What’s at stake Protections for pregnant and postpartum students Summary In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education published new Title IX regulations. The regulations covered a range of topics, including the rights of LGBTQ+ students, sexual harassment victims, and pregnant and postpartum students. Protections for this last group included explicit rights to lactation breaks in…
What’s at stake Protections for pregnant and postpartum students Summary In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education published new Title IX regulations. The regulations covered a range of topics, including the rights of LGBTQ+ students, sexual harassment victims, and pregnant and postpartum students. Protections for this last group included explicit rights to lactation breaks in…
What’s at Stake Protecting trans students from “forced outing” policies. Summary In 2023, Temecula Valley Unified School District adopted a forced outing policy. The rule required schools to inform a student’s parents or guardians if they requested to use a name or pronoun, or access school facilities or programs, not aligned with the sex identified…
What’s at Stake The amount of time a survivor has to file a lawsuit under Title IX. Summary Just before she turned 21, E.R., a South Carolina resident, filed a lawsuit against her former school district, Beaufort County School District, for violating her Title IX rights. As a student at Bluffton High School, E.R. suffered…
What’s at Stake Protecting trans students from “forced outing” policies. Summary During the summer of 2023, Chino Valley Unified School District adopted Board Policy 5020.1, a forced outing policy. Under this rule, if a student requested to use a name or pronoun, or access school facilities or programs, not aligned with the sex identified on…
What’s at Stake The rights of transgender students in South Carolina to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Summary In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit confirmed that transgender students must be allowed to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Yet, in the summer of 2024, South Carolina passed…
What’s at Stake Whether a school district is liable when it fails to take obvious steps to prevent sexual abuse. Summary Crystal Ayon’s five-year-old daughter was sexually abused by her school bus driver for months. Crystal noticed something was wrong when the bus began to drop her daughter off a half hour late, but when…
What’s at Stake Whether hundreds of victims of childhood sexual abuse can file lawsuits under the Maryland Child Victims Act. Summary From 1973 to 1977, while in high school at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland, Valerie Bunker was sexually abused by two different teachers. But like many victims of childhood sexual abuse, she did…
What’s at Stake Whether Florida can ban transgender teachers from using pronouns and titles that best express who they are. Summary Katie Wood is a 10th grade algebra teacher in a Florida public school. She is also a transgender woman. Her students have always addressed her as “Ms. Wood” and referred to her with she/her…