Title IX and Sexual Harassment

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 forbids gender discrimination by any educational institution, public or private, that receives federal funds, and the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted Title IX to prohibit sexual harassment whether by individuals or institutions. Institutions, of course, can be liable due to the acts of officials who either chose to break the law or fail to enforce its provisions. After permitting private causes of action under Title IX to proceed in Cannon v. University of Chicago (1979) and Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (1992), the Court applied Title IX to sexual harassment of a student by a [Page 484]teacher in a public school in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1998). A year later, in Davis v. ...