Speak your mind on DeVos and Title IX

We’re at a pivotal moment in Title IX history. Not since 1975 has the Department of Education changed the regulations governing Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The Trump Administration now is going all-out to see that its definition of sex discrimination becomes the law of the land and to limit how schools are allowed to respond to it. Women’s advocates are fighting back, but Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave the public only until Jan. 29, 2019 to submit comments for or against her new Title IX rules. Groups like Know Your IX, End Rape on […]

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Title IX advocates sue federal government

It looks like a coalition of advocates for Title IX may get to take the Trump Administration to court. (Video: Lawyers and a student survivor of sexual assault explain their case at a press conference.) A federal magistrate judge at a hearing in San Francisco seemed inclined to let a lawsuit proceed against the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX policy but she asked lawyers for both sides to submit more arguments before she decides. The government had moved to dismiss the suit and plaintiffs opposed that motion, which the judge will decide. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley vigorously questioned attorneys […]

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Feds dismissing civil rights complaints

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) says it gets too many complaints about discrimination, creating an “unreasonable burden” on the Office. It recently changed procedures to make it harder for people to file complaints and is now disregarding hundreds already received. It also scrapped the option to appeal decisions made by OCR in cases that it does take on. Civil rights advocates are not happy, to say the least. As the late, great Yogi Berra might say, it’s like déjà vu all over again. This isn’t the first time that OCR has tried systematically ignoring many of […]

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Get ready for more Title IX fireworks

Happy 2018! In the new year, the backlash against Title IX will make more headlines as the Trump Administration continues to change regulations dealing with sex discrimination in education. Advocates for girls and women will push back and eventually move society two steps forward for every step back. We’ve seen this before, many times. Let’s take a look at the challenges that Title IX faced and overcame at this point in previous decades. It’s been a wild ride toward equity in education. The fun isn’t done. This timeline leaves out a lot, yet you can see patterns and progress: 1968 […]

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New Knot in Civil Rights Tug-of-War

The U.S. Department of Education recently inverted a strategy it tried in 1975 to cut back on its work enforcing civil rights laws, including Title IX. Public outcry from  organizations for minorities, women, and the disabled — plus a supportive court ruling — forced federal officials to back off in 1975. Will it today? Historically, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has used two approaches to enforce civil rights — investigating individual complaints of discrimination, and broader “compliance reviews” of an educational institution as a whole. Compliance reviews may be scheduled any time, or can arise from complaints. In […]

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Title IX critics huddle up for special treatment

When I read complaints that Title IX enforcement goes too far in dealing with sexual assault on campus, I think of football. Not because this topic is a political football being tossed around in the court of public opinion, though there’s that. In the history of Title IX, today’s complainers of government “overreach” in dealing with sexual assaults have a lot in common with college football teams and other men’s sports, but especially football. What they want, it seems, is for people to realize that they’re special, and that they deserve special rules. The government more than once has bent over backwards […]

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