AISD comes to an agreement with sexual assault survivor, mandatory training for all staff

All Austin ISD employees will receive comprehensive training against sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination from the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. This is part of an agreement AISD made with former AISD student Julia Heilrayne, who said she was sexually assaulted by another student years ago and was silenced by AISD administrators.

"They told me not to talk about it in class and not talk about it with my friends even outside of class or just basically that I shouldn't talk about it at all," Heilrayne said. “I am really happy with the agreement we have come to with AISD. I think it is a really big step forward in terms of protecting both current and future students in the district and I am really excited of the effects that it is going to have district-wide.”

On Wednesday, Heilrayne’s attorneys, alongside Heilrayne and her mother, announced every AISD employee will be required to go through the comprehensive training beginning Thursday.

“AISD is going to be receiving this training from the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault for free, so it’s a win win for everybody. Julia gets to see a safer school in the future and AISD gets all types of great training,” said Wayne Krause Yang, Texas Legal Services Center attorney. “One of the great things about this training is that it doesn’t just get into a particular aspect of things. There are a lot of aspects beyond sexual assault that might happen, and this training is going to get into those.”

“It means that a student can report a sexual assault or harassment or discrimination to any person at school. It doesn’t have to be a particular teacher, administrator, or superintendent. When that report is made, that individual after this training will know exactly how to follow the procedures,” said Ann Maldonado Heaps, Texas Legal Services Center attorney.

Austin ISD released this statement regarding the extensive sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination training:

“Austin ISD and the Texas Legal Service Center have worked together to bring new training to Austin ISD for all Austin ISD employees take in the coming year.

The training will focus on sexual harassment prevention, identification and reporting. This is a proactive step AISD and TLSC are making so families know their schools are safe.”

Heilrayne’s mother, Karen Rayne hopes what comes out of this training will be an effective approach to making the student feel that it is not their fault.

“Having trainings is what allows cracks like the ones that Julia experienced, in the ways that professionals through AISD respond to sexual assault, be more effective in those responses. Training is really the only way to make those kinds of changes,” Rayne said. “Obviously, as a mother this was a really difficult experience. You know, parents never want to see their children hurt and this is a particular kind of hurt that is deep.”

Julia Heilrayne said the agreement with AISD is more effective than a lawsuit because it will prevent her experience with AISD administrators from happening to current and future students.

“I was moving forward with it so that other kids wouldn’t have to go through what I went through,” Heilrayne said. “I think to any future student who might experience this. I really hope that they would report it and that they would receive compassionate and kind responses that like my mom said, make it clear that it is not their fault and handle the situation in the least traumatic way as possible.”