Title IX Editorial... The Beginning
By: Eden Winkler
As a result of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX into law, protecting students of federally funded schools from discrimination on the basis of sex. Since then, a law initially created for the purpose of opening doors for women’s education has branched out into something even larger and exceptionally controversial.
In 2011, under the Obama administration, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education released detailed information regarding sexual harassment and began launching numerous investigations of colleges; as a result, bringing sexual harassment to the center of controversy.
Five years later, after initiating several additional Title IX directives, Obama’s OCR published the Dear Colleague Letter, advocating for transgender rights, and requiring schools to assign sex-segregated facilities on account of gender identity in lieu of biological sex. However, the letter was quickly repealed on behalf of the 2016 Trump administration, after which its own addition to Title IX was added, saying that the document had been perverted,
“By bureaucrats - and by the current President of the United States - to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people.”
Since then, the guidelines of Title IX have been in a sort of limbo within the courts. However, in December of 2021, a local Blue Springs student brought the argument close to home after winning a 4 million dollar case claiming sex discrimination after both the Delta Woods Middle School and the Freshman Center denied his request to use the male locker rooms and bathrooms.
As a football athlete, the student was allowed to use the gender-neutral facilities, but was not able to access the men’s facilities as he was, according to the district,
“Alleged to have female genitalia.”
One Pittsburgh Pediatric study found that next to 1 in 10 teens associate themselves as gender-diverse, encompassing the population of transgender, genderqueer, nonbinary, and other-gender identified youth. The study proved the national estimate wrong by approximately two percent, which shows that the number of LGBTQ youth everywhere could be even higher than expected.
On account of this statistic, a rough estimate of over 1700 ISD students could potentially fall under this umbrella; still, there is no mention of policies regarding transgender or gender diverse students in the ISD High Schools Student Handbook.
Although the consequence of Title IX violation is loss of federal funding, no funding has never been revoked for schools in violation of this law. However, schools have had to pay considerable amounts of money in court fees. Currently, the Independence School District is in several violations of Title IX.
Examples of possible violations are as follows:
Regardless of politics or issues related to Title IX laws, one thing is clear: the goal of the law is to protect students, and this is not possible unless the schools are actively following Title IX guidelines to a T, and updating policies as necessary in an ever-changing world.
Not only are there numerous aspects missing from the grievance procedures, but students receive no specific training on sexual harassment, reporting cases, or examples of prohibited conduct. When asked to clarify the inner workings of the ISD grievance procedures, or to answer any other questions pertaining to sex-based issues, no response was received on multiple attempts from William Chrisman administration, the District Compliance Officer, or district PR.
With the lack of clarity in the grievance procedures and student training in general, it is evident that there are some Title IX violations within the school district that need to be addressed.
In 2011, under the Obama administration, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education released detailed information regarding sexual harassment and began launching numerous investigations of colleges; as a result, bringing sexual harassment to the center of controversy.
Five years later, after initiating several additional Title IX directives, Obama’s OCR published the Dear Colleague Letter, advocating for transgender rights, and requiring schools to assign sex-segregated facilities on account of gender identity in lieu of biological sex. However, the letter was quickly repealed on behalf of the 2016 Trump administration, after which its own addition to Title IX was added, saying that the document had been perverted,
“By bureaucrats - and by the current President of the United States - to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people.”
Since then, the guidelines of Title IX have been in a sort of limbo within the courts. However, in December of 2021, a local Blue Springs student brought the argument close to home after winning a 4 million dollar case claiming sex discrimination after both the Delta Woods Middle School and the Freshman Center denied his request to use the male locker rooms and bathrooms.
As a football athlete, the student was allowed to use the gender-neutral facilities, but was not able to access the men’s facilities as he was, according to the district,
“Alleged to have female genitalia.”
One Pittsburgh Pediatric study found that next to 1 in 10 teens associate themselves as gender-diverse, encompassing the population of transgender, genderqueer, nonbinary, and other-gender identified youth. The study proved the national estimate wrong by approximately two percent, which shows that the number of LGBTQ youth everywhere could be even higher than expected.
On account of this statistic, a rough estimate of over 1700 ISD students could potentially fall under this umbrella; still, there is no mention of policies regarding transgender or gender diverse students in the ISD High Schools Student Handbook.
Although the consequence of Title IX violation is loss of federal funding, no funding has never been revoked for schools in violation of this law. However, schools have had to pay considerable amounts of money in court fees. Currently, the Independence School District is in several violations of Title IX.
Examples of possible violations are as follows:
- Title IX grievance procedures must explicitly include adequate definitions of sexual harassment (which includes sexual violence) and an explanation as to what creates a hostile environment
- Title IX grievance procedures must explicitly include notice of potential remedies for students
- Title IX grievance procedures must explicitly include notice of potential sanctions against predators
- Title IX grievance procedures must explicitly include courses of counseling, advocacy, and support
- Title IX says that schools must provide age-appropriate training for students. Training should focus on identifying and reporting sexual harassment
- Title IX says that schools must provide age-appropriate training for students. Training should include specific examples of prohibited conduct
Regardless of politics or issues related to Title IX laws, one thing is clear: the goal of the law is to protect students, and this is not possible unless the schools are actively following Title IX guidelines to a T, and updating policies as necessary in an ever-changing world.
Not only are there numerous aspects missing from the grievance procedures, but students receive no specific training on sexual harassment, reporting cases, or examples of prohibited conduct. When asked to clarify the inner workings of the ISD grievance procedures, or to answer any other questions pertaining to sex-based issues, no response was received on multiple attempts from William Chrisman administration, the District Compliance Officer, or district PR.
With the lack of clarity in the grievance procedures and student training in general, it is evident that there are some Title IX violations within the school district that need to be addressed.