Title IX law is in constant flux, with new rules and legal challenges continuing to shape how schools, colleges, and other institutions handle sex-based misconduct and discrimination. Our firm closely monitors these developments and is committed to providing the most current information available. Click here to learn about the current state of Title IX and how we can help if you are facing accusations or other Title IX issues.
The Houston metropolitan area is home to a number of universities and a robust community college system that together educate more than 150,000 students each year. As a student enrolled in one of these educational institutions, you have worked hard for years to get to where you are, and know how important higher education is to your future. That’s why if you are accused of Title IX misconduct by someone at your school, you need to take it very seriously. Schools are quick to impose severe disciplinary sanctions on students found to have committed Title IX misconduct, including suspension and even expulsion. If that happens to you, both your education and your future career will be at risk.
That’s why you need to contact the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team if you’re accused of Title IX misconduct. Our experienced Title IX attorneys understand what’s at stake, and just as importantly, know the Title IX rules and regulations that apply in Title IX misconduct investigations and proceedings. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation to learn more about how we can help you protect your college career and your future from Title IX sanctions.
What is Title IX?
Title IX dates back to the early 1970s, when its main purpose was to combat enrollment discrimination against women by colleges and universities, and to provide equal scholastic opportunities to women once they had been accepted by their schools. Since then, its scope has grown significantly, and Title IX now protects against discrimination and harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and pregnancy and parenting status. Schools are the chief enforcers of Title IX’s requirements, with the threat of loss of their federal funding if they fail to do so.
Because of that threat and because of Title IX’s requirements, schools that accept any federal funding appoint a Title IX officer who is responsible for ensuring that the school meets its Title IX obligations. These obligations include disciplining students and school personnel who commit Title IX misconduct.
The types of misconduct that Title IX currently protects against include sexual assault, non-consensual sexual contact, relationship or dating violence, and stalking, as well as others. And because Title IX does not dictate how schools are supposed to sanction students and others found to have committed Title IX misconduct, that decision is left up to each school and can vary from one case to another. For the most part, however, schools will impose serious sanctions on students who are found to have committed Title IX misconduct because failing to do so would leave them open to claims that they were not meeting their obligation to enforce Title IX on campus.
Because the tendency is to seriously sanction students found to have violated Title IX, if you’re accused of Title IX misconduct you need the help of an experienced Title IX attorney. Schools do not always fairly investigate or rule on Title IX allegations. They often favor the accuser to an extreme extent during both the investigation of the Title IX allegations, and during any disciplinary proceeding that may follow. Working with an experienced Title IX attorney means you’ll have someone in your corner who understands the Title IX rules and regulations as well as your school’s own policies for investigating and deciding Title IX misconduct claims. Your lawyer will be able to fight to protect your rights, to alert your school to any bias or favoritism in its Title IX processes, and to defend you against Title IX misconduct allegations.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team includes attorneys who have years of experience defending students all across the country, including in the Houston metropolitan area, against Title IX misconduct claims. We’re ready to help you through what can be a lengthy, stressful, and confusing process, and to fight to protect your education and your future.
Protecting Yourself in a Title IX Case
There are a number of great universities in the Houston metropolitan area. Whether you attend the University of Houston, Rice University, Texas Woman’s University (TWU), Texas Southern University, or a community college such as those that are part of the Lone Star College System, you’re working hard to learn and earn your degree as part of building a future for yourself. A Title IX misconduct claim can bring your education to a screeching halt, disrupting not only your academic plans but your career goals as well.
So, how do you protect yourself if you’ve been accused of Title IX misconduct? The best way is not to try to do it yourself but to work with an experienced Title IX attorney who understands the complex and frequently changing Title IX rules and regulations and who knows how to defend against Title IX misconduct claims. At the LLF National Law Firm, our Student Defense Team includes attorneys who are ready and able to help. And the sooner we’re on board, the more we will be able to help.
We will communicate with your school’s Title IX office about your case so that you don’t have to. When it comes time for you to be interviewed as part of the Title IX misconduct investigation, we will prepare you for it and will be by your side when the investigator is questioning you, making sure that the questions are clear and understandable and that your answers are focused and complete. Our lawyers can also conduct investigations to uncover helpful evidence that the school’s Title IX investigator overlooked. We can negotiate with your school to try to resolve your case in a way that doesn’t hurt your academic career. And if your case goes to a hearing, we will vigorously defend you and fight to protect your rights. Throughout the entire process, we will be there for you when you have questions or concerns about what’s happening with your case.
Stages of a Title IX Case
The Title IX Misconduct Report
It’s very easy for anyone, including another student, to file a Title IX report. Schools deliberately make it that way because they want to show the federal government that they are taking their Title IX enforcement obligations seriously. Rice University, for example, has an online “Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Complaint Form” that students, faculty, and staff can use to report “any incident related to unwanted sexual behavior, bullying or bias related activity.” The University of Houston’s “Sexual Misconduct/Title IX” page includes a prominent link to its “Make a Report” page. The University of St. Thomas’s “Title IX at the University of St. Thomas” page similarly has a “Report an Incident” button prominently displayed in the middle of the page that leads directly to an online reporting form. In short, schools make it easy for anyone to file a Title IX misconduct report. What’s not so easy is being the target of a Title IX misconduct investigation.
The Title IX Investigation
Assuming a Title IX misconduct report properly makes a claim that a student has committed Title IX misconduct (as opposed to some other form of misconduct that the school prohibits, such as cheating), the school’s Title IX office will typically assign the matter to a Title IX investigator and will notify the accuser and the accused student about the case.
