Presentation Transcript

1. Harassment in the Hallways

   Sexual Harassment, Bullying, and the Law
2. Warm-up Brainstorm for one minute and write down your response to the following: Sexual harassment is defined as ______________, and examples include _______________.
3. Sexual Harassment sexual harassment in schools What is sexual harassment? What does sexual harassment include? Is it objective or subjective?
4. Title IX Portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance...
5. Sexual harassment Unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances and conduct that interfere with a student’s education Can undermine a student’s academic performance Ruin a student’s sense of physical, emotional, and mental well-being
6. Sexual harassment Student-on-student harassment most common Considered a form of illegal sexual discrimination Students can sue school system under Title IX
7. Two types Quid pro quo: school employee ties sexual advances to condition for participating in a school program/activity Or as a means of getting ahead (better grades) Or as a way of avoiding negative consequences
8. Two types Hostile environment: unwanted/unwelcome hostile conduct of a sexual nature is severe, persistent, & pervasive Interferes with student’s ability to learn Creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive environment
9. Hostile environment Examples Leers; sexual banter & ridicule; use of pornography to embarrass and humiliate; unwanted touching, squeezing, or fondling; sexual graffiti; persistent, negative sexual rumors; sexual “ratings” of students; sexual gestures; exhibitionist displays.
10. Title IX: before and after Before: “Making sexual innuendos, calling people sexually charged names, spreading rumors about sexual activity, or touching someone inappropriately used to be dismissed as "boys will be boys" type of behavior at best, and rude or crude at worst” (from titleIX.info)
11. Title IX: before and after After: The Supreme Court has confirmed that schools have an obligation under Title IX to prevent and address harassment against students, regardless of whether the harassment is perpetrated by peers, teachers, or other school officials.
12. Sexual harassment in schools is still commonplace -- for girls and for boys. Eight in 10 students experience some form of harassment during their school years, and more than 25% of them experience it often. Girls are more likely than boys to experience sexual harassment (56% versus 40%), but boys today are more likely to be harassed than boys were in 1993. Girls are more likely than boys to say that sexual harassment caused them to not want to go to school, change the way they go home from school, and have trouble sleeping.
13. CMS and sexual harassment/bullying Divide into your groups Read through the student handbook (return copies when done) Summarize in your own words what the handbook says about sexual harassment, bullying, use of pornography
14. Warm-up Answer the following questions: If a teacher sexually pressures and harasses one of his or her students, should the school system be held legally and financially responsible even if the teacher’s superiors were unaware of his or here conduct? Should school authorities be held responsible for student-on-student sexual harassment if they know about it and do nothing to stop it? What if they are totally unaware of what is going on?
15. Mad Men: Before Title IX Mad Men
16. Gebser v. Lago What is the question in this case that the Court must answer? When a school district may be held liable in damages in an implied right of action under Title IX for sexual harassment of a student by a teacher
17. Gebser v. Lago What is the Court’s conclusion? Damages may not be recovered in these circumstances unless an official of the school district who at a minimum has authority to initiate corrective measures has actual notice of, and is indifferent to, the teacher’s misconduct
18. Gebser v. Lago When will damages lie under Title IX? When an official who at a minimum has authority to address the alleged discrimination and to initiate corrective measures has knowledge and fails to act
19. Gebser v. Lago For a school to be liable, there must be deliberate indifference to discrimination. The Court will not hold a school district liable for a teacher’s sexual harassment of a student absent actual notice and deliberate indifference.
20. Warm-up Read the following quote from the dissenting opinion in Gebser v. Lago, and answer questions that follow
21. As a secondary school teacher, Waldrop exercised even greater authority and control over his students than employers and supervisors exercise over their employees. His gross misuse of that authority allowed him to abuse his young student’s trust. What do you think of the dissenting justices’ argument that the teacher is an authority figure within the school and therefore the school should be automatically (or “strictly”) liable for his conduct? Do you agree with the majority opinion (that there must be actual knowledge and “deliberate indifference” before the school system becomes liable), or with the dissenting opinion, (that the school must always be liable for the teacher’s actions), even if there was no actual notice to administrators that the teacher was harassing a student or having an affair? Why?
22. Davis v. Monroe Background: Injunctive Relief: A court order meant to force an organization or person either to do something or to stop doing something
23. Davis v. Monroe Dismissed by District Court; why? Student-on-student harassment provides no ground for a private cause of action under Title IX Court of Appeals ruling? Affirmed lower court ruling—no cause of action
24. Davis v. Monroe What did the Supreme Court have to consider? Whether a private damages action may lie against the school board in cases of student-on-student harassment
25. Davis v. Monroe How did the Court conclude? Only where the funding recipients acts with deliberate indifference to known acts of harassment in its programs/activities Such an action will lie only for harassment that is so severe, so pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim’s access to an educational opportunity or benefit
26. Davis v. Monroe Just the facts… Describe the harassment: Board of Ed policy? Conclusion in Gebser? When are damages available? Examples of situations that are not actionable
27. Davis v. Monroe Facts important to the Court: Repeated acts over a five-month period Harassment not only verbal but physical Multiple victims Harassment had a concrete, negative effect on LaShonda’s ability to receive an education Board had actual knowledge and deliberate indifference
28. Collaborative groups You will work on either Exercise 9.2 or 9.4, depending on the luck of the draw (from the hat)
29. Flashback Thursday! Prayer and public meetings
30. Objectives Continue to develop and deepen understanding of Title IX and protections against and violations of sexual discrimination in public schools Analyze and respond to fact patterns Title IX and LGBT students Introduction to bullying; review NC statute on bullying
31. Warm-up Title IX Answer these questions: What aspect of Title IX does this video address? Name a few ways the rights of women changed as a result of Title IX?
32. For the class… Working independently, respond to the fact patterns in your text on pages 256-257; answer the questions posed After ten minutes, get up, and sit down with someone else and compare your responses
33. LGBT students Title IX protections extend to heterosexual and homosexual students
34. Bullying North Carolina: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-407.15(a) (2010): "Bullying or harassing behavior includes, but is not limited to, acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, socioeconomic status, academic status, gender identity, physical appearance, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, developmental, or sensory disability, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics."
35. Bullying Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Abused students may suffer lasting effects. Repeated harmful attacks, and an imbalance of power.
36. Bullying Three types: Verbal (teasing, name-calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, threats) Social (spreading rumors, public embarrassment or ridicule, excluding intentionally with intent to cause harm) Physical (hitting/kicking/pinching, spitting, tripping/pushing, rude hand gestures, theft of/damage to personal property)
37. Cyber-bullying Bullying that takes place using electronic technology Text messages, emails, social networking cites, fake profiles, etc. Southern Alamance Florida cyberbullying
38. Bullying Martin Bashir interview Today show