Outside Reading/Evidence
If you are enmeshed in the world of higher ed in the field of K-12 educational scholarship, you will want to find K-12 research on the subject. Yet, you will be hard pressed to find any scholarly articles in our field on the implementation of Title IX in K-12. We should know, we did the research and came up with nothing. There are however, some truly inspiring women in the field of law, and in higher education who are working very hard on this issue. There are international and domestic agencies working on the issue too, so we have referenced their work below. The stark facts are that this topic is simply not represented by K-12 educational scholars.
We begin with providing you with California Education Code, 221.61 (and a link to the California Dept of Education “Gender Equity and Title IX page) along with our discussion the status quo in bold underneath each section:
(a) On or before July 1, 2017, public schools, private schools that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements of Title IX, school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools shall post in a prominent and conspicuous location on their Internet Web sites all of the following:
(1) The name and contact information of the Title IX coordinator for that public school, private school, school district, county office of education, or charter school, which shall include the Title IX coordinator’s phone number and email address.
It is the collective experience of the K-12 school staff in our group representing four different districts in California, that teachers and entire school communities are not made aware of a Title IX coordinator and Title IX protections and reporting at all. Even if you really hunt and dig, you may not be able to find this information. We have even tried to push to report, and were told conflicting stories about who to talk to. The victims for whom we advocated were also not made aware of the status of any of their investigations, the outcomes of which were never favorable for any of the students under our advocacy.
(2) The rights of a pupil and the public and the responsibilities of the public school, private school, school district, county office of education, or charter school under Title IX, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, Internet Web links to information about those rights and responsibilities located on the Internet Web sites of the department’s Office for Equal Opportunity and the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, and the list of rights specified in Section 221.8.
(3) A description of how to file a complaint under Title IX, which shall include all of the following:
(A) An explanation of the statute of limitations within which a complaint must be filed after an alleged incident of discrimination has occurred, and how a complaint may be filed beyond the statute of limitations.
Since no one EVER talks about Title IX reporting, this issue never comes up and therefore this entire mandate is non-applicable to our assessment. Neither the students, nor the staff receive ANY training on preventing, recognizing, and reporting student on student sexual harassment/violence. Staff are not made aware of their legally required, mandated reporter obligations in regards to this law.
(B) An explanation of how the complaint will be investigated and how the complainant may further pursue the complaint, including, but not limited to, Internet Web links to this information on the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights’ Internet Web site.
All of us have tried to report student on student school-based Title IX violations and learned quickly that there is no system in place to report them as there is for suspected child abuse in the home.
More outside reading and Evidence…
This United Nations Report on the worldwide epidemic of Femicide, outlines the prevalence of gender based violence facing women and girls world-wide. This coupled with their research on the impacts and prevalence of sexual violence on women and girls world-wide lit a fire under them to create #WithHer. School Staff Against Sexual Violence is most definitely, WithHer!
Still think you can have an anti-sexual harassment/violence campaign at your K12 school without a gender equity framework and focus? You may be suprised to learn that we have heard this argument…that feminism and gender equity is too polarizing to discuss in K12, so why not just work on school-based rapes and victimization without it? Why? Because without a feminist based approach which recognizes male privelege, the work is near impossible. In their scholarly work entitled, “The Association Between Gender Inequality and Sexual Violence in the U.S,” Megan C Kearns 1, Ashley Schappell D'Inverno, Dennis E Reidy, outline evidence to support the clear connection between gender inequality and sexual victimization. There are many excellent sources including the UN reports which also make this case. Rape and sexual victimization is a gender equity issue. period. We are sick and tired of having this notion questioned by educational leaders who should know better!!!
The American Association of University Women report on sexual harassment in K12 schools: Hostile Hallways, is the pre-eminent resource for the prevalence of the problem
Universities and colleges are WAY ahead of K12, because progress has always relied on the organizational efforts of survivors, which is again, an ageist approach to progress since students in K12 are children, and have far less agency over their lives. This article in the Atlantic written by Mark Keierleber, details some of this and delves into the incredibly important work being done by Adele Kimmel.
This Edweek article distills the reality of the lack of female representation in educational leadership
The National Coalition of Women and Girls in Education published their findings of the status of gender equity in education in light of Title IX in the “Title IX at 30—Report Card on Gender Equity.”
The reality that revolutions in gender equity have not included children is discussed by civil right attorney, Adele Kimmel’s (we LOVE her), in her publication entitled, “Title IX Litigation and Enforcement for K-12 Sexual Assault Survivors,” when, in her attempt to aide other attorney’s in their efforts to fight for K12 survivors of school-based sexual violence, she makes it clear that title IX advancements in our nations colleges and universities have NOT made their way into the world of K12 education.
