Education Law

NYCLU Files Lawsuit Over Anti-Gay Bullying

Posted on August 21, 2009
The New York Civil Liberties Union recently filed suit against the Mohawk Central School District, claiming it is liable under Title IX to a student, J.L., for failing to protect him student from bullying and harassment resulting from his sexual orientation and gender nonconformity...

New angle in Title IX bullying case

Posted on August 20, 2009
In Pittsburgh, PA a mother is suing the school district and school officials for failing to take action when her daughter was being bullied about her weight. Despite complaints to officials and attempted interventions by other students, the bullying of the 6th-grader continued and the girl developed anorexia for which she entered a treatment facility in 2008...

School District Will Pay $25K to Settle Gay Harassment Suit

Posted on August 19, 2009
The Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota recently agreed to a $25,000 settlement in response to a student's claims that he was verbally harassed by two of his teachers because they believed he was gay (additional press is here and here). According to a report by the Minnesota Human Rights Commission, which investigated the claims, a teacher named Diane Cleveland "singled him out on nearly a daily basis by making jokes, comments and innuendos about her perception of his sexual orientation" -- for example, that the student's "fence swings both ways," and that he had a "thing for older men...

Dillard adding sports

Posted on August 18, 2009
Part of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, Dillard University in Louisiana is adding three sports in the coming academic year. No word on why, but the athletic director announced earlier this month that softball and men's and women's track and field and cross country will become part of the school's intercollegiate sport offerings...

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Dep't of Ed Says Schools Potentially Liable for Cyber-Harassment

Posted on August 12, 2009
The Department of Education addressed for the first time whether schools could violate Title IX by failing to respond appropriately to sexual harassment on-line, according to advocacy group Security On Campus.The agency was adjudicating charges that Hofstra University did not adequately protect a female student from sexual assault that followed a barrage of sexual harassing comments about her on a now-defunct gossip website called Juicy Campus...

More details on the status of sand volleyball

Posted on August 10, 2009
So not too long ago we got wind that sand volleyball was not a shoo-in for emerging sport status; that there were some concerns. But we didn't get a lot of information about the situation. Then I read a piece by Graham Watson at ESPN.com where it seemed that sand volleyball was a go...

Christine Brennan: Title IX Not to Blame for "Poor Decision-Making of Athletic Directors"

Posted on August 07, 2009
Christine Brennan, sports reporter and columnist for USA Today, was recently interviewed by Real Clear Sports. Brennan's consistent support and advocacy for Title IX was reflected, in particular, in her explanation for why Title IX is not to blame for cuts to men's athletics...

Title IX Blogger Responds Hawaii Coach's Use of Homophobic Slurs

Posted on August 06, 2009
A shout-out to my co-blogger Kris, who has an excellent essay at Inside Higher Ed on the fallout from the University of Hawaii football coach's use of "faggot" to belittle an opposing team. While not directly a Title IX matter, the coach's comments reflect the hegemonic masculinity in which athletic department culture -- in particular football culture, as Kris points out -- is deeply entrenched.

List of Statewide Title IX Coordinators

Posted on July 31, 2009
Here is the Feminist Majority Foundation's 2009 list of Title IX Coordinators designated by state education agencies. These individuals advise their agencies about gender equity issues and provide support to Title IX coordinators at the district and school level...

Irvine forced to cut sports

Posted on July 30, 2009
The University of California Irvine is looking to cut $1 million from its budget by doing some reshuffling and, unfortunately, by cutting sports. Five programs will be discontinued next year: men's and women's swimming/diving, sailing, and women's and men's rowing...

FGCU Athletic Department Earns High Marks in External Review

Posted on July 29, 2009
Today the external review team assigned to evaluate Florida Gulf Coast University athletic department's compliance with Title IX released its final report (news coverage) (report). The review was conducted as part of a settlement of litigation involving claims that the university discriminated and retaliated against female coaches who had voiced concerns about inequality in the department...

Student Note Examines Schools' Liability for Sexual Harassment

Posted on July 28, 2009
New student-authored scholarship in the Valparaiso University Law Review offers a critical examination of the Title IX standard for sexual harassment in the particular context of harassment of student-athletes. Brianna Schroeder argues that the standard for evaluating a school's liability for sexual harassment, first outlined in Gebser v...

Oh, Florida

Posted on July 28, 2009
There is no new news to report out of Florida and the situation with the Florida High School Athletic Association. But there has been plenty of media coverage--including editorials that ask the hackneyed question: "Is it time to revise Title IX?" Various constituencies and individuals have been asking that question since the 70s...

Another baseball/softball comparison

Posted on July 26, 2009
Add C.D. Hylton High School in Virginia to the list of schools being investigated for facility disparities. Like numerous (over 40 according to WaPo) high schools in the United States, C.D. Hylton has a great baseball facility and a sub par softball facility...

Reaction to IHSAA lawsuit

Posted on July 24, 2009
Seems as if reaction is mixed regarding the current scheduling of boys and girls basketball games in Indiana. This also means there is mixed reaction over what schedule changes might occur if the lawsuit is successful.It certainly does not appear that--at least for now--the lawsuit has engendered any violent or overly passionate responses that involve bashing Title IX or girls' sports generally...

