Insights & News

What is Title IX? Title IX provides that “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 education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…” (20 U.S.C. §1681). This means that Title IX, with all of its requirements related to athletics and regulations about sexual harassment, does not apply to schools that do not receive any form of federal financial assistance. Definition of “Federal Financial Assistance” Direct Federal Assistance When a university receives direct federal assistance through acceptance of Title […]

What is a No Contact Order?  A no contact order, or NCO as a Title IX attorney may call it, is a preliminary administrative action a school may take to prevent Title IX parties from contacting one another. It may be one-way (usually preventing the Respondent from contacting the Complainant) or mutual (preventing both the Respondent and Complainant from contacting one another). No contact orders are usually entered at the beginning of a Title IX process and should be taken very seriously as a violation of a no contact order may result in sanctions.   What does a No Contact Order […]

Title IX Relates to College Athletics While Title IX’s original purpose when it was enacted in 1972 was mainly to expand women’s access to athletic opportunities in college, its scope has been massively expanded. Today, one of the primary roles of Title IX is to ensure schools equitably adjudicate sexual misconduct complaints.  All Title IX Victims are Female  The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010-2012 State Report, released in 2017, indicates the following self-report statistics regarding male victims of sexual abuse:  “Made to penetrate” offenses (wherein a male was forced to penetrate an offender): 1.7 million victims  […]

DO review the Notice of Investigation thoroughly, paying particular attention to the date(s) and potential policy violation(s). DON’T contact the Complainant. This could expose you to a no-contact order violation and is NEVER a good idea. DO read your school’s policy, paying particular attention to your school’s Title IX procedures as well as the applicable definitions or descriptions of the alleged policy violations. DON’T contact witnesses yourself. Have your advisor or private investigator contact witnesses. If you are unable to afford a hired advisor or private investigator and must contact witnesses yourself, DON’T discuss the facts with them. Keep the […]