Skip To Main Content

Popular Links

Useful Links

Sexual Harassment - Title IX

What is Title IX?

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

2024  Amendments to Title IX Regulations

The district's Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinators are:

Student complaints: Megan Rhoades (mrhoades@sd27j.net)

Staff complaints: Andy Pippin (apippin@sd27j.net)

Anyone can report allegations of sex-based discrimination and harassment 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the district's Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinators. To report allegations of sex-based discrimination and harassment, please contact the Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinator directly or by completing the Title IX Complaint Form: AC-E-3.

For more information regarding the district's policies and procedures related to sexual harassment discrimination and harassment, please visit Sex-Based Harassment Investigation Procedures: AC-R-3.

 

What is sexual harassment?

The district defines sexual harassment as conduct on the basis of sex that falls into one of six categories.

  1. Quid pro quo sexual harassment: A district employee conditioning the provision of an aid, benefit, or service of the recipient on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct.
  2. Hostile environment sexual harassment: Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the District’s education programs or activities.
  3. Sexual assault: An offense that falls into the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting categories of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape. 
  • Rape: The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
  • Fondling: The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim.
  • Incest: Non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
  • Statutory rape: Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

4. Dating violence: Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. The existence of such a relationship is determined by a consideration of the length and type of relationship and the frequency of the parties’ interactions during the relationship. 

5. Domestic violence: Violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim.

6. Stalking: Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person based on their sex that would cause a reasonable person to a) fear for their safety or the safety of others, or b) suffer substantial emotional distress.

Reporting Obligations

Submitting a Complaint

Formal Complaint

A document filed by a complainant or signed by the Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinator alleging sexual harassment by a respondent and requesting that the District investigate the allegation. Click here to access the Title IX Complaint Form.

In order to participate in the resolution process, a complainant must submit a formal complaint.  Once a formal complaint has been submitted, the Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinator (or designee) will reach out to the complainant to gather additional information and determine if the District has jurisdiction over the formal complaint.  The formal complaint must meet the following criteria in order to move onto the resolution process:

  • The allegation(s) meet the definition of sexual harassment as defined by District Policy 8410.
  • The alleged conduct took place within the United States.
  • The alleged conduct occurred within the District's educational program or activity.

Who can file a formal complaint?

  • A person who is currently participating in the educational programs or activities of the District;
  • A person who is attempting to participate in those programs or activities; or,
  • The Title IX/Non-Discrimination Coordinator.

If the formal complaint does not meet the four criteria above, then the District may pursue the complaint under a different policy other than District Policy 8410.

Supportive Measures

Supportive Measures are individual accommodations offered to a student experiencing sex-based discrimination and harassment that are designed to protect the safety of all students and to restore and preserve equal access to education for the student. 

Students may request supportive measures to an administrator or the Districts Title IX Coordinator. A school shall not require a Complaint or a finding of sex-based harassment and discrimination before providing supportive measures. 
Supportive measures may include: 

  • Excused absences for therapy, medical, or other appointments related to the harassment or discrimination;
  • Class modifications, including possible online or  homebound enrollment 
  • Counseling