Newsflash: Sex-Based Harassment in Schools Not Okay

On Monday, the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ), six student plaintiffs, and the Anoka-Hennepin School District just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, filed a landmark consent decree that resolved the plaintiffs’ claims that middle and high schools in the district failed to address pervasive bullying and harassment of students who failed to conform to gender stereotypes. The students alleged violations of a number of laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination — including sex-based harassment — in schools that receive federal funding.

In the Anoka-Hennepin School District, students who were or were perceived to be LGBT endured near-daily sex-based harassment, in some cases for years on end. They were subjected to awful slurs, were told by their peers that they were “sinners,” would go to hell, and should kill themselves. Tragically, some student in the district did take their lives as a result of the bullying and harassment. (For further details of harassment targeted at LGBT teens in the district, see the recent Rolling Stone article.)

The consent decree, if approved by the district court, will put in place many essential protections against sex-based harassment, including requirements that the district hire an expert consultant to review its policies and procedures, develop a comprehensive plan to prevent and addressed student-on-student sex-based harassment, provide improved training for both staff and students, and submit annual compliance reports to the DOJ and ED for five years.

This consent decree is the latest example of the DOJ and ED’s commitment to preventing discrimination in the form of sex-based harassment in our schools. (Back in 2010, ED released a guidance document clarifying what constitutes illegal harassment and bullying in violation of Title IX and a number of other civil rights laws.) And, if approved, the approach taken in the consent decree could serve as a model for schools that are struggling with serious problems of sex-based harassment and bullying.

Way to go DOJ and ED! And, as I imagine Teddy Roosevelt would have said, “bully for you!”