Southern Methodist University violated Title IX when it failed to provide a “prompt and equitable response” to the alleged sexual assault of a male student by another male student in 2012, the U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday. The university then failed to protect the victim from further harassment and embarrassment following the assault, the department said, leading him to drop out.
The student’s claims are outlined in a resolution letter the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent to SMU this week, concluding a three-year investigation that began with a separate complaint in 2011 and eventually grew to include a third complaint in 2013 and a review of the university”s responses to sexual assaults dating back to 2009. The investigation concluded that the male student “was subjected to a sexually hostile environment as a result of the sexual assault and that he continued to be subjected to a sexually hostile environment as a result of the university’s inadequate response to his reports of retaliatory harassment.”
Title IX violations and subsequent resolution agreements do not often stem from the complaints of male students, partly because of the scarcity of reported cases of sexual assault against men. With its decision against SMU, victim advocates said, the Education Department affirmed that Title IX protects students of all genders.
“Because of pervasive myths about who ‘can’ and ‘cannot’ be a rape victim, male survivors often aren’t provided the same remedies and protections in schools as female survivors,” said Dana Bolger, co-founder of Know Your Title IX∩╗┐. “These are protections they deserve and are owed under the law.”
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/12/smu-found-violation-title-ix-after-not-investigating-male-students-claim-sexual
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