Online Sexual Harassment: A Guide for Students, Families, and Educators

Schools play a crucial role in ensuring student safety from sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). This resource highlights that Title IX requires schools to address sexual harassment that occurs online or using technology.
https://www.ed.gov/media/document/digital-sexual-harassment-under-2020-title-ix-regulations

https://www.ed.gov/media/document/digital-sexual-harassment-under-2020-title-ix-regulations

What is Sexual Harassment and What Are a School's Obligations Under Title IX?

Under Title IX, sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that falls into one or more of the following categories:

• Quid pro quo harassment: A school employee conditioning a school-related benefit or service on an individual's participation in unwelcome sexual conduct.
• Hostile environment harassment: Unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school's education program or activity. This can be committed by school staff, a student, or another person.
• Specific offenses: Sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking as defined in the 2020 Title IX regulations.

Harassment can be perpetrated by school staff, a student, or another person. It can occur in-person or online, including through email, texts, messages, apps, or other technologies. Here are some examples:

• Unwelcome sexual comments or threats on social media platforms.
• Nonconsensual sharing of naked or intimate images.
• Stalking using technology, such as sending multiple unwanted messages or creating fake social media accounts.
  Title IX requires a school to address sexual harassment that occurs in its education program or activity. This includes:
• Conduct that occurs in locations, at events, or under circumstances where the school has substantial control over both the alleged harasser and the context in which the harassment occurs, including certain off-campus conduct.
• Conduct that occurs in a building owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by a college.
• Conduct that occurs in school-related, off-campus settings such as field trips, online classes, and athletic programs.
• Conduct that takes place via school-sponsored electronic devices, computers, and internet networks.
• Conduct that takes place on digital platforms operated by or used in the operations of the school, including AI technologies.

What is a School's Responsibility Under Title IX for Responding to Online or Digital Sexual Harassment?

A school is not obligated to monitor the online activity of its students, staff, or other individuals outside of its education program or activity. However, Title IX requires a school to address sexual harassment that occurs in its education program or activity regardless of the method used or whether the school knows the identity of the alleged harasser.

Under the 2020 Title IX regulations, a school with knowledge of sexual harassment or allegations of sexual harassment—including online or digital sexual harassment—must respond promptly and reasonably.

A school's response to sexual harassment must include the following steps:

• Offering appropriate supportive measures to any student who has experienced sexual harassment. These may include counseling, extensions of deadlines, modifications of work or class schedules, campus escort services, restrictions on contact between the parties, changes in work or housing locations, leaves of absence, increased security, and other similar measures.
• Explaining how the student can file a formal complaint.
• Investigating the complaint using a grievance process that complies with Title IX regulations. The school must complete this process before it can discipline or take other actions that are not supportive measures against an alleged harasser.

What Can Students and Families Do if They Experience Online or Digital Sexual Harassment?

If you believe that you or someone you know has been subjected to different treatment, denied an educational opportunity, harassed, bullied, or retaliated against based on sex—including through online or digital sexual harassment—here are some steps you can take:

• Report the incident to the Title IX Coordinator, a teacher, or a school administrator. Your school must include contact information for its Title IX Coordinator on its website and in its handbooks.
• File a formal complaint using the school's Title IX grievance procedures. Your school must publish these procedures and provide information about them to students and other members of the school community. You can find this information on your school's website or in school handbooks. Keep records of your complaint, any relevant information, and the responses you receive.
• If you believe that your school discriminated against you on the basis of sex or failed to respond appropriately to possible sex discrimination, you may file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education. You can file with OCR regardless of whether you also filed a complaint with your school.