(4) Perpetrators of sexual harassment and vio-
lence at school are not limited to students. Incidents 
have also involved faculty, administrators, coaches, 
and other staff members. 
(5) A school culture that tolerates inappropriate 
verbal and physical contact and that intentionally or 
unintentionally discourages reporting these behaviors 
undermines the emotional, intellectual, and profes-
sional growth of millions of young people. 
(6) Sexual harassment of students, especially 
among women and girls, students of color, disabled 
students, and LGBTQ students, is widely prevalent 
in K–12 and higher education, for example: 
(A) One in 5 girls ages 14 through 18 
have been kissed or touched without their con-
sent, 58 percent of LGBTQ youth ages 13 
through 21 are sexually harassed, and children 
with disabilities are 2.9 times more likely than 
their peers to be sexually assaulted. 
(B) Historically marginalized and under-
represented groups are more likely to experi-
ence sexual harassment than their peers, with 
Native American, Black, and Latina girls being 
more likely than White girls to be forced to 
have sex when they do not want to do so. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
(C) In college, 1 in 4 women, 1 in 15 men, 
and 1 in 4 transgender, nonbinary, and gender- 
nonconforming students are sexually assaulted 
during their time as undergraduates. 
(D) One in 3 college women and 1 in 6 col-
lege men are survivors of dating violence or do-
mestic violence. 
(7) Few students report harassment to their 
schools, often because of shame or self-blame, fear 
of retaliation, fear of being ignored or disciplined, 
fear of police or immigration officials, or lack of 
knowledge of services schools can offer to help. 
(8) Failure to meaningfully enforce title IX 
leads to discrimination by creating a hostile learning 
environment that impedes educational attainment, 
damages rights to equal access to education, and un-
dermines learning for all. 
(9) When schools fail to protect survivors, in-
cluding by offering supportive measures that are de-
signed to preserve and to restore their equal access 
to education, survivors often suffer in the form of 
lower academic achievement, lost scholarships, and 
lost degrees. 
(10) Current title IX regulations issued by the 
Secretary of Education entitled ‘‘Nondiscrimination 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Ac-
tivities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance’’ (85 
Fed. Reg. 30026, May 19, 2020) have made it more 
difficult for student survivors to report harassment 
and receive help and pose uniquely burdensome pro-
cedures for cases of sexual harassment that are not 
required for any other type of student or staff mis-
conduct, only further sweeping sexual violence under 
the rug. 
(11) Title IX’s language is broad and sweeping, 
making clear Congress’ intent to open the court-
house doors to victims of a wide range of sex dis-
crimination in schools. However, since title IX’s pas-
sage, courts have created barriers that make it ex-
traordinarily difficult for survivors to obtain redress 
from schools through private litigation. 
(12) In a 5 to 4 opinion in Gebser v. Lago 
Vista Independent School District, 524 U.S. 274 
(1998), the Supreme Court held that students sub-
jected to sexual harassment may receive a damages 
remedy under title IX only when school officials have 
‘‘actual notice’’ of the harassment and are ‘‘delib-
erately indifferent’’, or respond in a clearly unrea-
sonable manner, to it. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
(13) Although they do not affect the relevant 
standards for individuals to obtain injunctive and 
equitable relief for harassment on the basis of race, 
color, sex, national origin, age, or disability under 
covered programs and activities, Gebser and similar 
opinions severely limit the availability of remedies 
for such individuals by imposing new, more stringent 
standards for recovery of damages under title IX. 
Yet in many cases, damages are the only remedy 
that would effectively rectify past harassment. 
(14) These limitations on effective relief thwart 
Congress’ underlying purpose to protect students 
from harassment, and they create prohibitively high 
standards for title IX sexual harassment lawsuits 
that are more onerous than those applicable to work-
place sexual harassment lawsuits under title VII of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et 
seq.). As a result, schools are required to do less to 
address harassment against their students than to 
address the same harassment of their employees, 
meaning that students, who are children and young 
adults, must suffer worse harassment than adult em-
ployees before they are entitled to a remedy in court. 
(15) Some lower courts have added additional 
onerous barriers under which a school is only liable 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
for its failure to address known sexual harassment 
if the victim later experiences further actionable sex-
ual harassment. 
(16) A Federal court of appeals opinion in 
Kollaritsch v. Michigan State University Board of 
Trustees, 944 F.3d 613, 621–24 (6th Cir. 2019), 
went so far as to foreclose money damages if a vic-
tim of sexual harassment does not experience further 
actionable harassment as a result of the recipient’s 
deficient response to a complaint, even if the recipi-
ent’s conduct causes educational injuries under title 
IX. 
(17) Gebser and subsequent opinions create an 
incentive for covered entities to insulate themselves 
from knowledge of harassment on the basis of sex 
rather than adopting and enforcing practices that 
will minimize the danger of such harassment. The 
opinions thus undermine the purpose of prohibitions 
on discrimination in the civil rights laws to induce 
covered programs or activities to adopt and enforce 
practices that will minimize the danger that vulner-
able students or other persons will be exposed to 
such odious behavior. 
