Parents of high school students once associated Title IX with equity for girls' high school sports. Today, though, federal Title IX interpretations reach a wide range of individual student behaviors. Your high school student can get into serious trouble, even facing expulsion from the school, based on allegations of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, or sexual harassment. Title IX charges are not court proceedings. Title IX charges do not involve police and prosecutors. High school officials can bring Title IX charges on their own or based on a student's or teacher's complaint. But don't minimize or ignore Title IX charges just because a Title IX charge involves a school rather than court proceeding. Your high school student may have just as much or more at stake in the Title IX school proceeding. Your best possible move is to retain a skilled and experienced high school Title IX defense attorney. National high school Title IX defense attorney Joseph D. Lento has successfully represented hundreds of high school, college, and university students nationwide. Get your high school student the best available Title IX defense attorney help.
What Title IX Means to High Schools
Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education in all schools receiving federal funding. Congress enacted Title IX as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §1681 et seq., stating: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Initially, federal courts and agencies interpreted Title IX to prohibit things like unequal admission and sports opportunities for high school boys and girls, and college men and women. More recently, though, federal courts and agencies have interpreted Title IX to require high schools, colleges, and universities to prohibit sexual assault and sexual harassment among students. Title IX once involved the student's relationship to the school. Title IX now also addresses a student's sexual relationship with other students, reaching a whole new set of concerns and behaviors. In short, your high school student can face Title IX charges based on another student's false, exaggerated, or unsupported allegations.
What Title IX Prohibits in High Schools
Sexual Violence. Parents of high school students are typically confident that their student would never engage in a violent sexual assault like rape or date rape. Title IX certainly requires a high school to prohibit, discourage, punish, and otherwise responsibly address violent sexual assaults among students. But Title IX interpretations extend that understandable prohibition against sexual violence to include various forms of sexual touching. What a high school student might mistakenly assume was harmless horseplay could, depending on the contact and intent, become an allegation of inappropriate sexual touching. High school students and their parents should also be aware that Title IX also prohibits dating violence including drug- or alcohol-induced date rape. Virtually any sexual incident involving alcohol or drugs could lead to allegations of date rape. Title IX also prohibits stalking, another area where high school shenanigans could lead to serious Title IX charges.
Sexual Harassment. Yet Title IX reaches much more conduct than sexual assault, sexual touching, or stalking among high school, college, or university students. Title IX also prohibits sexual harassment. Title IX's requirement that high schools prohibit and police sexual harassment can be especially problematic for high school students and their parents. High school students may experience and explore their sexuality without yet having learned social conventions and limits. Yet sexual pranks, jokes, comments, and innuendo, not to mention sexual slurs and advances, can in some cases fall within broad interpretations of sexual harassment. For instance, Title IX interpretations define the hostile-environment form of sexual harassment to include unwelcome conduct based on a student's sex that creates an environment so hostile as to deny or limit the student participation in school programs. Unwelcome conduct can implicate a lot of high school student disputes involving various behaviors. Your high school student need not have committed an actual sexual assault to face Title IX charges. Indeed, your student may face false, exaggerated, or otherwise unfair Title IX charges, when your student did nothing wrong.
No matter the Title IX allegations your student faces, take those charges seriously. Your best move is to retain national high school Title IX defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Title IX defense team at the Lento Law Firm. Get the help your student needs for a successful Title IX defense.
What Title IX Requires of a High School
Enforcement. You should treat Title IX charges seriously because Title IX requires that high schools treat sexual misconduct allegations seriously. Schools can lose their federal funding and face civil liability and other penalties if they ignore Title IX allegations or othrewise do not handle Title IX sexual misconduct allegations responsibly. Those Title IX obligations include that the school must have a Title IX coordinator, must investigate Title IX allegations, must protect victims and witnesses against retaliation for reporting allegations, and must hold hearings and make findings in cases that do not resolve informally. If your high school student faces Title IX charges, even charges that your student believes are false or exaggerated, appreciate that the school will likely pursue those charges aggressively to ensure that it is fulfilling its federal responsibilities. Get a national Title IX defense attorney's help so that the school does not ignore your student's side of the story.
Procedural Protections. Fortunately, Title IX also requires the high school to offer an accused student certain procedural protections. Procedure can mean everything to the successful defense of a falsely accused high school student. Title IX generally requires the high school to inform the accused student of the charge in writing. If the student and school do not resolve the charge informally, the school must offer the student a formal hearing to allow the student to present evidence in the student's defense. The school must also allow the student's attorney representative to cross-examine witnesses at the hearing. The hearing official or panel may only consider the testimony of witnesses who appear at the hearing. Title IX's procedural protections can make the difference to a successful defense.
