Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Moving From Harm Mitigation To Affirmative Discrimination Mitigation: The Untapped Potential Of Artificial Intelligence To Fight School Segregation And Other Forms Of Racial Discrimination, Andrew Gall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Testing The Limits: Asian Americans And The Debate Over Standardized Entrance Exams, Vinay Harpalani

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Title Ix Abroad: A Proposed Framework For Extraterritorial Application, Christina Vieira Da Rosa

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Regulatory changes to Title IX made clear that the statute’s sexual assault grievance procedures do not apply to incidents that take place outside the United States. This Comment explores the reasoning underlying these 2020 regulations, which signal a departure from prior interpretations of Title IX and limit recourse for U.S. students who are sexually assaulted while studying abroad. Ultimately, this Comment argues that Title IX should have an extraterritorial reach when both complainant and respondent are affiliated with U.S. institutions. Such a change would harmonize Title IX’s underlying purpose with the practical difficulties of investigating and adjudicating conduct occurring outside …

Doe V. Brown University, 253 A.3d 389 (R.I. 2021), Katie Gradowski

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blood, Sweat, Tears: A Re-Examination Of The Exploitation Of College Athletes, Keely Grey Fresh

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

2021 Louise Halper Award Winner for Best Student Note

The unrest revolving around compensation for college athletes is not a new concept. However, public attitudes are shifting. With spirited arguments on both sides, and the recent Supreme Court decision of National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston regarding antitrust exemptions, the issue has been placed in a spotlight. This Note examines the buildup of discontentment through the history of the NCAA and amateurism, specifically how the term “student-athlete” became coined. It will then move to litigation efforts by athletes in an attempt to gain employment status, and an alternative route of …

Tinkering With The Schoolhouse Gate: The Future Of Student Speech After Mahanoy Area School District V. B.L., Victoria R. Bonds

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

When the Supreme Court last created a rule about students’ First Amendment rights, MySpace was the most popular social media platform. Students’ use of social media and technology has radically changed since then, and it is time the First Amendment case law reflects that. With the transition to online learning after the COVID-19 pandemic and overall increased reliance on technology, students need clear answers about when school officials can punish them for their social media posts.

The Supreme Court had a chance to clarify First Amendment student speech law this year in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., but …

This Aggression Will Not Stand, Schools: The Need For Federal Legislation Protecting Bullied Students With Disabilities, Russell A. Vogel

Touro Law Review

A boy with Autism comes home from school, visibly upset. His parents ask him why, and he responds that nobody in his class likes him. To his parents’ horror, they learn that their son’s teacher encouraged a class discussion about why they dislike their son. When the boy’s parents complain to the school about this issue, school administrators brush it aside. The next day, students sitting near the boy move their desks away from him and taunt him for the way he acts every time he tries to socialize with them. The boy then refuses to go to school each …

The Golem In The Machine: Ferpa, Dirty Data, And Digital Distortion In The Education Record, Najarian R. Peters

Washington and Lee Law Review

Like its counterpart in the criminal justice system, dirty data—data that is inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading—in K-12 education records creates and catalyzes catastrophic life events. The presence of this data in any record suggests a lack of data integrity. The systemic problem of dirty data in education records means the data stewards of those records have failed to meet the data integrity requirements embedded in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA was designed to protect students and their education records from the negative impact of erroneous information rendered from the “private scribblings” of educators. The legislative history …

The (White) Washing Of American History

Florida A & M University Law Review

In 2019, the New York Times Magazine released a special issue of its magazine, called the 1619 Project, entirely dedicated to reframing the founding of America and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans as central to America. The 1619 Project quickly became a national lightning rod—the book version of the project reached the top 100 on the bestseller lists of Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com more than a month before its release date, and several states responded by banning the teaching of The 1619 Project in schools. Bans on teaching The 1619 Project have erroneously referred to …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …

There’S No “Gender” In Team: Developing State Policies For The Inclusion Of The Transgender Interscholastic Athlete, Brianna Weppler

Touro Law Review

The transgender athlete is a relatively new concept challenging the norm of gender division in sports. Multiple states across the United States have yet to update their policies to include the transgender athlete in interscholastic athletics. State policies that do include transgender student athletes are currently being challenged on the grounds that they violate Title IX of the Educational Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This review considers the different state policies dictating the inclusion of transgender student athletes in school sports. After evaluating the impact of omitting transgender students from participating on sports teams, this review maintains that …

Racial And Cultural Competence Through The Eyes Of Public-School Educators, Laquita Mcmillion

Dissertations

The discussion of racial and cultural competence in public schools today is necessary. The student population of public schools across the United States has significantly grown racially and culturally diverse. Through the use of a narrative inquiry and a critical lens, this study explored the perception and experiences of public-school educators focused on the topic of racial and cultural competence as it relates to their classroom practice and educational policies. The focus of this research (1) describes and analyzes my personal experiences through the use of qualitative approaches, (2) shares the experiences and perceptions of three public-school educators, and (3) …

