Believe it or not, Title IX is about much more than protecting women athletes. A new student-run grassroots organization, “Know Your IX,” seeks to educate students about their rights under the law and their school’s responsibilities to comply with Title IX’s stipulations.
Title IX protects students — whether they’re in high school or college — against sex-based discrimination in education. It protects pregnant students, women pursuing degrees in STEM fields and victims of rape, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and stalking. And it’s not just for women. Men may also file Title IX complaints if they are raped, sexually harassed or discriminated against.
One of the most important tenants of Title IX includes which actions universities are required to take to ensure that a victim may continue his or her education free of discrimination and violence.
“Along with issuing a no contact directive to the accused, a schools must ensure any reasonable changes to your housing, class or sports schedule, campus job, or extracurricular activity and clubs are made to ensure you can continue your education free from any ongoing sex discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual violence,” states the Know Your IX website.
Filing a Title IX complaint against schools that mishandle rape and sexual assault cases is imperative. Now that more students are coming forward with their stories, our nation is faced with a hard truth: Universities are not well-equipped to handle sexual assault cases.
In a Chronicle of Higher Education article published last week, writer Casey McDermott addressed the conflicts universities faced when dealing with sexual-assault cases.
“While colleges are generally equipped to handle infractions like theft or plagiarism, they often lack the tools for dealing with sexual violence as the law demands,” McDermott wrote.
The U.S. Department of Education announced in February it contacted state school chiefs requesting they tighten up their efforts to reduce sex-based discrimination and violence in their schools. Although this is a step in the right direction, more pressure — and consequences for schools that don’t comply — is needed from the federal government to affect change.
“Colleges wrestle with endless questions,” McDermott wrote. “Who should field sexual-assault reports, and who should investigate them? What skills should those people have? How much would it cost to hire or train investigators? How can the process balance the rights and sensitivities of accusing and accused students, both before and during a hearing?”
“And if a student is found responsible for misconduct,” McDermott wrote, “then what?”
While colleges search for solutions to improve their approaches to investigate campus sex crimes, the best thing students can do is continue filing Title IX complaints to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. To learn more about your rights under Title IX, visit http://knowyourix.org/.
A version of this column ran on page 6 on 9/18/2013 under the headline "Know your Title IX rights; hold schools accountable"
