A Brief History of Title IX

A Brief History of Title IX

Current Cases involving Title IX

What is Title IX?

Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools 1992

Establishment of the Department of Education 1979

• The oversight of all programs funded by the Department are handed over to the newly established Office for Civil Rights

• Rape and sexual assault on campus
• Under reported and rarely investigated
• Endrapeoncampus.org or EROC is a university based advocacy program which uses Title IX to fight cases of rape and sexual assault on campuses across the U.S
• In 2015, Huffington Post published an article which stated that over the course of just 8 months, from May 2014 to January 2015, campus investigations by the DoE based on sexual assault rose from 55 to 106 (1)

• A statute passed on June 23, 1972
• Meant to end educational discrimination based on sex
• Sought to provide girls with equal opportunity in athletics, but deals with many aspects outside of athletics as well
• The law applies to all public educational programs that receive federal funding (3)
• Beneficial to both boys and girls
• Main goal: Establish gender equality in schools

• Supreme Court holds up Title IX claim seeking out monetary damages
• Student claims she was sexually harassed and abused by a teacher/coach
• She also claims the administration of the school was aware of the abuse and encouraged her not to press charges
• The Court ruled 9-0 in favor of the student (6)

• The ORC ensures that all institutes that receive federal funding are complying by the law (4)

1980

2000

1977

Present Day

1972

North Haven Board of Education v. Bell

1982

Cecilia G. v. Antelope Valley Union High School District 2005

Alexander v. Yale University 1977

• Title IX use for first time to bring up charges of sexual harassment against an education institution
• "This case presents an example of quid pro quo sexual harassment in academia involving a student's allegation that she received a poor grade after rejecting her professor's offer of an "A" for compliance with his sexual demands." (2)

• A complaint is filed by a teacher, on the grounds of sexual discrimination, after not being rehired after a pregnancy leave
• DoE asked North Haven school district for hiring and tenure practices
• The district refused, siting the Federal Government was overstepping their bounds (6)
• The case went to the Supreme Court where the court sided with Bell, upholding the law of Title IX

• The ACLU of Southern California settles case of displacing pregnant students from mainstream schools into "pregnancy schools"
• The case claimed the "pregnancy schools" provided substandard education compared to mainstream/public schools
• Girls were also threatened with losing state funded support programs for remaining a full time student (5)

• Title IX affords students the right to an education outside of a "hostile environment"
• The courts recognized this, but ruled that there must be indisputable proof of "distinct and palpable" injury (2)

References

1. James Madison University - Case History of Title IX. (n.d.).

2. Title IX - Gender Equity in Education | American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.).

3. Title IX and Sex Discrimination. (n.d.).

4. Title IX: It's More Than Sports Timeline | American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.).

5. TitleIX.info - Supreme Court Stories. (n.d.).