Invoking High School Title IX Procedural Protections
Title IX's procedural protections are not self-executing. Unless your high school student has skilled attorney representation, the high school may ignore Title IX's procedural requirements in a rush to judgment. To ensure that your student has all the advantages of Title IX procedural protections, retain national high school Title IX defense attorney Joseph Lento and the Title IX team at the Lento Law Firm. When you retain a skilled high school Title IX defense attorney, you get the skills, experience, and reputation that your student needs and deserves for an effective Title IX defense:
● Knowledge. Your student needs a Title IX defense attorney who knows the latest changes in Title IX law, rule, and regulation, and also knows the academic norms, customs, and conventions to effectively communicate, advocate, and negotiate with school officials;
● Skills. Your student needs an academic administrative defense attorney who has the ability to investigate, evaluate, communicate, advocate, negotiate, and if necessary cross-examine at the formal hearing, take appeals, and as a last resort litigate;
● Experience. Your student needs a national Title IX defense attorney who has the experience to know the best approaches and strategies, and has the national reputation to gain the respect and confidence of school officials.
National Title IX defense attorney Joseph Lento has the knowledge, skill, and experience your student needs to invoke Title IX's procedural protections for a successful Title IX defense. Don't retain a local criminal attorney who lacks academic administrative experience and doesn't know the many ins and outs of Title IX law, rule, and regulation. Attorney Lento and the Title IX team at the Lento Law Firm have successfully represented hundreds of high school, college, and university students nationwide in defense of false, unfair, or exaggerated Title IX charges. For the best result, get the best available defense from a national Title IX defense attorney.
What's at Stake in High School Title IX Defense
Don't underestimate what your student has at stake in a Title IX proceeding. While Title IX charges involve a school proceeding rather than a criminal court proceeding, a Title IX school proceeding can have consequences just as far reaching or more far reaching than criminal court charges. High schools can expel students for Title IX sexual assault or sexual harassment. Even innocent students can suffer expulsion when they do not have adequate attorney representation. High school officials can make mistakes, especially when influenced by duplicitous complainants or biased witnesses. Aggressive Title IX defense attorney representation can keep your high school student from an unfair and ruinous expulsion that can lead to these other harms:
● academic failure;
● loss of athletic competitions;
● inability to transfer to other high schools;
● inability to earn the high school diploma;
● inability to qualify for college admission;
● inability to gain admission to preferred colleges or universities;
● loss of academic honors and awards;
● loss of scholarships;
● lost internships;
● lost jobs;
● lost careers;
● lost relationships; and
● loss of mental and physical health and well-being.
Retain a National Title IX Attorney and Team
National high school Title IX defense attorney Joseph Lento and the Title IX team at the Lento Law Firm are available for your student's defense at any United States location. Having successfully represented hundreds of high school, college, and university students nationwide, attorney Lento not only has the knowledge, skills, and experience for your student's best defense. Attorney Lento also has the national reputation among school officials and the attorneys they employ in Title IX matters. An accused student's best outcome is usually to see the Title IX charges dismissed so that the student can complete the high school education with a clean record and strong transcript. For the best possible outcome, preserving your student's high school education and your student's educational and vocational future, your student's school officials need to both respect and trust your student's attorney representative.
Attorney Lento's nationwide experience has earned him that trust and respect. Many of the matters in which attorney Lento defends accused high school students result in school officials agreeing to a favorable resolution without the necessity of a formal hearing. Attorney Lento has the advocacy skills to win at a formal hearing, win on an academic administrative appeal, and even, if necessary as a last resort, to sue a high school that violates Title IX rights. But attorney Lento's reputation and experience enable him to negotiate informal resolutions in many cases without that contention and delay. Even in cases in which an unrepresented student has already lost the hearing and appeal, attorney Lento can in some cases negotiate acceptable relief through other school channels.
Don't give up without a fight. Don't give up without exhausting all avenues. Your high school student's future is worth retaining the best available national Title IX defense attorney. Retain national Title IX defense attorney Joseph Lento and the Title IX team at the Lento Law Firm now. Don't wait until it is too late. Call 888-555-3686 now or go online for premier national high school Title IX defense attorney representation.
