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Damages for Emotional Suffering

Schools accept money from the federal government. In return they agree not to discriminate. If they do, the victim can sue them in court for damages. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the limit on those damages. The case concerned a deaf person named Jane Cummings. She needed physical therapy and went to a […]

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Covid 19 and Title IX

            Covid 19 brought a crisis to Connecticut. It took many peoples’ lives and businesses. Oddly, for one family, it brought a blessing. The pandemic kept alive a lawsuit that would otherwise have evaporated.             The cause of the suit began in the fall of 2018. In gym class at Tolland High School a male […]

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Student Discipline at the Supreme Court

This summer, for the first time in years, the Supreme Court heard a case on student discipline. In its decision it said again that students have a right to freedom of speech. Principals will nod their head at this reminder, but it likely won’t change the way they suspend and expel. The student in the […]

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New Title IX Regulations

Last month a local district suspended one of its high school boys and moved to expel him. Even in a pandemic, that was not out of the ordinary. But then the district’s officials paused. The new Title IX regulations have already changed the way schools act. Officials suspended the boy for a video he made […]

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Transgender Athletes in Connecticut Races

Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 partly to make schools offer girls the same chance to take part in sports that boys had. At first people resisted, but as the benefits to girls became clear, the public accepted the new law. Lately a new kind of resistance has sprung up, as more and more transgender […]

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“Sex” and the Transgender Student

The long and winding road of Grimm v. Gloucester County Board of Education may yet lead back the Supreme Court. For the moment this case on the rights of one transgender student has stopped in Richmond, Virginia, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The defendant Board has just appealed the trial […]

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Sexual Harassment in Chicago’s Schools

Last month Chicago Public Schools agreed to change the way it handled complaints of sexual harassment in Chicago’s schools. It was forced into the agreement by the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. OCR enforces compliance with Title IX, the anti-discrimination law for schools and colleges that receive federal funds. To bring Chicago […]

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New Rules On Sexual Harassment In School

Title IX bans sexual discrimination. The U.S. Department of Education enforces it. Last year the Department proposed new rules on sexual harassment in school and college and invited the public to comment. Secretary DeVos has yet to reveal the results. The public will surely have given her an earful on the new rules’ impact on […]

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Abuse and Title IX

Last week New York passed a new statute of limitations. It helps the victims of sexual abuse. They now have more time to bring a civil suit against their abuser. Under the old law victims had to sue by the time they were twenty-eight. Now they may sue until they are fifty-eight. The new law […]

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District Sued for Lack of Coaching Permit

Last month Attorney Gregory Smith brought suit against the Weston Board of Education. His complaint alleges that a coach without a valid, current coaching permit supervised his clients’ son’s basketball practice. Another player on the Weston High School Boys’ Ninth-Grade Basketball team punched the son while the coach watched. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 10-149d states […]

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