Category: Title IX

The University of Southern Indiana established a campus court system in light of the Title IX federal civil rights law, but the goal isn’t to punish criminal law violations. Instead, it’s an administrative process that deals with alleged violations of USI’s Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct Policy. The harshest punishments are expulsion or termination, according to the Courier & Press.

When complaints are filed, they are kept confidential. The terms describing the procedures include evaluative panel, administrative resolution, and sanctions. If it is determined that student or employee has violated the university’s policy, the imposed sanctions will be added to their student or personnel file.

Sexual assaults are a horrific crime that a large amount of people have unfortunately experienced. About 23 million women and 1.7 million men have suffered from rape or attempted rape during their lifetime. This is an unacceptable and terrible thing. While we cannot undo what was done, the lawyers at Thomas Law Offices can offer legal options. You can make a stand with a sexual assault claim. We believe in advocating for survivors and making sure you get the justice you deserve.

With high numbers of sexual abuse, some may wonder why sexual violence can go unreported. But there are a few reasons that prevent survivors from raising their voices and accusing their abusers. It’s important to understand the precarious situation they are in and to think about what could be keeping them from speaking up.

The U.S. Department of Education proposed changes to Title IX in November 2018. These changes are supposed to give accommodations to students who are sexual assault survivors, limit what the schools need to look into, and give students who were accused resources to defend themselves, too.

The changes are:

• Sexual assaults that happen off-campus don’t need to be investigated by the university.
• Schools need to provide students who were sexually assaulted with support, such as switching schedules, counseling, and keeping their attacker from contacting them. This should still happen even if the student doesn’t want to make a formal complaint.
• Should a student tell a professor that they were assaulted, this doesn’t mean that the university needs to follow up with the allegation.
• When a school is investigating a sexual assault case, there will be a hearing where the student’s representatives can provide a cross-examination, but cannot ask questions about the sexual history of the student who is saying they were assaulted.
• The parties involved have equal access to the evidence.
• While schools can deny appeals for students facing disciplinary decisions in sexual misconduct cases, if they do allow appeals, then the parties involved can do so.
• The university official who is investigating the allegation can’t decide the case’s outcome.

The University of Southern California is under an investigation from the United States Education Department for failing to act on student complaints that a campus health clinic gynecologist was sexually harassing his patients during their pelvic examinations.

The federal agency will examine why complaints against Dr. George Tyndall were not investigated by the university in accordance with civil rights and Title IX federal regulations.  Tyndall, who has denied any wrongdoing in interviews with the Los Angeles Times, is accused of abusing patients at the school from 1990 to 2016.

Additionally, the Los Angeles Police Department has launched a criminal investigation against Tyndall, based on 52 sexual assault complaints filed by students during the 26-year period.

In the recent, highly publicized sexual assault case that stunned the nation, former Olympic doctor Larry Nassar was found guilty of abusing dozens of young female athletes and sentenced to 175 years in prison. This, however, was not the first time Nassar was formally accused of sexual assault. In 2014, a Title IX investigation against Nassar at Michigan State University found “no evidence of misconduct,” allowing Nassar to continue working for the school and subjecting young women to inappropriate sexual behavior disguised as proper medical treatment.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and requires universities to investigate all cases of student sexual assault and harassment. In her Title IX case, former MSU student Amanda Thomashow described Nassar massaging her breasts and vaginal area during medical examinations. The accusation was handled by Kristine Moore, the university’s Title IX coordinator and full time employee. Moore is now MSU’s Assistant General Counsel and is responsible for protecting the school from legal liability.