In January 2010, a 14-year-old special education student was raped in her Alabama middle school bathroom. She had been sodomized; medical evidence confirmed there was anal tearing and bruising. On its face, those claims alone are enough to spark justifiable outrage, but the school's alleged role and complicity in the case are even more stunning.

A 2010 lawsuit dismissed the federal charges in the case, but the state charges remained intact. Now the Justice Department has filed a brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit supporting the National Women's Law Center's (NWLC) position against the Madison County School Board and Sparkman Middle School officials in Toney, Alabama, outlining horrific actions by school officials.

The brief alleges that they ignored the girl's complaints about the boy's ongoing harassment of her in school. Then — because Sparkman policy dictates that sexual harassment will only be punished if one is caught in the act and the act is substantiated by witnesses, admits to the act, or if there's physical evidence of attack — they knowingly sent the girl into the bathroom as bait to catch the boy "in the act."

The alleged rapist was a 16-year-old boy with a history of violence, inappropriate touching, and harassment documented by the school. According to the brief, the boy was in fact serving an in-school suspension when the rape occurred, yet school officials allowed him to walk the halls unsupervised.

The brief outlines that a teacher's aide named June Simpson reassured the girl that once she got the boy into the bathroom, a staff member would be there before he could harass her. The plan went horribly wrong. This from the brief:

"[The boy] told [the girl] to go to the sixth grade boys' bathroom and she complied. No teachers were in the bathroom to intervene, and [the boy] sodomized [the girl]. That afternoon, [the girl], [the boy], and Simpson gave written and oral statements to school administrators. [The girl] reported that [the boy] anally raped and "stuck" her about six times in the rectum."

After the incident, the girl and her family moved away out of shame. The boy didn't. He served a five-day suspension and was briefly sent to a special school but shortly returned to Sparkman Middle School.

The girl's guardian filed an initial lawsuit in 2010. Among school administrators mentioned in the filing is then-vice principal Jeanne Dunaway. According to the brief, Dunaway met with Simpson, who hatched the plan with the girl just before the alleged rape. Dunaway offered no advice or direction on the matter. Later, Dunaway said, "[The girl] was responsible for herself once she entered the bathroom," according to federal attorneys.

Dunaway no longer serves as vice principal of Sparkman; she was promoted to principal of Madison County Elementary in 2013. Simpson has since resigned.

In her 17 years at the NWLC, Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel at the center and one of the attorneys on the brief, said the Alabama case is "one of the most egregious situations I have seen," of abject failure of a school to protect its students from violence.

Chaudhry said there is standing under Title IX to sue the school for what is called deliberate indifference. Title IX requires schools to investigate charges of sexual harassment promptly and thoroughly, take corrective action as needed, and protect the victim.

"This tragic situation should never have happened," said Fatima Goss Graves, NWLC Vice President for Education and Employment. "The school's policy that perpetrators of sexual harassment be 'caught in the act' allowed the school to turn a blind eye to ongoing sexual harassment and violence. This lack of accountability sends a troubling message to would-be perpetrators: As long as you're not caught, you'll escape all consequences."

The Justice Department noted in its filing that the school destroyed school documents of complaints and downplayed serious incidences when filing reports and keeping school records. Earlier charges were dismissed.

Tonight, there is a regular board meeting scheduled for 5:15 p.m. at the Madison County central auditorium in Huntsville. The meeting agenda is populated with what you might expect from a school board meeting: review of financial statements, revisions to construction contracts, and strategic plan updates. What isn't on the agenda is the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl on the school's watch. NWLC filed its brief last Wednesday, September 10, so it is reasonable to assume with that much advanced notice the board could have chosen to take up the issue at the meeting tonight.

When I spoke with the board secretary, she couldn't talk about the alleged rape or give me any reason why it wasn't on the agenda. I asked her if there would be time for public comment at the end of the proceeding. She told me no. She said a person could apply to speak before the school board but only by requesting time 72 hours before the meeting is set to begin.

Dunaway and Madison County Board of Education spokesperson Geraldine Tabs did not return calls for comment at time of publication.

Follow Andy on Twitter.