Gender Discrimination – Equal Rights Advocates

What are my rights?

You have the right to:

1.  Have equal access to your education and school programs (including sports) without disruptions caused by gender discrimination. Your school is required by law to provide a safe learning environment that is not “hostile” to you, which includes creating an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment.

2.  Be told about your school’s policies on gender discrimination — including how to report — in a way that you understand. Legally, your school must share (or make available) its policies on gender discrimination with every student, teacher, and staff member. (Those policies may be in the student handbook, HR manual, or school board policies.) Your school must also provide students with information about how to report discrimination, sometimes known as a “grievance procedure,” and who to report to. This policy should tell you what happens after you report, including how the investigation will go, and what “interim measures” are available from the school to help you feel safe during the investigation. Interim measures can include things like more time to complete assignments, or protective measures to keep other students or teachers who may have harmed you away from you.

• Information about your school’s policies, how to report gender discrimination, and what the investigative process looks like should also be easy to find and access online, as well as the name and contact information of your school’s Title IX Coordinator.

3.  An adviser of your choosing. You are entitled to select an adviser to help guide and support you through the Title IX investigation process. This can be a friend or family member, therapist or social worker, or a legal advocate or attorney. Your school may require you to fill out a form in order to appoint this person as your adviser.

4.  Talk to anyone you want about the discrimination if it happened to you. You also have the right to speak out against discrimination at your school, or to speak out against a school policy or practice that is discriminatory. It is also illegal for your school to retaliate against (punish) you for talking with other students, faculty, or staff about discrimination, as long as you are not disrupting anyone else’s education.

• Note: Other laws may require that confidential information – such as the contents of an investigative report – be kept confidential and not shared with anyone other than an advisor or attorney. You can always tell your own story about what happened, as long as you do not share confidential information from the report, for example.

5.  Report the discriminatory behavior to a school official, including a professor, teacher, coach or faculty member. Be aware that if you tell a teacher, professor, coach, or school official about the discrimination, they may be required to report it to a higher-up person at your school so that it can be investigated. If you are under the age of 18 and report sexual violence or other abuse, the teacher, professor, coach, or school official may also be required to report the conduct to law enforcement as “mandated reporters.”

• Tip: If you do choose to report, we recommend reporting in writing (email or letter) and making copies for yourself. (For more on how to report gender discrimination in writing, see the What Can I Do? section below.)

6.  Report the behavior without telling the person who is discriminating about it beforehand. You do not have to tell the person who is doing the discriminating that you are going to report them to your school or that you are going to file a Title IX complaint. You do not even have to tell them after you report them or file the complaint, but they will find out if the school opens an investigation, so be prepared. The school has a legal obligation to let them know that a complaint was made against them. 

7.  Warn the person who is doing the discriminating that you are considering filing a Title IX complaint. It is OK to “threaten” reporting and then decide not to report if you are satisfied that the discriminatory behavior has stopped, or if you change your mind about reporting. You do not have to report just because you told your peers that you might. But again, remember that many school employees must make a “mandated report” to law enforcement of abuse they become aware of, and other employees are required to notify the Title IX office as soon as they become aware of the conduct.

8.  File a Title IX complaint, and to have it taken seriously and investigated by your school.  Once your school is aware of the discrimination, the law requires them to take quick steps to stop the discrimination, address any negative effects the discrimination had on you, and prevent it from occurring again.

You can report the incident (called “making a Title IX complaint”) to your school and request that they take action. Title IX requires that schools investigate and put an end to gender discrimination “promptly and equitably” (aka “quickly and fairly).  This means your school should not delay in addressing the discrimination, and they should take effective steps to address and end the discrimination, and prevent it from happening again.

Unless you report during a school closure or holiday, it should not take more than a few days for the Title IX Office to process your report and begin an investigation. The entire investigation can take between a few weeks and a few months to complete, depending on the complexity of the issues and number of witnesses involved. If the investigation takes longer than a few months, your school may be breaking the law by not complying with the “promptness” requirement of Title IX.

• Note: Title IX is a type of student misconduct complaints, so the Title IX process will take place at your school only. It is not connected to the criminal justice system, so it does not involve police or the court (unless you’re under the age of 18 and report sexual violence or abuse to a teacher or staff member. In that case, they may be required under “mandating reporting” laws to tell law enforcement or Child Protective Services.)

9.  Participate in a Title IX investigation or be a witness for someone else. Whether it is an investigation into something that happened to you, or to someone else, you have a right to participate without barriers or retaliation — even if the claims end up being dismissed, or the investigation determines that discriminatory behavior didn’t occur. 

10.  Do nothing. It is a perfectly acceptable choice to do nothing about the discrimination you experienced. It is 100% your decision whether or not to come forward about your experiences. If you decide you are ready to talk, we are ready to listen. Make an appointment with an ENOUGH advocate.