Weathering The Storm: Is California’S Anti-Harassment Education Training The Life Preserver Lgbtq Youth Have Been Hoping For?, Natalie Purcell O'Dwyer

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Identifying The Plessy Remainder: State Exploitation Of Private Discriminatory-Impact Actions, Matthew Patrick Shaw

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Mediation As A Tool To Resolve Disputes Between Religious Universities And Their Lgbt Students, Isaac Altman

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Though the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights movement has made immense strides in recent years, there are many people who have been left behind in the sprint towards LGBT equality. Some of those are students or prospective students at religious schools, who can face discriminatory attitudes or be rejected outright by these institutions. While religiosity is generally associated with positive mental health outcomes, research shows that LGBT people who experience religious identity conflict are at significant risk of suicide. Religious institutions, for their part, are scrambling to adjust to the new reality in which their positions on LGBT …

What's Wrong With The Ncaa's New Transgender Athlete Policy?, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the NCAA’s 2022 transgender athlete participation policy, which replaced the 2011 uniform eligibility rule with a sport-by-sport approach deferring to external governing bodies. It assesses the ambiguities created by this deference, particularly in sports where no clear policy exists, as well as the arbitrariness of the default testosterone threshold the NCAA adopted. It analyzes the tension between the NCAA’s stated alignment with Olympic frameworks and the reality that those frameworks were not designed for the collegiate context. It also considers the legal risks posed to NCAA member institutions, including potential liability under Title IX and the Equal …

The Root And Branches Of Structural School Racism In Missouri: A Story Of Failure By Design And The Illusion And Hypocrisy Of School Choice, Kimberly Jade Norwood, Ronald Alan Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

Since Missouri was first admitted into the Union as a slave state, it has been hostile to the education of its Black residents. This article examines the evolution of that hostility from 1821 through 2021 (from the most overt and blatant in the early years, to the subtler and covert in the modern era). Starting with the original total ban on the education of Black slaves to the reluctant allowance of separate but equal education for Black Missouri residents in 1865 after the Civil War and continuing with the separate but unequal policies that have thrived in the state from …

A Taxonomy Of Silencing: The Law’S 100 Year Suppression Of The Tulsa Race Massacre, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

Over one hundred years have passed since the 1921 brutal massacre of Tulsa’s African American community. This notorious attack came at the hands of a white mob and with the government’s blessing. With numerous centennial commemorations behind us, what has been learned? The answer to this question is crucial to preventing similar atrocities in the future.

One lesson is how important it is to tell the story—to honor the voices of those who lived through one of the most infamous government-sanctioned racial attacks in U.S. history. Knowledge is power.

Another lesson is how pernicious the law can be in silencing …

Identity By Committee, Scott Skinner-Thompson

Publications

Even in school districts with relatively permissive approaches to defining and embodying gender, the identities of transgender and gender variant students are often governed by complex regulatory protocols. Ensuring that a student is able to live their gender at school can involve input from a host of purported stakeholders including medical providers, mental health professionals, school administrators, the student’s parents, and even the broader community. In essence, trans and gender variant students’ identities are governed by committee, which reduces students’ control over their lives, inhibits self-determination, constricts the scope of permissible gender identities, subjects them to incredible degrees of state …

Are High Levels Of Educator Bias Associated With The Disproportionate Discipline Of Black Students?, Melissa Ann Ramos

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Data on school discipline inequities have shown disproportionate numbers of Black students suspended and expelled compared to their non-Black counterparts. Despite the implementation of evidence-based solutions such as positive behavior supports and intervention, educator professional development, and restorative practices aimed at closing the racial discipline gap, little to no change has occurred. Critical Race Theory is used as a lens for viewing racial hierarchies as a socially constructed tool to oppress people of color. This oppression can be seen in various aspects of society and in education, especially in school discipline. It is fueled by biases, both implicit and explicit. …

In The Name Of Diversity: Why Mandatory Diversity Statements Violate The First Amendment And Reduce Intellectual Diversity In Academia, Daniel M. Ortner

Catholic University Law Review

In the 1950s and 1960s in many parts of the country, a professor could be fired or never hired if he refused to denounce communism or declare loyalty to the United States Constitution. The University of California system took the lead in enforcing these loyalty oaths. These loyalty oaths were challenged all the way up to the United States Supreme Court and were soundly rejected, establishing the centrality of academic freedom and open inquiry on the university campus. So why are loyalty oaths making their resurgence in the form of mandatory diversity statements? Universities have begun requiring faculty members to …

Classrooms Into Courtrooms, Naomi M. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

The federal Department of Education’s (DOE) 2020 Title IX Rule fundamentally transformed the relationship between postsecondary schools (schools) and students. While courts have long warned against turning classrooms into courtrooms, the 2020 Rule nonetheless imposed a mandatory quasi-criminal courtroom procedure for Title IX sexual harassment investigatory proceedings in schools. This transformation is a reflection of the larger trend of importing criminal law norms and due process protections into Title IX school proceedings. It is especially regressive at a time where calls for long-overdue criminal justice reform are reaching a boiling point across the nation. Its effects are especially troubling because …

