Associated Students of PSU

Supreme Court Considers Ability of Student to
Bring Sex Discrimination Claims Under Both
Title IX and the U.S. Constitution

By Amy Katz, Senior Counsel, Legal Momentum

This is an abridged version of Ms. Katz’s commentary on this case.
For the full-length version, click here.

Today, December 2, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee, a case that raises the question of whether Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination by federally funded educational institutions, precludes claims of unconstitutional gender discrimination in the schools. Thirty-six years after Title IX was enacted, sex discrimination persists in many educational institutions. Consequently, comprehensive protection from discrimination, including the ability to bring constitutional claims, remains necessary to fully achieve equal opportunity in education. The Court’s decision in this case will have an impact on far more than the one child whose traumatic experience triggered it. 

When Jacqueline Fitzgerald was in kindergarten, she told her parents that, whenever she wore a skirt or dress to school, a third-grade boy, Briton Oleson, ordered her to pull up her skirt and pull down her underwear while they rode the school bus. This harassment occurred over a six-month period, during which Jacqueline exhibited signs of serious emotional and physical distress.

Upon learning of the sexual abuse, her parents immediately complained to the school’s principal, who promptly met with them. The Fitzgeralds asked the principal and the school to take action in a variety of ways to address the situation, including transferring Briton to another school bus. The school investigated, and although several students corroborated Jacqueline’s statements, the principal determined that “they were too young to be credible.” Briton was not reprimanded and was not barred from contact with Jacqueline. The Fitzgeralds thought the school did not take Jacqueline’s accusations seriously and sued the school and its superintendant under two federal laws — Title IX and Section 1983, a federal statute enacted as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871–claiming Jacqueline had continued to be subject to sexual harassment, which is a form of sex discrimination, that interfered with her education. 

Both the district court and the First Circuit Court of Appeals judges who heard the case considered the harassment of Jacqueline “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” one of the standards for a Title IX suit. However, they dismissed the Title IX claim on the grounds that the school investigated promptly and did not show “deliberate indifference” to Jacqueline’s plight. The Section 1983 claims were dismissed on the grounds that they were precluded by the existence of the Title IX claim.

The question that is now before the Supreme Court is whether a school and its employees can be sued by a student for sex discrimination under Section 1983, or only under Title IX.  The Supreme Court granted certiorari because the federal circuit courts are “split,” that is they have a variety of different approaches to this question. The underlying facts, isturbing though they may be, are not at issue at this stage and a “win” for the Fitzgeralds would only give them a fresh start with their equal protection claim against the school and the superintendent. Whatever the outcome for the Fitzgeralds, the case will resonate well beyond the life of the mistreated Jacqueline.

What can we reasonably expect from the Court in this case? First, there will definitely be a clarification of the law so that there is one standard throughout the United States and the rights of girls to sue under Section 1983 will no longer differ from region to region. Second, the Court should at a minimum leave open the right to sue under Section 1983 in instances when Title IX suits are not available, such as a challenge to a public school’s single-sex admissions policy, or a claim against a faculty member who threaten to lower a student’s grade if she does not have sex with him. If, however, a majority of the Court issues a more sweeping ruling, precluding all Section 1983 equal protection claims for sex discrimination against recipients of federal educational funds, then the only means for redress of sex discrimination claims by students would be Title IX. This would be a major step backwards for girls seeking equal educational opportunities and a learning environment free of sexual harassment.

MORE INFORMATION

• Read the amicus brief in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable at: http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/scotus/fitzgerald_v_barnstable_acluamicus.pdf

• For a more detailed explanation of sexual harassment in schools, its impact on girls, and the state of the law, read our Legal Resource Kit on Sexual Harassment in the Schools at http://www.legalmomentum.org/1101/

please please please
register to vote.

you can still vote if you’re homeless, if you’re a felon, if you are from another state.

you should re register if you moved, or havent voted in 4 years (mult county may have dropped your registration).

your voice is definately heard at a local level and can make a big difference at our school. we want our school to rock, our proffs to get paid and our tuition to be cheap, so keep up in the local elections and

VOTE!

Senator Peter Welte has started a little campaign about the lack of bike parking on campus. KGW News did a story about it last week. Here’s the link: http://www.kgw.com/video/?z=y&nvid=291248.

If you would like to submit a work order to request additional bike parking, this is the place to do so:
http://www.fap.pdx.edu/FF/index.php.

Ok, what is THIS crap?

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10100061&ch=4226716&src=news

To suggest that we should just stay home and let the informed (read “elite”) populations decide for us what our lives and country are going to be like? It doesn’t seem to me that the so-called informed folks have been doing all that hot as it is. As a commentor on another blog said:

Maybe instead the piece should have focused on it being our civic duty to do everything we can to make sure people are informed?

