This letter addressed that “bullying” is not only a violation of school rules, but could also be a civil rights violation.
If incidents of harassment or bullying are based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability, it constitutes a civil rights violation, and will be enforced by the OCR.
For the purpose of this website, only the Title IX section of the letter pertaining to sex discrimination is relevant, but the letter does describe all types of civil rights violations.
The letter gives two examples of bullying that are considered harassment and needs to be managed by the institution as a Title IX violation.
The first is an example of sexual harassment in which a student is harassed by other students and the faculty and staff was aware of the incidents and inappropriately dismissed the harassment as 'hazing" when it was actually a hostile environment. When the harassment leads to a hostile environment, it needs to be addressed according to the institutions’ Title IX policy and OCR guidelines. The letter stressed the need for proper training of staff and students to be better aware of what constitutes harassment and how to report and respond to potential issues.
The other example is one of gender-based harassment. The letter states that Title IX is enforced not only for sexual harassment, but also gender based harassment. The gender based harassment example explains a possible incident in which a gay student is bullied and assaulted because of his orientation and “for not conforming to stereotypical notions of how teenage boys are expected to act and appear (Ali, 2010, pp. 6-7).”
The letter clarified that Title IX does not prohibit discrimination based solely on sexual orientation, but protects all students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, from sex discrimination.
The letter once again identifies the need to be able to recognize a hostile environment and to resolve one immediately.