As an expatriate Texan, I can’t tell you how angry I am at what’s happening in Silsbee, Texas. In short, the school district kicked a high school cheerleader off the cheerleading team when she refused to cheer for the football player who is accused of raping her. When she and her family sued the school district for violating her free speech rights, the judge called her case “frivolous” and ordered her to reimburse the district for its legal costs. So now the student and her family owe the school district $45,000 for her refusal to root for her rapist.
It sounds like satire, but it’s not. It’s reality for this student, identified publicly as HS, and it will have a lasting effect on her future. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the family’s appeal, which means they will likely have to pay the entire amount to the school district. That’s very expensive free speech.
Not only does this situation defy common sense, it also seems to fly in the face of the definition of protections against sexual violence that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights recently clarified. OCR’s opinion letter stated that sexual harassment of students, including acts of sexual violence, is prohibited under Title IX. Although commonly associated with athletics, Title IX forbids sex discrimination in educational programs or activities that are operated by recipients of federal financial assistance. In explaining its decision, OCR said that “the sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence, interferes with students’ right to receive an education free from discrimination and, in the case of sexual violence, is a crime.”
Yet the actions of the school district and the court seem to run counter to what OCR suggests. OCR writes:
Schools should consider whether their disciplinary policies have a chilling effect on victims’ or other students’ reporting of sexual violence offenses. For example, OCR recommends that schools inform students that the schools’ primary concern is student safety.
Additionally, OCR recommends that schools assess their practices to ensure that the victim and alleged perpetrator are never in unsupervised contact and that they “assess student activities regularly to ensure that the practices and behavior of students do not violate the schools’ policies against sexual harassment and sexual violence.”
It’s hard to see how punishing a teenage girl for failing to cheer for her alleged rapist and then making her family pay when she challenges it is in line with student safety, federal law, or even basic human decency.
AAUW is committed to fighting sexual assault and harassment and enforcing Title IX. Our website offers excellent tools for students, administrators, parents, or anyone interested in making campuses safer for women:
- Campus Sexual Assault Program in a Box — an online guide to help you organize projects to raise awareness about sexual assault on your local campus
- AAUW’s campus sexual harassment resources
- AAUW’s position on Title IX
- AAUW’s position on sexual harassment
AAUW Dialog 
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