“While the new regulations will doubtless face legal challenges, parents, students, advocates, and professionals should prepare for the proposed regulations going into effect with few meaningful changes"
DALLAS (PRWEB) February 21, 2023
In May, the Biden administration aims to release new Title IX regulations that cut deep into the rights of students accused of misconduct and leave them vulnerable to biased proceedings and wrongful allegations. Title IX for All, a Texas-based organization that tracks lawsuits by accused students who allege they were victims of unfair procedures in school Title IX investigations, offers commentary on the proposed regulations.
Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance, has been interpreted to require schools to investigate and discipline students accused of such misconduct as sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Attorneys and advocates have hotly debated how far schools must go to protect complainants who allege they are victims of misconduct and, on the other hand, what protections should be afforded to respondents – too often wrongly accused - to ensure they are not victims of unfair procedures.
The new regulations eliminate the requirement for live hearings and empower a single school official to be both investigator and decision-maker, a “single investigator” model that numerous judges have determined to be fundamentally unfair. They also restrict the evidence accused students can see and respond to, eliminate cross-examination requirements, and broaden the definition of hostile environment sexual harassment to allow schools to interpret evidence much more subjectively.
Under the previous administration, these rights were established by regulation in response to a tidal wave of litigation brought by accused students. Ninety-eight percent of these lawsuits were filed by men according to the Title IX Lawsuits Database, a database of lawsuits built and maintained by Title IX for All.
But advocates for accusers - many of whom passionately believe accused students should be presumed guilty, that false accusations should never be punished, and accused students should remain punished even when courts determine the proceedings against them were unconstitutional and unfair - have successfully lobbied to remove essential due process protections. The result: the Biden administration’s proposed regulatory changes.
“While the new regulations will doubtless face legal challenges, parents, students, advocates, and professionals should prepare for the proposed regulations going into effect with few meaningful changes,” said Jonathan Taylor, Title IX for All’s founder.
Find more information about these lawsuits, visit Title IX for All’s Title IX Lawsuits Database.