Student Rights & Title IX

Doe v. University of Cincinnati: The Sixth Circuit Weighs in on Title IX and Due Process

Published on: October 13, 2017 | by Ruth O'Meara-Costello

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided Doe v. University of Cincinnati, upholding a preliminary injunction preventing the University of Cincinnati from suspending a student it found responsible for sexual assault. The decision is significant for all students facing suspension or expulsion at public colleges and universities.

In the underlying case, two students met on Tinder, then met up in person and had sex. The complainant, Jane Roe, alleged that the sex was not consensual; the respondent, John Doe, insisted that it was. The university followed a procedure that many colleges, public and private, employ: it first tasked an employee of the Title IX office with conducting an investigation in which she interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence from both sides, and then prepared a report. Following the investigation, the university held a hearing where both students had the opportunity to appear before a panel that would render a decision as to whether John Doe was responsible for sexual misconduct. During that hearing, the accused student was supposed to have the ability to present written questions to the hearing chair and request that they be posed to the complainant. Per the university’s policy, a witness who was unable to appear could submit a notarized statement. CONTINUE READING ›

Title IX and Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Back to School Edition

Published on: September 7, 2017 | by Naomi Shatz

Whether you are heading off to your first year of college, or are returning for your fourth (or sixth, or ninth) year of higher education, you are likely aware that sexual assault prevention is a big issue on college and university campuses today. We represent complainants and respondents in sexual misconduct proceedings in colleges and universities around the country. As attorneys who specialize in the field of campus sexual assault law we have information that all students should know before heading back to campus.

What is Title IX, and What Does It Mean for my School?

Title IX is the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. In addition to ensuring that there are equal athletic and educational opportunities for all students, it also requires schools to address and take steps to prevent sex-based discrimination on campus, including sexual harassment and sexual assault. If a school knows of sex-based discrimination on campus and does not adequately respond to it, a court may find the school has violated Title IX. CONTINUE READING ›

What Kind of Notice Should Universities Give Students Facing Title IX Charges?

Published on: May 12, 2017 | by Ruth O'Meara-Costello

In the world of disciplinary hearings under Title IX, the process for students accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault on campus often begins this way: an accused student (the “respondent” in campus disciplinary parlance) is called into a meeting with a school administrator and informed of a disciplinary charge that could result in expulsion. At most schools, the information that the school provides about the actual charge consists of the date of the alleged event (or a range of dates); the identity of the complainant (the student who is making the accusation) and the provision of the student code that the respondent allegedly violated, or another summary description such as “non-consensual sexual conduct.” In practice, this information is often not sufficient to allow the respondent to identify the actions that the school is investigating, particularly where the allegations stem from a long-term romantic relationship with the complainant, much less to prepare a defense. It also may not give respondents adequate notice to allow them to evaluate whether they may face criminal charges, and make informed decisions about whether to waive their 5^th Amendment right to remain silent by making statements during the school’s investigation.

Will a Trump Administration Change Anything About College Sexual Assault?

Published on: December 27, 2016 | by Naomi Shatz

Earlier this month, my colleague blogged about concerns that a weaker federal Department of Education (DOE) in the Trump Administration would mean less protection against discrimination and harassment for minority students. Under Obama the DOE took strong, sometimes controversial, positions in the name of anti-discrimination, for example, issuing numerous guidance documents instructing schools on how to address sexual harassment and sexual assault, and interpreting Title IX to protect transgender students. In the views of its critics, DOE often went too far in issuing these rules, both because it circumvented the normal rule-making procedures for administrative agencies, and because in many instances its guidance letters seemed to directly conflict with the free speech and due process rights of students.

It seems safe to assume that sexual harassment prevention is not high on Trump’s priority list. During the presidential campaign videos surfaced of him discussing sexually assaulting women and more than a dozen women came forward to accuse him of having done just that, and his sons — who played key roles in his campaign — have both indicated that women who do not like being sexually harassed either should not work, or should find a different job. Given that fact, and his stated antipathy to the DOE, it seems quite likely that his administration will do an about-face on both the scope of the DOE’s work, and its positions on key title IX issues. But will the administration’s positions change anything on campus?

Doe v. Brown University: In Narrow Decision, Federal Court Finds Brown Failed to Follow its Policy on Sexual Misconduct Adjudications

Published on: October 11, 2016 | by Naomi Shatz

I previously wrote about a Massachusetts federal district court decision that was groundbreaking because it tackled the question of whether a private university’s sexual misconduct investigation and disciplinary procedure was fundamentally fair, and concluded that it was not. Last week another local federal court weighed in on the college sexual misconduct issue and found in favor of the accused student, but went in a distinctly different legal direction.

John Doe v. Brown University is one of the few cases on this issue to proceed all the way to trial. The case arose out of a November 2014 sexual encounter between John Doe and Ann Roe. Roe complained about the incident in November 2015, and the case was heard by Brown in 2016. Notably, in fall 2015 Brown adopted a new Title IX policy that contained Brown’s first definition of consent, and a new process for handling sexual misconduct cases. While Brown informed its investigator and panel that the case against Doe would proceed under the 2014-2015 policy that was in effect at the time of the incident, Brown also provided the panel with the 2015-2016 policy and specifically told the panel that that policy codified the community’s understanding of consent, so they could look to it if it assisted them. CONTINUE READING ›

Doe v. Brandeis: In a Unique Decision, Federal Judge Found Lack of “Basic Fairness” in College Sexual Misconduct Proceedings

Published on: October 7, 2016 | by Naomi Shatz

Six months ago a judge in the federal district court in Massachusetts issued what many people who litigate cases surrounding college sexual assault adjudications consider the most comprehensive decision on the topic. In Doe v. Brandeis University, Judge Dennis Saylor denied Brandeis University’s motion to dismiss the complaint by its former student as to claims that Brandeis breached its contractual duties towards him, handled his case with negligence, and used a fundamentally unfair process to evaluate the accusation against him.

