Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Student's Preliminary Right to Use the Bathroom

Yesterday the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that transgender high school student Ash Whitaker may not be barred from the boys' bathroom while he litigates his case against the school district.  Whitaker, who identifies as male, sued the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin after it restricted his access to the boys' restrooms because his natal sex is female. After Whitaker sued under Title IX and the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, he sought a preliminary injunction that would allow him to use the correct bathroom while his case is being litigated; a lower court agreed and the school board's appeal of that decision produced yesterday's landmark ruling.

What made the Seventh Circuit's decision noteworthy is that it is the first time a federal appellate court has construed Title IX directly to cover discrimination against transgender students in the context of bathrooms. Another federal appellate court, the Fourth Circuit, reached a similar conclusion in Gavin Grimm's case, but only after extending judicial deference to the Department of Education's former interpretation of Title IX's application to transgender students' bathroom usage. The Department of Education's subsequent withdrawal of that interpretation meant that future courts could not rely on it as the basis for their rulings, as the Fourth Circuit had done, but did not foreclose courts from reaching the same interpretation on its own -- which the Seventh Circuit did yesterday.

When deciding to grant a preliminary injunction, a court must decide among other factors, that the plaintiff is likely to win on the merits. The Seventh Circuit agreed that Whitaker would likely prevail on his argument that Title IX's ban on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination against transgender students. Even though an earlier decision from that court rejected the idea that sex discrimination laws covered transgender plaintiffs, the court acknowledged that subsequent Supreme Court caselaw interpreted the concept of sex discrimination more broadly to include discrimination based on gender stereotypes. And what is transgender discrimination, reasoned the court, than discrimination that targets an individual for presenting in a way that's different from what society expects based on the sex that person was assigned at birth.

Additionally, the court also found that Whitaker was likely to succeed on his Equal Protection claim.  Applying heightened scrutiny, the court recognized that the school would be unlikely to justify treating Whitaker differently from other students, who are permitted to use the bathroom that matches their gender identities. Though the school district claimed to be protecting students' privacy, the court could not see any evidence, at least at this preliminary stage of litigation, that anyone's privacy is infringed in bathrooms that have stalls. The court viewed the privacy "threat" from Whitaker no differently from any other student who may happen to be in the bathroom at the same time as another user. To the extent that Whitaker's different anatomy from other boys somehow makes privacy considerations different, the court noted that students with different anatomy use common bathrooms all the time, there being no effort by the school district, for example, to segregate pre-pubescent adolescents from those whose bodies are different and more mature.

What will happen next in this case? Theoretically, the school district can try to get the ruling overturned internally by the court, by seeking a rehearing in front of the full court.  But, the court's decision notes that Whitaker is a high school senior and it is already May.  Therefore, a decision by the full court would be unlikely to interrupt the preliminary relief he has obtained.  More likely, therefore, the case will continue to litigate the merits. Whitaker has also sued for compensatory damages, so that aspect of the case will not be mooted by the fact of his graduation from high school.

Study Examines Faculty-on-Student Harassment

Professors Nancy Chi Cantalupo and William Kidder have posted a forthcoming study about an aspect of campus sexual misconduct that warrants more public discussion: the sexual harassment of students by faculty members.  They studied media reports as well as lawsuits and administrative complaints, amassing a data set of over three hundred cases. As they put it in the abstract,

Two key findings emerged from the data. First, contrary to popular assumptions, faculty sexual harassers are not engaged primarily in verbal behavior. Rather, most of the cases reviewed for this study involved faculty alleged to have engaged in unwelcome physical contact ranging from groping to sexual assault to domestic abuse-like behaviors. Second, more than half (53%) of cases involved professors allegedly engaged in serial sexual harassment. Thus, this study adds to our understanding of sexual harassment in the university setting and informs a number of related policy and legal questions including academic freedom, prevention, sanctions, and the so-called “pass the harasser” phenomenon of serial sexual harassers relocating to new university positions.

Here is a link to the study, which will be published in the Utah Law Review.

New University of Oregon Alters Faculty Mandatory Reporting Status

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported today about the University of Oregon's notable decision to amend the responsibilities of faculty member who learn about sexual misconduct in the university's jurisdiction. Currently, faculty members like most university employees at Oregon and elsewhere are required to report to the Title IX Coordinator when a student discloses (or they otherwise learn) that he or she has been sexually assaulted. The trend toward assigning faculty members responsibility as mandatory reporters resulted from the Department of Education's policy statements clarifying universities' obligations under Title IX to respond appropriately to Title IX. Universities had in the past defended some of their failures to respond to instances of sexual assault by claiming that appropriate officials were not aware of what had occurred. So to minimize the possibility that communication gaps could undermine universities' prompt and equitable response, it made statements broadly defining mandatory reporters.  In particular, the Department's 2014 Q&A document requires universities to mandate reporting from anyone who has the "authority to take action to redress sexual violence," or anyone who a student could "reasonably believe" has such authority. Universities have generally interpreted this requirement broadly to include faculty.

