Sixth Circ. Title IX Ruling Speeds the Day When Schools Are Liable to Victims and Harassers

Article here. Jump the paywall by Googling the first para. text. Excerpt:

'In Foster v. Board of Trustees of the University of Michigan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a university could be deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment when it fails to take immediate action that effectively ends the harassment and does not expel the alleged harasser. Public colleges and universities must walk a fine line between failing to address appropriately all complaints of sexual harassment and failing to afford due process to the alleged harassers.

To date, failing to walk that line has exposed colleges and universities to liability to one side or the other. But in Foster, the dissent cautions that the Sixth Circuit’s new standard portends that a university can be simultaneously liable to the victim for not preventing harassment and the harasser for not providing due process.

The case arose from student-on-student sexual harassment in the University of Michigan’s off-campus executive MBA program. Plaintiff Rebecca Foster and a male student became friends during the monthly two-and-a-half days of classes in Los Angeles, to the extent that they spent time together away from the program. But in September 2013, the male student wanted a romantic relationship—feelings Foster did not reciprocate. Unknown to the university, the male student began to sexually harass Foster at the monthly class sessions. In March 2014, two weeks before the final class session and about 45 days before graduation, Foster reported the harassment to the university.'