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# U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Sex-Based Harassment Investigation of Taft College in California

# U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Sex-Based Harassment Investigation of Taft College in California

October 19, 2023

**Contact:  **press@ed.gov

                                    -        
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil  Rights (OCR) today announced that Taft College in California has entered into a  resolution agreement to ensure the college’s compliance with Title IX of the  Education Amendments of 1972 when responding to allegations of harassment based  on sex, including sex stereotyping.

OCR found that the college failed to respond as required  by Title IX to repeated allegations from one of its students, who is  transgender, that college employees harassed the student based on sex for more  than a year.

The investigation included allegations that a professor  told the student, in front of her whole class, that based on her “physical  appearance” the professor did not consider the student “feminine enough” and  that on another occasion an administrator of the student’s college program  knowingly excluded the student when addressing other female students as  “ladies” in class.

OCR’s investigation also reflected that the college  received repeated notice that the student alleged experiencing almost daily  harassment including through faculty misgendering the student, but the college  did not respond to these allegations to confirm their occurrence or redress the  harm the student reported experiencing.

As a result, OCR determined that the college subjected  the student to a hostile environment based on sex that negatively impacted the  student’s education.

OCR also identified a compliance concern that the college  may not have provided adequate notice to students, staff, and faculty about how  to make a complaint of sex-based harassment under Title IX and may have failed  to adequately notify the college community of its Title IX coordinator and how  to contact this person.

The resolution agreement reached today commits the  college to take the steps needed to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of  sex in all of its education programs and activities.

“Today’s resolution with Taft College addresses harassment experienced by a transgender student based on unlawful sex  stereotyping,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon.  “Taft College has committed to comply with Title IX to protect all its students  in the future."

The college’s commitments in the resolution agreement include:
- Offering to reimburse the student for counseling to address the effects of the sex-based harassment during the student’s enrollment.
- Reviewing and revising, as necessary, its policies and procedures to clarify that harassment based on sex includes harassment based on sex stereotyping.
- Training its employees who respond to sex-based harassment about the college’s obligations under Title IX. And,
- Providing documentation to OCR demonstrating that the college’s responses to complaints of sex-based harassment during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years complied with Title IX.

The letter to Taft College and the resolution agreement are available on the Office for Civil Rights website.
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