From the October 9, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *3   REJECTING HARASSMENT SUIT:  U.S. HIGH COURT REJECTS APPEAL
-> School district officials yearning for a legal consensus on
-> student-on-student sexual harassment were disheartened by the
-> U.S. Supreme Court's decision to not hear a Texas sexual
-> harassment case (Biskupic, WASH POST, 10/8).  On their first day back
-> to court, the Supreme Court justices declined to hear the
-> case of Debra Rowinsky, who claims the Bryan Independent School
-> District did nothing to end the sexual harassment of her
-> daughters by male classmates on the bus to and from school.
->    The decision to not hear the case let stand an opinion
-> issued by the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which held
-> that schools cannot be held liable for failing to prevent sexual
-> harassment among students.  Rowinsky v. Bryan Independent school
-> District focused on Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972,
-> which prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal
-> funds.  Many advocates of using Title IX in student-on- student
-> sexual harassment cases argue that the same standard that applies in
-> the workplace should apply in the classroom (See
-> 10/7/96 DRC).
->    However, the lower court ruled that "it is not enough that
-> [a school district] knew or should have known about sexual
-> harassment at the school or did not effectively deal with such
-> complaints."  The POST reports that the appeals court ruling
-> contradicts decisions issued by other courts and the U.S. DoEd's
-> policy on sex discrimination.  "Title IX protects young women
-> attending school in some parts of the country from humiliating
-> peer harassment that threatens their ability to pursue an
-> education and jeopardizes their school performance and personal
-> well-being," said Rowinsky's lawyers.  "Young women who attend
-> school in the Fifth Circuit [Texas, La., and Miss.] now have no Title
-> IX right to an education free from debilitating peer
-> harassment and no recourse from oppressive sexual abuse
-> perpetrated by their male counterparts."
->    School district lawyers disagreed.  "Contrary to the
-> petition, Rowinsky will not leave female students in the Fifth
-> Circuit without protection from debilitating peer harassment.'
-> School districts may lose their federal funding, may be
-> investigated by the [DoEd's Office of Civil Rights], and may be sued
-> for damages where intentional discrimination by these school
-> districts is established.  Students also may file criminal
-> charges against or sue their perpetrators."
->    The POST explains that the Rowinsky girls "allegedly had
-> endured nine months of repeated taunts, groping and grabbing
-> while riding the bus to school."  In another lawsuit, a Calif.
-> girl was awarded $500,000 in damages, to be paid by the Antioch
-> School District (Calif.), after a jury agreed that she was sexual
-> harassed for months by a male classmate. (See DRC 10/7/96)
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