Scheduling at issue in Indiana

Posted on July 21, 2009
The scheduling of girls' and boys' high school basketball games in Indiana has long been an issue; an issue the Indiana High School Athletic Association has seemingly chosen to ignore. But a recent lawsuit filed by a parent will probably make them pay attention...

A FHSAA P.S.

Posted on July 17, 2009
The piece the NYT ran about FHSAA's decision to reverse its earlier inequitable cuts was the most comprehensive one I read. In addition to reporting on the situation in Florida, it notes that other state high school athletics associations have enacted similar budget-saving measures--some equitable, some not so much...

FHSAA takes it back

Posted on July 16, 2009
The cuts to the number of interscholastic competitions, passed by the Florida High School Athletic Association in April, were rescinded yesterday in an emergency meeting, as expected.There will still be a hearing tomorrow to consider the injunction brought by Florida Parents for Athletic Equity against FHSAA, which would prevent the latter group from going through with the cuts at a later date...

Rescinding on the horizon

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Florida High School Athletic Association is meeting (I thought tomorrow but this article implies it is today) and is likely to overturn its own decision to cut varsity sport competitions--except in football and "competitive" cheerleading--by 20 percent...

Sand volleyball recalled

Posted on July 13, 2009
Somehow we missed the news that sand volleyball, the newly named NCAA emerging sport, has been called back to the drawing board.It seems San Diego State University had been planning to add sand volleyball along with women's lacrosse. SDSU must meet the gender equity standards established for all California state universities...

Banning Boy from Field Hockey Underscores Discrimination and Stereotypes Against Girls

Posted on July 08, 2009
A Waynesboro, PA high school principal's decision to prohibit a male student from trying out for field hockey is being decried by some as "reverse discrimination." Reverse discrimination? Invoking Title IX, the principal told Mat Levine that (1) his presence would make the sport unsafe for the girls, (2) that parents would be jealous of his playing time, and (3) that it would take away opportunities for girls in violation of Title IX...

FHSAA seeks dismissal

Posted on July 07, 2009
In the "you've got to be kidding me" moment of the week (of course, it's only Tuesday, and things can change quickly in Title IX land--especially when it comes to litigation) the Florida High School Athletic Association has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought against it by Florida Parents for Athletic Equity for inequitable cuts to game schedules...

A cheerleading PS

Posted on July 05, 2009
A recently released study from University of North Carolina says, not surprisingly, that cheerleading is the most injury-laden women's sport.So while the status of cheerleading may be somewhat contested these days, the fact that it is dangerous is not...

Darien Board of Ed is Cautious About Accepting Gift

Posted on July 04, 2009
A foundation has offered to donate $50,000 to support athletics at Darien (Connecticut) High School, but the Board of Education is exercising caution about whether to accept the funds, which are earmarked for the support of football ($25,000), girls' swimming ($12,500) and girls' lacrosse ($12,500)...

Eighth Circuit to Women Prisoners: Take Parenting and "Health Lifestyles," Not Accounting

Posted on July 03, 2009
[Guest post authored by my colleague, Giovanna Shay]On July 2nd, the Eighth Circuit issued an opinion rejecting a challenge to women's prison programming under Title IX and Equal Protection, the latest in a series of such cases from that region. Yesterday's opinion, Roubideaux v...

UAA Investigation Reveals Locker Room Disparity

Posted on July 02, 2009
The University of Alaska-Anchorage has announced plans to renovate athletic facilities to create two additional locker rooms that would provide more space to female athletes. An internal investigation into concerns the athletic department's gender equity revealed that due to the men's basketball and hockey teams currently each have their own locker rooms and individual lockers for each player, which contributes to an overall disparity in which 57% of male athletes have individual lockers compared to 13% of female athletes and in which male athletes averaged 11 square feet of locker room space compared to seven square feet per woman...

Cheerleading to ease Title IX controversy?

Posted on June 30, 2009
That's the thought of a writer in New York who believes that the growth of competitive cheerleading and its acceptance as a sport by some schools could help ease all the Title IX controversy over "quotas."Would that it were so (or that we would want it to be so)...

Title IX Doesn't Cover Coach's Discrimination Against Female Football Player, Court Rules

Posted on June 29, 2009
Ivyanne Elborough played football on the freshman team at Evansville High School in Wisconsin. She was the only female member of the team. Her coach, Ron Grovesteen, apparently did not like having a girl on the team. He regularly failed to unlock the girls' locker room, so Elborough had to find someone with a key to let her in so she could get her equipment...

Court Reconsiders Severity of Single-Incident Harassment

Posted on June 26, 2009
Rarely do courts grants motions to reconsider prior rulings, but a federal judge in New York did so this week in the context of a peer harassment case. CG was a special needs student at a public junior high school in New York City. During computer class, she was assaulted by two male students, one who grabbed her breasts from behind and the other pulled her pants down and touched her buttocks...

Re-shuffling the program in West Virginia

Posted on June 25, 2009
The athletic department at Salem International University in Salem, WV has had some problems with ineligible players and institutional control. So while they are on NCAA and conference probation (including no post-season eligibility), administrators are doing some reorganization...

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