On October 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced a resolution agreement in its sex-based harassment investigation of Taft College in California.
OCR found that Taft College failed to respond to repeated allegations that employees harassed a transgender student based on sex for over a year, starting in 2018.
OCR investigated whether the employees repeatedly referred to the student using incorrect pronouns and name, and referred to transgender and non-binary individuals in a derogatory manner in the presence of the student and other students. OCR also investigated whether the College failed to respond promptly and effectively to notices of this harassment.
OCR found the student was misgendered or misnamed by college employees, daily, for over a year. They also found that multiple professors and administrators, including a program director and the Dean of Students, were made aware of these incidents by the student on multiple occasions. Despite the notices, the student suffered repeated harassment, and the OCR found that Taft College’s response to these reports was inadequate under Title IX as the College did not take steps to remedy the harassment or prevent it from reoccurring.
OCR also investigated whether the College adopted and published grievance procedures providing for the prompt and equitable resolution of complaints of sex discrimination. OCR and the College agreed to resolve this issue prior to OCR making a compliance determination. Still, OCR identified a compliance concern that the College may not have provided adequate notice to the College’s community on how to make a complaint of sex-based harassment under Title IX and may have failed to notify the community of the Title IX Coordinator and how to contact that person. For example, the Taft’s policies for reporting allegations of sex-based harassment from 2018-2020 did not identify the Title IX Coordinator. Further, the College’s website did not include the Title IX Coordinator under “reporting options” with the College’s Campus Safety Office and College Police Department for victim’s of sex or gender expression-based discrimination or sexual misconduct, but another section of the webpage included that a person may report to the Title IX Coordinator about their “rights and options.” OCR found this language could be confusing to someone looking to report as it is unclear: 1) what type of conduct a person should report to the Title IX Coordinator; and 2) whether a report would be in addition to, or separate from, reporting to the Campus Safety Office and College Police Department.
As a result of the investigation, OCR is requiring Taft College to:
Revise its Title IX Policies and Grievance Procedures to ensure they are in compliance and that the policy is cross-referenced, linked, and internally consistent;
Provide OCR with a spreadsheet of all complaints of alleged employee to student harassment based on sex during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years; and
Offer the student remedies to address the effects of sex-based harassment during the student’s enrollment.
The facts of Taft College highlight important discussions to have with community stakeholders, including:
Are our policies and websites clear on reporting options?
Is our Title IX Coordinator’s information prominent in our policies and procedures?
Are our faculty and staff aware of their obligations when they receive a report of harassment?
Is our community trained in best practices for inclusion and belonging relating to gender identity and gender expression?
As always, this resolution agreement is not binding on other schools or institutions, but its content can include important takeaways or reminders, especially as trends continue to develop in OCR’s reviews.
OCR’s letter to the District is here, and the resolution agreement is here.