But many have criticized the mandating of faculty members' reporting as undermining its intended objective of helping to protect sexual assault victims. Some believe that students expect faculty members to honor requests for confidentiality and feel betrayed when a faculty member is not able to do so because of policies that require reporting. It is possible that the fear of such betrayal deters victims from reporting. On the other hand, the fear that the university will not respond is also believed to deter victims from reporting. So universities must address this issue with care.

The University of Oregon believes its new approach, will takes effect this fall, will do a better job encouraging students to disclose without undermining the communication required to initiate an institutional response. Faculty members will neither be mandatory reporters nor fully exempt from reporting, but will have the ability to use discretion to decide the reporting question. As the Chronicle summarized, "If a student says she was raped but isn’t ready to a report it, her professor can generally honor that request." But the faculty member must also provide the student with information about reporting, as well as other resources, and they must even consult a campus health counselor to make sure they have done everything they can to help the student.

Even with those other responsibilities in place, what still worries me about this policy is that when information is not channeled to a centralized office, fewer people are in a position to notice the kinds of patterns that could reveal a genuine threat. What if three different students confidentially report to three different professors that they have been sexually assaulted by the same student? If the reporting students do not know about each other, then neither will the professors. The professors will therefore underestimate the risk of not reporting and decide to honor the student's request for confidence. This possible downside of Oregon's new policy is only worth it, in my opinion, if it truly serves to increase reporting overall. I wonder -- and hope -- there is some way to measure the impact of this policy change in order to help accurately weigh the tradeoffs involved.

Iowa settles for $6.5 million

The University of Iowa will reportedly pay $6.5 million to avoid further litigation in the discrimination lawsuits filed by former associate athletic director Jane Meyer and former field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum.  Griesbaum's lawsuit, which had been scheduled for trial next month, alleged that she was wrongfully terminated and that the athletic director had a pattern of firing female coaches. Meyer, Griesbaum's partner, successfully convinced a jury earlier this month that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about that and other examples of sex discrimination within the department. The jury had awarded Meyer $1.45 million, but this amount was subject to increase if the court decided to award punitive damages. Under the settlement, Meyer will instead receive $2.33 million, Griesbaum $1.49 million, and their attorneys, $2.68 million.

As the settlement only affects litigation, it does not affect the ongoing investigation by the Department of Education into claims that the university violated the Title IX rights of Griesbaum's athletes when it fired their coach.

Iowa Verdict in Context

Earlier this month, former athletic administrator Jane Meyer won her case and a sizeable $1.43 million jury award against the University of Iowa. I was traveling out of the country when it happened and could not blog about it until now, but my delay in posting in no way detracts from what big news I think this is. Meyer sued the university for retaliation in violation of Title IX when she was transferred outside the department the day after she submitted a memo to the athletic director describing the sex discrimination she had experienced and witnessed within the department. Some of her grievances had to do with the athletic director's decision to reassign some of Meyer's responsibilities to a newly-created deputy AD, a position filled by a male who was paid $70,000 more than Meyer. Meyer also objected to the firing of female head coaches, including her own partner Tracey Griesbaum who lost her position at the helm of the university's field hockey team even though an internal investigation cleared her of the complaints of bullying and harassment for which she had been accused. (Griesbaum's own lawsuit against the university is still pending.)

The jury agreed that the university violated Meyer's civil rights and awarded her $374,000 for back pay, $444,000 for past emotional distress, and $612,000 for future emotional distress. She is reportedly seeking an additional $2 million in reimbursement for legal fees and in punitive damages which may be allowable based on the jury's finding that the university's violations were "willful."
Meyer is not the first veteran female leader in college athletics to challenge sex discrimination and retaliation within her department. Just last fall a jury in California awarded over $3 million to Beth Burns after seeing her university's stated reason for firing her as pretext for retaliation. In another recent example, the University of North Florida paid over a million to a terminated female coach last year.  In the more distant past, we've blogged about jury awards and settlements for female coaches and administrators who endured retaliation and sex discrimination at Fresno State, Florida Gulf Coast University, Iowa State, and Cal-Berkeley, for example. Cases currently pending against Minnesota-Duluth and Griesbaum's case against Iowa could add to this list as well.

Together these cases remind us that even in this Title IX era, college athletics is a contentious workplace for female coaches and administrators. And when you consider that lawsuits are likely only filed when the plaintiff has nothing left to lose, it is easy to imagine that there are likely countless unknown other examples of discrimination that are almost as bad. When the media bemoans the dearth of female leadership in college athletics, these lawsuits hold some clues about many of the reasons why.

But the success of these plaintiffs also raise a critical question about how much litigation it will take to see athletic departments change their culture and behavior towards female coaches and administrators. Why wasn't Fresno State, for example, enough of a warning to prevent Iowa from repeating its pattern of mistakes?  It's important that the Polk County, Iowa, jury sent a strong message to college and university athletic departments that retaliation and discrimination doesn't pay, but are other athletic departments getting the message?