The case arose out of a January 2014 sexual assault complaint against John Doe by his former boyfriend. Under Brandeis’ policy, the complaint was investigated by a Special Examiner who also decided whether John Doe was responsible for sexual assault. (This “single investigator” model, promoted by the White House, has gained significant traction with schools nationwide in the last three years, despite significant concerns about its fairness).

Despite noting that “the Handbook is no model of clarity,” the judge nonetheless found for Brandeis on most of the contract claims based on Doe’s allegations that Brandeis failed to follow its Handbook. The judge similarly rejected most of Doe’s tort claims, with the exception of a claim for negligent supervision based on Brandeis assigning an administrator with no familiarity with the process as the final decision maker in the case. The judge was skeptical that Doe could prevail on the claim, but allowed it to survive the motion to dismiss. CONTINUE READING ›

Federal Appeals Court Opens the Courthouse Door to Title IX Lawsuits by Accused Students

Published on: August 26, 2016 | by David Russcol

Students wrongfully disciplined for alleged sexual misconduct on campus have had a difficult time convincing federal courts to entertain lawsuits based on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination in education. Although the Department of Education has used (some would say exceeded) its administrative authority under Title IX to compel schools to adopt detailed policies for addressing and adjudicating complaints of sexual misconduct, courts were hesitant to recognize claims of unfairness in these campus tribunals based on Title IX itself. An example of this approach, which I have covered before, was a federal district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against Columbia University for failure to identify a “smoking gun” demonstrating that the flaws in Columbia’s investigation of an alleged sexual assault were specifically due to gender bias. Although a few courts more recently found that plaintiffs had made out a sufficiently plausible case to proceed, they did not challenge the basic idea that someone bringing this type of case needs to have at least some evidence of gender bias at the outset.

But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed the Columbia case, holding that the district court had required too much of the plaintiff without the benefit of discovery in the course of litigation. Briefly, the male plaintiff in the Columbia suit, identified as John Doe, had sex with a female fellow student in the bathroom of her suite; she later alleged that the interaction was not consensual. Doe claimed that he was not informed of his rights, that Columbia’s investigator never followed up on his witnesses or evidence, and that he was precluded from offering evidence in his favor. He was suspended for 3 semesters, which even the complainant stated was too harsh. CONTINUE READING ›

Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Report on Campus Safety Pays Scant Attention to Due Process

Published on: June 29, 2016 | by Ruth O'Meara-Costello

The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, the state agency responsible for guiding public colleges in Massachusetts, has recently waded into the thorny underbrush of law, morality, politics, and public relations that is the current state of discourse around sexual assault on campus. An existing 2014 Board Resolution declared “zero tolerance” for sexual violence on campus, and in 2016 the Board’s Commissioner established a Task Force on Campus Safety and Violence Prevention to make recommendations about campus safety in general and sexual assault in particular. The Board accepted the resulting report, “Securing Our Future: Best Practice Recommendations for Campus Safety and Violence Prevention,” at its June 14, 2016 meeting.

As attorneys whose role in campus proceedings is often to represent accused students, the question we ask when reviewing any new guidance is what implications it might have for the accuracy and fairness of fact-finding following accusations of sexual assault or harassment on campus. The sections of the report that deal with sexual assault are not groundbreaking, and will ring familiar to anyone who has already perused the reports of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and the extensive guidance that the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has released on this issue. But disappointingly, to the extent that the report does give any guidance as to what procedures schools should follow, it appears to endorse practices that deprive students of constitutional rights and subject them to biased inquisitions without first giving them fair notice of the accusations against them.

Are Universities’ Views of Sexual Harassment on a Collision Course with the First Amendment?

Published on: April 8, 2016 | by Naomi Shatz

As explained in Jacob Gersen and Jeannie Suk’s forthcoming article, The Sex Bureaucracy, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) guidance documents about Title IX have shaped college and university sexual harassment and sexual assault policies by threatening the withdrawal of federal funding if the schools do not adopt OCR’s recommendations. OCR has defined sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” but made clear that under Title IX schools only have an obligation to address such harassment when it rises to the level of creating a hostile environment, which it defines as harassment that “is sufficiently serious that it interferes with or limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s program.” This definition of sexual harassment provides the floor below which school’s policies may not fall, but nothing in Title IX or OCR guidance prevents schools from adopting even more expansive definitions of sexual harassment or standards under which they will investigate allegations of such harassment.

Recently, OCR has emphasized that it expects colleges and universities to investigate claims of sexual harassment well before they reach the threshold at which Title IX requires the school to address the harassment, i.e. before the harassment creates a hostile environment. CONTINUE READING ›

So you’ve been accused of academic misconduct. Here’s what you need to know.

Published on: March 14, 2016 | by Naomi Shatz

If you or your child is accused of engaging in academic misconduct, you’ll get a crash course in how the college or university bureaucracy works to process these cases and sanction students. Before that happens, you should be aware of a few key points.

#1: Academic misconduct is a big category

In a previous post I explained how colleges define plagiarism, probably the most common form of academic misconduct. Colleges will sanction students for plagiarism if the student intentionally or accidentally copies, quotes without proper attribution, or incorporates language or ideas from some other person into their work. Colleges also deem it plagiarism if students work together on an assignment but do not list their co-collaborators on the work they turn in.

Research misconduct is another form of academic misconduct we frequently address. Research misconduct arises mostly in the hard sciences, and according to federal regulations is defined as “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.”