by Megan Veith
“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.”20 U.S.C. § 1681(a).
When most people think of Title IX, they think of sports. As
a female student athlete, I benefited greatly from Title IX, being able to play
soccer, volleyball, track, tennis, and swimming just like my male classmates.
However, Title IX benefits girls (and boys) in another critical way: it helps
ensure that schools don’t ignore allegations of sexual
violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, and sexual
coercion.
How does the law do this?
A 2011 letter
by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights explains that the law imposes
crucial obligations on schools to not stay silent about sexual violence. Importantly,
Title IX effectively requires schools that know, or reasonably should know, of
possible sexual violence to immediately investigate the situation. If the
sexual violence occurred, the school must take prompt and effective steps to
stop the violence, prevent it from happening again, and address the effects of
the violence. Finally, the school must provide an avenue for students to bring
Title IX complaints, including ones of sexual violence.
These obligations on schools are particularly important because
one in four women will survive a rape
or attempted rape by the time she graduates college. Men
are also victims of sexual violence at school. Moreover, a recent study
by the National Institute of Justice found that schools are grossly
underprepared in sexual assault awareness training and education and only about
50% of schools have “specific
sexual assault policy goals.”
Facts like these are taking a front page in the news
recently as a number of students
from at least 5 universities have filed Title IX complaints against their
schools for failing to effectively respond to rape and sexual assault
allegations, including the University of Southern California (USC), the
University of Colorado at Boulder, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(UNC), Occidental College in Los Angeles, and Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania. These complaints
illustrate a range of problems. For
example, the complaint against USC alleges that a
student was told not to discuss her sexual assault case with the police and
that her experience wasn’t sexual assault because her attacker didn’t orgasm. The
UNC complaint alleges
that the school administration underreported the number of sexual assaults on
campus and was hostile to victims that refused to remain silent about the
violence committed against them.
In addition to the official complaints, students nationwide are
organizing advocacy campaigns, raising awareness, and taking a stand. Unlike
many groups before them, however, they have an important way to spread the word
about what’s really going on at schools – social media. Activists are
effectively and powerfully educating others through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,
blog posts, and other online media outlets. A website, “Know Your Title IX,” has been set up
just to empower students and inform people about their Title IX rights and help
students report violence, change their school, support a survivor, and spread
the word - an excellent step in working toward effective change.
Whether through filing a complaint, organizing an advocacy
campaign, or raising awareness, ending the silence about campus sexual violence
is critical to ending the violence. While
everyone has different experiences with sexual violence and no one can pretend
to feel what a survivor does, it is important that everyone share their own
experiences with sexual violence to make others aware of how prevalent it is
and to help schools change their policies.
Speaking from my own experiences, throughout my educational
experiences, I have received rape threats from multiple male classmates. I learned
what it’s like to fear going to school the next day and to wonder if school
administrators would take my complaints seriously while protecting my identity.
I learned what it’s like to fear that people will find out what happened and
blame me, complaining that I take things too personally or don't understand a
"joke." I know what it's like to wonder that if I didn’t say anything,
whether those classmates would carry out a similar threat on someone else. I
know what it's like to live with regret that I chose to remain silent and did
not effectively use my Title IX rights.
No one – ABSOLUTELY NO ONE – should fear going to school, to
learn, to succeed. This is why Title IX is in place. Women and men are using
Title IX to protect themselves and future generations from the inhumanity that
is sexual violence. It is critical that all of us know our Title IX rights and
spread the word to others so that all forms of sexual violence come to an end
and that schools carry out on their undeniable obligation to protect their
students.
Megan Veith is currently a legal intern at Legal Voice. She just finished her second year at Georgetown University Law Center, after graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Washington. Megan is a strong advocate for women’s rights and is thrilled at the opportunity to fight for equality for all people at Legal Voice.
Photo credit here
Megan Veith is currently a legal intern at Legal Voice. She just finished her second year at Georgetown University Law Center, after graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Washington. Megan is a strong advocate for women’s rights and is thrilled at the opportunity to fight for equality for all people at Legal Voice.
Photo credit here
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