Judge rejects school system’s request to toss out long-running sex-assault lawsuit

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request by Virginia’s largest school system to toss out a lawsuit accusing it of indifference to a middle school student’s claims of sexual abuse and harassment. The Fairfax County School Board filed a motion in November to dismiss the long-running suit. The school system said it had uncovered evidence that the former middle schooler had fabricated allegations she was raped and sexually abused by classmates. In a recently unsealed order, though, U.S. District Court Judge Rossie Alston said the school system “overreached” in claiming the plaintiff had committed a fraud upon the court.