Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 322.0

524US2

Unit: $U87

[09-15-00 14:31:25] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 274 (1998)

277

Opinion of the Court

Wallace B. Jefferson argued the cause for respondent.
With him on the brief were Ellen B. Mitchell and N. Mark
Ralls.*

Justice O(cid:146)Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question in this case is when a school district may be
held liable in damages in an implied right of action under
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 86 Stat. 373,
as amended, 20 U. S. C. § 1681 et seq. (Title IX), for the sexual
harassment of a student by one of the district’s teachers.
We conclude that damages may not be recovered in those
circumstances unless an ofﬁcial of the school district who at
a minimum has authority to institute corrective measures on
the district’s behalf has actual notice of, and is deliberately
indifferent to, the teacher’s misconduct.

I

In the spring of 1991, when petitioner Alida Star Gebser
was an eighth-grade student at a middle school in respondent
Lago Vista Independent School District (Lago Vista), she
joined a high school book discussion group led by Frank Wal-
drop, a teacher at Lago Vista’s high school. Lago Vista re-
ceived federal funds at all pertinent times. During the book
discussion sessions, Waldrop often made sexually suggestive
comments to the students. Gebser entered high school in
the fall and was assigned to classes taught by Waldrop in
both semesters. Waldrop continued to make inappropriate

*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were ﬁled for the National Edu-
cation Association by Michael D. Simpson and Laurence Gold; and for the
National Women’s Law Center et al. by Jacqueline R. Denning, Nancy L.
Perkins, and Marcia D. Greenberger.

Briefs of amici curiae urging afﬁrmance were ﬁled for the American
Insurance Association by William J. Kilberg, Craig A. Berrington, and
Phillip L. Schwartz; for the Kentucky School Boards Association by Mi-
chael A. Owsley and Regina Abrams; for the National School Boards As-
sociation et al. by Lisa A. Brown, Gwendolyn H. Gregory, and Cynthia
Jahn; and for the TASB Legal Assistance Fund by Carolyn M. Hanahan.