Maybe actually put civics back in our schools? Change the way we teach history to ensure students learn everything they should. We barely made it to WWII, and I was in honors/AP classes – which means we got further than the non-advanced classes. I’m pretty sure some important stuff happened in WWII and beyond.
Maybe our news organizations should see it as their civic duty to educate and inform the population. That is their job, after all. It’s a big reason why I left journalism – it wasn’t about that any more.

But it’s a lot easier to blame people for not knowing what they should than it is to take responsibility for not doing your job.

so after letter writing and lobbying, a $4 million victory to students who need financial aid to get their education.

thanks to everyone who took the time to tell the state legislature how it is, and thanks to the legislature for making the right decision.

There is alot of overlap between PSU and PCC students, so I figured this would be of interest to alot of us…not to mention the subject matter and author himself.

Tim Jacob Wise

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., and has been called, “One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation,” by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise has spoken in 48 states, and on over 400 college campuses, including Harvard, Stanford, and the Law Schools at Yale and Columbia, and has spoken to community groups around the nation. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has trained physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care. He has also trained corporate, government, entertainment, military and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions, and has served as a consultant for plaintiff’s attorneys in federal discrimination cases in New York and Washington State.

Wise is the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. A collection of his essays, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male, will be published in the Fall of 2008, and his fourth book, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Race and Whiteness in the Age of Obama, will be released in Spring, 2009.

Wednesday, October 15 at 11 a.m.

Location: Sylvania Campus, PAC Auditorium
Tim Wise: Beyond DiversityBeyond “Diversity”: Challenging Racism in an Age of BacklashBook signing to follow.
Contact: Multicultural Center at 503.977.4112

Thursday, October 16 at 11 a.m.

White Privilege: Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality
Location: Cascade Campus, MAHB 104 with overflow seating in CA TH 122
Wise offers a highly personal examination of the ways in which racial privilege shapes the lives of most white Americans, overtly racist or not, to the detriment of people of color, themselves, and society. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable yet scholarly, analytical, and accessible.
Contact: Kendi Esary at 503.978.5781

Saturday, October 18 at 9 a.m.

Location: Rock Creek Campus, Building 3, Forum
“Profiles in Distortion: Misusing Data to Justify Racism and Privilege”Tim Wise, writer and activist
Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., having given lectures in 48 different states, and on over 400 college campuses. He has trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism in their institutions.
Contact: Brenda Maldonado at 503-614-7279.

Well I found info on presentation and websites that are speaking to the Oregon Ballot Measures.

One of the websites is Oregon Public Broadcasting. They have a radio program called “Think Out Loud” that allows radio listeners to speak on and talk to the guest speakers about issues of that day. They have been beginning a series about the ballot measures and bringing on the supporter and opponent of that measure.
Here is the website: http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/.
The episode tomorrow, or this morning if you are waking up, is about Measure 60 which is to enforce merit pay of public school teachers than staying on the current seniority pay that is allowed under collective bargaining agreements between public schools and the teachers’ unions.
There is also archives that go back to blogs talking about two other Oregon Measures:
Measure 65 deals with making the state’s primary system a top-two tier system than the closed party system that we have.
Measure 62 deals with committing 15% of Oregon Lottery funds to public safety and have requirements to make sure that those funds do go to some sort of public safety or related program.
Both of these have archived radio recording in the *.mp3 format. The link is: http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/archives/.

There are two days at the Multnomah County Libraries that dealing Oregon Measures:

My mind is racing as I sit in ASPSU with the insomnia that only 6 or 7 cups of coffee in one day can bring. Ah yes, the familiar jitter of a voter registration drive. I am thinking of all of the things we have done this summer, all of the people who have come into my life and the endless list of tasks and people to meet in the immediate future. I have been on vacation for two weeks, but it feels like a life time.
This summer I have encountered administrators who have made me cry with their generousity and passion for students( there is one instance in particular that I am referencing but will keep anonymous, but it touched my heart). I have had students who I thought were friends betray me and break my soul. I have hired staff and worked with volunteers, senators and other ASPSU officials who have taken my breath away. Who, for awhile now, have outpaced my passion and dedication to progression.
Sometimes, it is easy to become embittered and wonder why the hell we are doing this. Sometimes, I wonder if anyone even cares or would notice if we disapeared. When someone refuses to register to vote for no reason or hangs up on me angerly when I call to ask them for help, I have to remember that they are the reason we are here.
I don’t know if we will win every single campaign we set out to win, I don’t think I can help every single student or organization who needs it. But I can sure as hell try my best with the support of an amazing team and the hope of a lot of people I will never even meet.
Enough Rambling. Good Night.