The Historical Diagnosis Criterion Should Not Apply: Reasonable Accommodations In Standardized Testing For Individuals With A Later Diagnosis Of Adhd, Denise Elliot

Journal of Law and Policy

There is a growing number of adults being diagnosed with ADHD who were not diagnosed in childhood, misdiagnosed, or primarily exhibited symptoms in adulthood. Notably, most of the later diagnoses of ADHD in adults are individuals pursuing some level of higher education. Some of the reasons posited for this increase in ADHD diagnoses in higher education may be attributed to increased workloads, decreased structural and community supports, misdiagnosis in childhood, masking, and racial and socioeconomic factors that overlook subpopulations like children of color, female-presenting, and gender-nonbinary children with ADHD. Unfortunately, testing agencies that administer college entrance exams, graduate school entrance …

On The Outer Reaches Of The Marketplace Of Ideas: The Weaponization Of Title Vi Against Palestinian College Activists, Gavriella Fried

Journal of Law and Policy

On U.S. college campuses, Palestinian rights activists who are critical of Israel risk legal consequences. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program receiving federal funds. Over the past two decades, at least eighteen Title VI complaints have been filed against U.S. colleges and universities, alleging that Palestinian rights activists’ political expression is a form of anti-Semitism. In December 2019, President Trump promulgated Executive Order 13,899, which formally extended Title VI protections to Jews and directed enforcement agencies to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism using guidance that includes …

Separate But Free, Joshua E. Weishart

Law Faculty Scholarship

“Separate but equal” legally sanctioned segregation in public schools until Brown. Ever since, separate but free has been the prevailing dogma excusing segregation. From “freedom of choice” plans that facilitated massive resistance to desegregation to current school choice plans exacerbating racial, socioeconomic, and disability segregation, proponents have venerated parental freedom as the overriding principle.

This Article contends that, in the field of public education, the dogma of separate but free has no place; separate is inherently unfree. As this Article uniquely clarifies, segregation deprives schoolchildren of freedom to become equal citizens and freedom to learn in democratic, integrated, …

Affirmative Action And The Leadership Pipeline, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent events have brought heightened attention to racial injustice in the United States, which includes among its legacies a dearth of Black people in influential positions that shape society. But at the same time that the United States has turned its attention to diversity in leadership positions, the already narrow pipeline for those from underrepresented groups is likely to narrow even further in the near future. Specifically, the pipeline to influential positions in society typically flows from an elite education. Race-conscious affirmative action in higher education admissions is currently permitted in order for universities to meet their compelling interest in …

It's Alright, Ma, It's Life And Life Only: Have Universities Been Meeting Their Legal Obligations To High-Risk Faculty During The Pandemic?, Gary J. Simson, Mark L. Jones, Cathren K. Page, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne

Pepperdine Law Review

Even those universities most firmly committed to returning to in-person instruction in fall semester 2020 recognized that for health reasons some exceptions would need to be made. The CDC had identified two groups—people age sixty-five and over and people with certain medical conditions—as persons "at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19," and it had spelled out various special precautions they should take to avoid contracting the virus. Given the CDC's unique stature, universities very reasonably could have been expected to grant exceptions to faculty falling into either group, but that's not what many universities did. We argue that, properly …

'Divisive Concepts' Law And The Big Chill, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "Much Critical commentary concerning the so-called "divisive concepts" provisions in this year's budget legislation has focused on their restrictions on speech. These restrictions, among other things, forbid public K-12 teachers from instructing that some persons are "inherently superior or inferior to [others]", "inherently racist or sexist," "should be discriminated against," or "should not attempt to treat others equally" because of their "age, sex gender identity, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, marital status, mental or physical disability, religion, or national origin."

New Hampshire's 'Divisive Concepts' Law And The Big Chill, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "

Much critical commentary on the so-called “divisive concepts” provisions in this year’s budget legislation – the label comes from language in an earlier version of the bill – has focused on their content- and viewpoint-based restraints on speech. These speech restrictions prohibit state public employers, including public K-12 school teachers, from (among other things) instructing that persons are “inherently superior or inferior to [others]” “inherently racist or sexist,” “should be discriminated against,” or “should not attempt to treat others equally” because of their “age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, mental or …

School Police Reform: A Public Health Imperative, Thalia González, Emma Kaeser

SMU Law Review Forum

Out of the twin pandemics currently gripping the United States­—deaths of unarmed Black victims at the hands of police and racialized health inequities resulting from COVID-19—an antiracist health equity agenda has emerged that identifies racism as a public health crisis. Likewise, calls for reform of school policing by those advocating for civil rights, racial justice, and Black Lives Matter have simultaneously intensified. Yet each remains siloed, despite the natural connection and implicit overlap between these separate movements and debates. Indeed, there are documented negative health effects of school policing for Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) youth. But these have …