Title IX sex discrimination complaints like the one filed against the University of Illinois Springfield aren’t uncommon, but the toughest penalty for violating the act — revocation of federal aid to a school — has never been imposed.
According to the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., 416 formal athletic complaints were filed with the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education in the five-year period ending Dec. 31, 2006.
Over that period, OCR initiated only one compliance review of a school’s athletics program, the center found.
Anyone can file a Title IX compliant, and the OCR can investigate any school where it believes there may be Title IX problems.
The law requires a school to have a procedure set up to address gender discrimination complaints, whether or not it has ever had a complaint filed against it.
The story was published in a March 26, 2011, edition of The State Journal-Register.
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