Case Database

What’s at stake: Whether a key federal employment law protects students workers from discrimination Summary: Meng Huang, a former PhD student at the Ohio State University, filed a lawsuit alleging a shocking pattern of abuse: Her advisor had sexually harassed her for years, starting the...

The Students’ Civil Rights Project represents a Texas student who endured over a year of sex-based verbal abuse that drove her to the brink of suicide. The case seeks to make clear that schools cannot wait until harassment drives a student out of school before...

Public Justice filed an amicus brief to defend a California law that gives thousands of sexual abuse survivors access to justice by lifting the harsh deadlines that used to bar their claims. Plaintiff Jane Doe was sexually abused by her school guidance counselor at Richmond...

This is an appeal concerning sexual abuse at North Carolina State University. In 2016, the University’s senior associate athletic director received a report that an athletic trainer and administrator, Robert Murphy, was engaging in “sexual grooming” of male student-athletes. “Grooming” is behavior designed to prime...

This appeal arose out of a male instructor’s Title IX lawsuit alleging that Schoharie Central School District, in New York, discriminated against him based on his sex when it disciplined him for allegedly touching a student’s breasts and buttocks. Keith Schiebel was an independent contractor...

In this Title IX sexual harassment case, Public Justice successfully opposed a cert petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the matter. During middle school in Texas, “Jane Roe” started dating a classmate, “John Doe,” who physically and emotionally abused her. During their freshman...

Public Justice filed an amicus brief in this First Circuit appeal in support of the Plaintiff, Adrianna Wadsworth, who was sexually harassed as a high school student by her principal. Beginning in 2016, Medomak Valley High School principal Andrew Cavanaugh groomed and sexually harassed student...

“John Doe,” an asylum-seeker attending elementary school within the School District of Philadelphia, was harassed by classmates based on his perceived sexual orientation and national origin. His mother, Leslie Hernández, encouraged John to ask his principal for help. Rather than provide support to stop the...

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta filed this case to challenge a new policy that Chino Valley Unified School District adopted in July 2023. The policy requires schools to “out” transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students to their parents, even when those students reasonably fear their...

Public Justice, the ACLU of Michigan, and A Better Balance filed an amicus brief in support of a student survivor of sexual harassment in Doe v. Alpena Public School District. This Michigan Supreme Court case concerns the correct legal standards for assessing sexual harassment claims...

Schools that accept special tax benefits should not be allowed to discriminate against their students. Public Justice filed an amicus brief asking the Fourth Circuit to affirm that federal civil rights laws like Title IX apply to schools that receive § 501(c)(3) tax breaks. Five...

Zara Moss was a four-time All-American athlete on Penn State’s Division I fencing team, and a former Olympic prospect But she was forced to give up the sport she loved. Why? Because for years, Penn State ignored gender-based harassment and abuse by its head fencing coach, Wieslaw Glon. Zara sued...