(18) Legislative action is necessary and appro-
priate to reverse Gebser and other court opinions 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
and restore the availability of a full range of rem-
edies for harassment based on sex. 
(19) Restoring the availability of a full range of 
remedies for harassment will— 
(A) ensure that students and other persons 
of federally funded programs and activities have 
protection from harassment on the basis of sex; 
(B) encourage covered entities to adopt 
and enforce meaningful policies and procedures 
to prevent and remedy harassment; 
(C) deter incidents of harassment; and 
(D) provide appropriate remedies for dis-
crimination. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF HARASSMENT. 
(a) PROHIBITION OF HARASSMENT.—Section 901 of 
the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(d) PROHIBITION OF HARASSMENT.— 
‘‘(1) If an agent or an employee of a covered 
entity engages in harassment, regardless of where 
the harassment occurs, on the basis of sex, which is 
enabled or assisted by the authority exercised as an 
employee or agent of the covered entity, against a 
person who is participating in or receiving benefits, 
services, or opportunities from an education program 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
or activity, or who is attempting to do so, and the 
harassment alters the aggrieved person’s ability to 
do so, including by creating an intimidating, hostile, 
or offensive environment, the covered entity is liable 
for sex discrimination. 
‘‘(2)(A) If a person who is an agent or em-
ployee of a covered entity engages in harassment, re-
gardless of where the harassment occurs, on the 
basis of sex against a person who is participating in 
or receiving benefits, services, or opportunities from 
an education program or activity or who is attempt-
ing to do so— 
‘‘(i) the harassment is not enabled or as-
sisted by the authority exercised as an employee 
or agent of the covered entity; 
‘‘(ii) the harassment alters the aggrieved 
person’s ability to participate in or receive bene-
fits, services, or opportunities from an edu-
cation program or activity, including by cre-
ating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive envi-
ronment; and 
‘‘(iii) the covered entity knew, or in the ex-
ercise of reasonable care should have known, of 
the harassment, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
then the covered entity is liable for sex discrimina-
tion unless it can demonstrate that it exercised rea-
sonable care to promptly prevent and correct the ef-
fects of any harassment based on sex. 
‘‘(B) If a person who is not an agent or em-
ployee of a covered entity engages in harassment, re-
gardless of where the harassment occurs, on the 
basis of sex against a person who is participating in 
or receiving benefits, services, or opportunities from 
an education program or activity or who is attempt-
ing to do so, and the harassment alters the ag-
grieved person’s ability to do so, including by cre-
ating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environ-
ment, and the covered entity knew, or in the exercise 
of reasonable care should have known, of the harass-
ment, then the covered entity is liable for sex dis-
crimination unless it can demonstrate that it exer-
cised reasonable care to promptly prevent and cor-
rect the effects of any harassment based on sex. 
‘‘(C) A covered entity shall exercise reasonable 
care in response to harassment based on sex if any 
of the following individuals knew, or in the exercise 
of reasonable care should have known, about the 
harassment: 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
‘‘(i) An agent or employee who has the au-
thority to take action to redress the harass-
ment. 
‘‘(ii) An agent or employee who has the 
duty to report to an administrator harassment 
or any other misconduct by others. 
‘‘(iii) An individual who a harassment vic-
tim or reporting party could reasonably believe 
has this authority or responsibility. 
‘‘(D) A showing that the covered entity has ex-
ercised reasonable care to promptly prevent and cor-
rect the effects of any harassment based on sex in-
cludes a demonstration by the covered entity that it 
has— 
‘‘(i) established, adequately publicized, and 
enforced an effective and comprehensive harass-
ment prevention policy and complaint procedure 
that is likely to provide redress and avoid harm 
without exposing the person subjected to the 
harassment to undue risk, effort, or expense; 
‘‘(ii) if requested by the aggrieved person 
or otherwise deemed necessary to protect the 
aggrieved person or other persons within the 
program or activity from a significant ongoing 
threat, undertaken a prompt, thorough, and im-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00011
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS
partial investigation, unless the allegations are 
patently frivolous; 
‘‘(iii) provided supportive measures that 
had the purpose and effect of preserving and 
restoring the aggrieved person’s equal access to 
the education program or activity, regardless of 
whether the aggrieved person requested an in-
vestigation; and 
‘‘(iv) after receiving notice, taken other 
necessary, immediate, and appropriate correc-
tive action designed to stop the harassment that 
occurred and correct its effects, regardless of 
whether the aggrieved person experienced sub-
sequent harassment.’’. 
(b) CIVIL ACTION.—Section 902 of the Education 
Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1682) is amended— 
(1) by inserting ‘‘(a)’’ before ‘‘Each Federal de-
partment and agency which is empowered’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(b) Any person aggrieved by the failure of a covered 
entity to comply with this title, including any regulation 
promulgated pursuant to this title, may bring a civil action 
in any court of competent jurisdiction to enforce such per-
son’s rights.’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:01 Oct 01, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00012
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H5396.IH
H5396
ctelli on DSK11ZRN23PROD with BILLS