We welcome our panelists from the Office of Civil Rights, from the
Department of Education, Doreen Dennis, Senior Attorney, OCR and Lisa
Battalia Anthony, Senior Attorney, Office of General Counsel. As
indicated previously, they will be participating from February 10 - 16.
Here is their opening statement.
Sexual harassment undermines the mission of educational institutions to
provide a safe learning environment and equal educational opportunity
for all students. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights
(OCR), works with parents, educational administrators, teachers, and
others, to help to ensure that all schools meet their obligations to
provide students with nondiscriminatory, safe learning environments.
On March 13, 1997, to assist schools in meeting their obligations, OCR,
which has the responsibility for enforcing Title IX, provided
educational institutions with a detailed discussion of their
responsibilities to respond appropriately and remedy sexual harassment
of students. A copy of the guidance is available on the DepartmentĘs
website at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/sexhar00.html.
As the guidance makes clear, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination
in education programs and activities operated by schools that receive
federal financial assistance. Therefore, schools are responsible under
Title IX to provide students with a nondiscriminatory educational
environment. As described in the guidance, sexual harassment of a
student may violate this obligation. When a student files a complaint,
or a responsible school employee such as an administrator, professor,
principal, teacher or Title IX coordinator otherwise learns of possible
sexual harassment discrimination by others, Title IX requires the school
immediately to investigate, and where it finds sexual harassment
occurred, to take appropriate corrective action.
As also discussed in the guidance, the Department's Title IX regulation
also requires schools to have well-publicized policies against
discrimination based on sex, including sexual harassment discrimination;
to have effective and well-publicized procedures for students to raise
and resolve these issues; and to take prompt and effective action to
equitably resolve sexual harassment discrimination complaints. In
addition, schools are required to designate at least one employee to
coordinate and carry out their Title IX responsibilities.
The Department continues to work with schools, students and other
interested parties to ensure that schools have effective policies and
procedures in place to prevent sexual harassment. Because sexual
harassment discrimination can have serious, detrimental consequences for
students, schools need to take the problem of sexual harassment very
seriously. In addition to having well-publicized policies and
procedures in place, schools should be taking preventative steps to
identify problems -- such as training staff to recognize and report
potential harassment -- and to follow up on any information indicating
potential discrimination. OCR provides individual schools upon request
with technical assistance and practical guidance to develop preventative
programs.
OCR welcomes the opportunity to answer any questions you may have about
the guidance. As a matter of policy, OCR can not comment on any ongoing
litigation in which the Department of Justice is participating as a
friend of the court
(amicus).
Doreen Dennis Lisa Battalia Anthony
Doreen_Dennis@ed.gov Lisa_Battalia@ed.gov
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