A Lehigh student group, “Lehigh IX Now,” led an event to educate students about their protections and the importance of Title IX and the Clery Act on Oct. 15.
Organized by students from the political science class, Revolution on Campus, the group aimed to raise awareness about Title IX. The organizers decided as a class that the issue they wanted to improve on campus was the Title IX Office.
“Our goal right now is to educate people on what Title IX is, what your rights are, and what the Clery Act is,” said Margo Callahan, ‘22. “We want to bring awareness to it and see what others would like to see change so that way we have a better idea of how to move forward and improve.”
The Jeanne Clery Act was signed in 1990 and is a federal law that enforces universities disclose crime statistics and report crimes such as gender-based violence. It is named after Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh student who was murdered in her dorm room in 1986.
Lehigh currently remains under investigation for violation of the Clery Act after 15 months.
“The Clery Act is the result of a family’s direct lobbying to Congress following Lehigh’s inability to give full disclosure of information,” said Sara Boyd, ‘21.
Lehigh has a Title IX Office which serves to carry out Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The student group set up an informational table on the front lawn where people could take flyers and speak with the organizers about their protections granted by Lehigh and the federal government. They stationed their table adjacent to the University Center front lawn where President Joseph Helble’s inauguration was being live-streamed.
Their informational station had a poster with the prompt “I need IX because,” for students to answer. Some responses were “it holds people accountable” and “it keeps me safe.”
The group handed out flyers titled “Know Your Nine,” which states the rights students have under the Title IX law.
Title IX is a civil right that prohibits sex discrimination in education, and with that, schools must have an established procedure for handling complaints of sexual discrimination, harassment and violence.
“I think that education is a really strong tool in making sure that your needs are met,” said Sophie Kellner, ‘22. “I don’t think people necessarily know the expansive nature of Title IX.”
They also gave students the opportunity to sign the petition to expel Brandon Freyere, a University of Delaware student who has been arrested for the kidnap and assault of a fellow student, but has not been expelled from the university.
Boyd said they realized that with COVID-19, freshmen and sophomores have had less opportunity to be connected to on-campus resources and to learn about their protections.
“Here it is about getting the information out, making people aware of what their protections are, and giving them that sense of comradery that there are students out here taking action on Title IX,” Boyd said. “We care about this, and we care about you.”
The group hopes to use this event to grow momentum and to continue to bring awareness to Title IX.
1 Comment
The original intent Title IX law has been totally perverted by liberal “woke” zealots.
Misguided nonsense has resulted in the destruction and elimination of numerous athletic programs in the name of so called “equity”.
This has been to the detriment to both male and female athletes. Teams for males have been eliminated in order to have an equal number of teams for females. Some of those teams for females have been ones that the women aren’t interested in. Yes, this is asinine and stupid.
Even worse is the utter absurdity of allowing biological males, who are obviously mentally disturbed, to pretend they female, and compete with genuine females.
This pandering to the “transgender crowd” is just plain stupid and counterproductive.
This has been due in large part by utter incompetents in the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education.
An utter incompetent who headed this office several year back was Catherine Lhamon.
Fortunately, when Betsy DeVos ran the education department under President Trump some sanity was restored. The stupid actions of Lhamon were repealed and more common sense regulations put into place.
Unfortunately now that the Biden administration is in charge, that fool has nominated Lhamon to handle the OCR office again.
Thus far, the Senate has not approved her. It is unclear whether this will happen.
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