This week, the United States Department of Education (DOE) announced a new Title IX enforcement initiative led by the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to combat the rise of sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and sexual violence incidents occurring in elementary and secondary (K-12) public schools involving both student-on-student and staff-on-student incidents.
OCR is an enforcement arm of the United States Department of Education which enforces a number of civil rights laws in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), 20 U.S.C §§ 1681 et seq., prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities operated by recipients of federal financial assistance. Title IX’s prohibition of discrimination includes sexual harassment and assault, which interferes with students’ rights to receive an education free from discrimination on the basis of sex.” [1]
Continue Reading New Title IX Enforcement Initiative to Address Sexual Misconduct in K-12 Public Schools
In this renewed era of individual responsibility for corporate malfeasance, corporate counsel would be well advised to help protect themselves from personal liability by taking six steps of their own when notified of allegations of wrongdoing within the company.