comment on Loversky’s NextDoor post. “My daughter won’t attend any party where this boy is present — she says there are 7 girls that she knows about but they don’t want to come forward because the ones that have — haven’t been supported.”
Another parent suggested the number of victims numbered at least 10. The NextDoor posts, which have since been deleted by the site administrator, created a firestorm. Dozens of outraged posts following the initial exchanges. Loversky later posted some of those exchanges on Facebook.
“Mira Costa HS has a possible rape problem,” Loversky wrote. “I know of two investigations and today I learned there may be 10 more victims that won’t come forward because the school doesn’t do anything. Unreal.”
Loversky, in an interview, said he first learned of a possible sexual assault when he met the mother of an alleged victim at a local dog park on Oct. 27, 2018. The woman told him that her daughter had been raped by a fellow senior boy and had reported the incident both to police and the MCHS principal. What particularly troubled him, Loversky said, was MCHS administration’s handling of the issue. He wrote a letter to City Council the next day explaining what the woman had told him and seeking their intercession.
“We had a long conversation and she told me that her daughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress from a rape that occurred at the hands of a Mira Costa senior boy,” Loversky wrote. “A police report was made and the woman asked to speak to [Principal] Ben Dale. He wouldn’t speak to her and instead referred her to an assistant principal…The parent said one of the first questions she was asked was ‘What was your daughter wearing?’”
Loversky said that he has since spoken to two other parents of alleged rape victims. One of the alleged assaults involved the same male student; the other involved another student-athlete who graduated last year. The mother of one of the alleged victims told Loversky her daughter had preserved a piece of clothing with possible DNA evidence of the assault but had not come forward due to fear of repercussions and lack of belief that anything would be done.
Loversky argues that Mira Costa’s culture has an embedded sense of entitlement in which male student-athletes’ transgressive behavior is protected.
“I don’t want to say it’s a club, but it’s almost like these boys think they are entitled to these girls — to do what they want,” Loversky said. “And you know, what has been the repercussion? Nothing. Not even a single word.”
A spokesperson for MBPD confirmed that two separate police reports were filed regarding alleged sexual assaults by a current Mira Costa student.
“Both cases have been investigated and both have been concluded,” said MBPD Sgt. Tim Zins. “Due to the fact both are juvenile cases, we cannot disclose any information on either case. Mr. Loversky has been contacted by our investigators but he did not cooperate with giving us any information.”
La Vista reporters spoke with one of the alleged victims, who wished to remain anonymous. She was apparently the same victim whose mother Loversky spoke to on Oct. 27. She told La Vista that she’d filed reports with both MBPD and with Dale, who’d referred her to Vice Principal Stephanie Hall, who was also her guidance counselor.
“Dale did not respond to emails or phone calls from her parents and did not address her sexual assault until Loversky wrote the NextDoor post, the alleged victim said,” according to La Vista.
La Vista questioned Dale about the allegations at a “Coffee with the Principal” event on Dec. 5.
“Kids only started coming forward to tell stories because of the chaos that was created due to the social media post,” Dale reportedly said. “We had nothing in our offices about this, then kids started coming forward and telling stories, not about themselves, but about things they heard. So, then we had to follow up all those things.”
In an email, Dale said he could not comment specifically on the allegations. But he did confirm that in July he’d learned of an allegation involving an assault on a Mira Costa student and immediately referred the case to MBPD.
“We received a report of an off-campus sexual assault of a Costa student in early July,” Dale wrote. “As soon as we received the report, we began communicating with the Manhattan Beach Police Department and took steps at school to address possible effects of the incident at school. Many more questions arose after social media posts and we have also taken steps to investigate and address the questions and process the information coming in from parents and students.”
Dale said that what may be perceived as a lack of communication regarding the issue is reflective of the administration’s sensitivity to individual student privacy, and a legal requirement to protect that right.
“We are not at liberty to discuss any individual students, so it is challenging to respond in a manner that maintains the confidentiality of sensitive information while also providing all of the information desired by students, staff, and members of the public,” Dale wrote. “Please know that whenever we receive allegations of a crime involving students that occurs off campus, we immediately share that information with the police department and cooperate with any investigation they might initiate. We also attempt to determine whether any of our students are being negatively impacted by off-campus conduct and, if so, make every effort to address those effects.”
Kailie Macaulay, a La Vista copy editor, said students understand that administrators are constrained in their responses by privacy rights and that no student suspensions have occurred out of respect for due process. But she said the male student at the center of the most recent allegations has been a troubling presence on campus.
“He’s not sexually harassing girls, but he’s harassing girls on campus, and the school knows about this and nothing is being done,” she said.
Macaulay, a senior, said this student’s behavior on campus is indicative of a larger pattern of male behavior towards females at Mira Costa.
“I personally have never felt safe at this school,” she said. “That’s just my experience here… Guys catcalling, doing stuff like that on campus. I just never felt truly safe. And the administration has never done anything about it.”
Keely Sweeny, a Mira Costa English teacher and faculty adviser for La Vista, said that MBUSD could find itself legally vulnerable for failing to comply with Title IX, a federal civil rights law which includes education amendments prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and requiring school administrators to maintain a safe school environment.
“While it is true the administration can’t suspend a student over allegations, Title IX does outline how the administration has a responsibility to maintain an environment that is not hostile to students,” Sweeny said. “There does not seem to be much being done in regards to this.”
School board president Bill Fournell said he has had three daughters graduate from Mira Costa and has a son who currently attends the school. He said his family talked about all the issues the allegations stirred while everyone was home over the holidays. Fournell said while his daughters did not experience a hostile environment, he and fellow district leaders are sensitive to the fact that this may not be true for all female students, and is open to finding ways to engage in a district-wide conversation about such issues.
“The district and administration take these things seriously, and the board does as well,” Fournell said. “It’s personal, as well, to pretty much all of us as parents in this district.”
Fournell said the board, like the public, has not been privy to the specifics of the allegations due to privacy concerns. But he said the allegations, and La Vista’s reporting on the issues surrounding those allegations, have raised concerns and perhaps presented an opportunity to better address what students are experiencing on campus.
“I think it’s an opportunity not so much for a conversation about the specifics of these allegations but a larger conversation about supporting kids emotionally through their high school years,” he said. “It’s a challenging time in their lives…This is a really good opportunity for us on the school board to talk about what [troubling] behavior looks like and the way support should be played out. We can help with the culture and climate, so to speak, at the campus.”
Fournell said part of the challenge is sorting out fact from frenzy on social media. He credited Loversky with bringing attention to larger issues but said the manner in which he did so in some ways did more harm than good.
“Many of the accusations or assertions he’s made are at the very least third or fourth hand,” Fournell said. “So it’s very difficult to take action on something like that, and it ultimately spins up a lot when you resort to social media to make your cause public, so to speak. Even in a context where you can disclose facts, it’s hard to unring those bells… People already have their minds made up based on a little bit of information.”
The editors and reporters at La Vista say they feel a responsibility to younger students to help change the campus culture. They say that since the story about the allegations was published, several female alumni have contacted them and said they experienced an uncomfortable and often hostile environment at the school.
“This is not the first time this has happened at the school,” said Kyra Williams, executive news editor at La Vista.
“I have a younger sister at the school, she is a freshman, and I don’t want anything to happen to her, so I hold myself responsible,” said Macaulay. “Things have got to change in this district, because this has been going on for a while. I want to change this now, so my sister doesn’t have to go through what we went through.”