Friday, September 21, 2007

Idaho case reexamined

The Coeur d'Alene school district in Idaho thought it was done with Title IX investigations after a complaint that charged the district with "historical and callous practice of denying civil rights" was investigated and unable to be substantiated. But the anonymous complainant has introduced new evidence that convinced OCR at the end of August to re-open the case. No one is saying what the new information is but the initial complaint cited the district for not meeting the interests and abilities of girls, disparity in coaching, and lack of a district Title IX coordinator.
The administrators in Coeur d'Alene seem confident this new information will not alter the initial finding of compliance.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

DOE|OCR's has been in a political process, guided by the current administration, of adbication of Title IX oversight and enforcement nationally. Not undtil a state senator and congress-woman intervened did OCR reconsider the complaint which they never investigated to begin with.

OCR data in a 10 year history show a dramatic shift away from corrective action. It illustrates a clear and purposeful reduction from 62%, by half, year by year, of dismissals of Title IX complaint investigations to less than 12%, of which many complaints were buried that should have resulted in corrective action. Now Title IX complaints have been prematurely dismissed by OCR "evaluation" for what they term " insufficient evidence of a violation". OCR is simply not investigating complaints, frustrating complainants with insessant delay, and thus prematurely arrives at this determination WITHOUT actually acquiring evidence from an investigation.

It is particularly humorous that Coeur d'Alene school officials can posit they are in compliance. They have no survey data of girls interest ever being done by the district, and with a HUGE 16% disparity in girls athletic participation, the district has no basis to make such a claim. The fact that they never had a Title IX officer further exposes their over-confidence and indifference to discriminating hundreds of young women.