That notice will summarize the allegations that have been made and will inform both parties about the investigation. It will also provide a list of “supportive” or “interim” measures that the school can take while the investigation is underway. These typically include counseling and other social services, but they also include measures that are supposedly designed to protect the accuser from the accused student – even though schools will claim that supportive measures are meant to protect both students and that the accused student is presumed “not responsible” until the disciplinary process determines otherwise.
The kinds of steps schools may try to take as “supportive measures” that can significantly disrupt the educational experience of a student accused of Title IX misconduct include:
- Required changes in their class schedules so that they and the accuser are not in the same class section
- Dormitory changes if the two students live in the same dorm or eviction from school housing entirely when there is no available option
- Changes to work locations and schedules so that the two students are not working together at the same place and time or, when that’s not possible, the accused student may be forced to leave their campus job
- Forcing the accused student to take a “leave of absence,” which is a suspension in all but name
These types of “supportive measures” almost always affect the accused student, making the student feel as though they are already being held responsible for the allegations of Title IX misconduct, even though the matter is still under investigation. An experienced Title IX attorney may be able to argue against the school imposing some or all of these punitive types of supportive measures by providing alternative ways for the school to help the accuser feel secure on campus while allowing the accused student to continue with their studies and experience a relatively normal campus life.
As for the investigation itself, the Title IX investigator will interview both the accuser and the accused student. Your Title IX attorney will prepare you for the interview and can be with you during it to make sure that the investigator asks fair and clear questions that you understand before you provide your answers. The accused student will also be interviewed, and the investigator may speak with others who might have information relevant to the case. The investigator may attempt to collect videos, images, texts, emails, voice messages, and other information that relates to the allegations.
Both sides can provide evidence to the investigator. In some cases your attorney may conduct their own investigation of the matter to uncover evidence or identify witnesses who may help with your defense. This extra effort may be necessary because it’s not at all unusual for the school’s Title IX investigator to “miss” evidence that may help the accused in favor of focusing instead on evidence that tends to support the allegations made by the accused.
When the investigation is complete, the Title IX investigator will prepare a report summarizing their findings. Both sides will be able to review the draft and provide comments, but often with only a few days’ advance notice. When your Title IX attorney has been working on your case from the start, it’s much easier for them to provide substantive comments about the report that point out any flaws, such as missed evidence or faulty conclusions, that could help your case.
The Formal Title IX Complaint
In some cases, the school’s Title IX office will decide not to pursue the Title IX case against you after reviewing the Title IX investigator’s report. If that happens, the case will be closed, but the accuser will have the chance to appeal the decision.
When the Title IX office decides to move forward against you, it will prepare formal written charges that will describe what you did and what Title IX misconduct you’re being charged with. The formal complaint may also propose one or more sanctions to be imposed on you. You and your attorney will be able to respond to the written complaint after it has been served on you. That response can include pointing out evidence missed or not considered by the investigator, flaws in the reasoning underlying the complaint, and any unfairness that has taken place so far in the case.
Negotiations
Most Title IX cases are resolved by way of a written agreement between the accused student and the school’s Title IX office. Your Title IX attorney can negotiate on your behalf with your school’s Title IX office to attempt to arrive at a resolution that will have the least amount of impact on your education. These negotiations can be much more effective if your attorney has been working with you from the early stages of your Title IX case so that they have a strong command of all of the facts and can use that and their experience with Title IX law and with other cases to make effective arguments during their talks with the school.
Hearings
When a Title IX case doesn’t settle, it will go to a hearing. The structure of Title IX hearings depends heavily on the Title IX rules and regulations that are in force at the time. These can change from one presidential administration to another, but if you’re working with an experienced Title IX attorney from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team, your lawyer will know what the current Title IX rules require the school to do in terms of how the hearing is conducted. Your attorney will also be familiar with any variations permitted by those rules that your school has implemented in the hearing process. And most importantly, your Title IX attorney will be able to work with whatever hearing system is in place to defend you against the misconduct allegations you’re facing.
One thing to note about Title IX hearings: the standard of “guilt” that they use is much lower than what courts use in criminal cases. Instead of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” your Title IX hearing panel or officer need only find that it was “more likely than not” that you committed the Title IX misconduct. That’s essentially a 51% standard – if the hearing panel or officer is 51% sure that you committed the misconduct, you’ll be found responsible, and sanctions will be imposed on you. This low standard of proof is simply one more reason to trust your defense to an experienced Title IX attorney.
Written Decision
The ruling in your Title IX case will be made in writing, and will indicate the sanctions that are being imposed on you if it is against you. If it is in your favor, the case will be dismissed.
Appeal
Hearing decisions can be appealed by either party; if you are exonerated, your accuser can appeal. If you are found responsible for Title IX misconduct, you can appeal. Because appeals are made to the school – which made the decision in the first place – they are frequently not successful. Your attorney can advise you whether an appeal would make sense in your particular case.
Lawsuit
The most drastic remedy when your school violates its own policies or acts unfairly during your Title IX case is to sue the school for those wrongs. This is happening more and more often, because accused students are increasingly standing up to much of the unfairness that happens with Title IX investigations and disciplinary proceedings. Whether a lawsuit makes sense in your case is something your Title IX attorney will be able to discuss with you.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team Can Help With Your Title IX Case in the Houston Metropolitan Area
If you are at school in the metropolitan Houston area and are facing Title IX misconduct claims, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. Our experienced Title IX attorneys have defended students from schools across the country, including in the Houston area, who have been accused of Title IX and other serious forms of misconduct. We know and understand the laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that apply in Title IX misconduct cases, and we can provide you with the effective and vigorous defense that you need to protect your education and your future.
Call the LLF National Law Firm today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation if you’ve been accused of Title IX misconduct. You and your future deserve the kind of strong defense that the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can provide.