Beyond promoting equal opportunity in academics, sports, and extracurricular activities, Title IX is designed to uphold protections for those who experience sexual harassment and assault. However, the return to Trump’s 2020 Title IX rule is a significant setback in progress and will put these students at much higher risk.

Now, survivors will again face difficult barriers coming forward because of burdensome standards of proof and a limited scope of what constitutes sexual harassment and assault. Schools will also have less authority to conduct thorough and prompt investigations of complaints, leaving survivors with fewer options and less support, further discouraging reporting and perpetuating a culture of silence on campuses. 

Compounding these concerns, the U.S. Department of Energy has recently to roll back certain Title IX regulations aimed at combating sex discrimination in education programs and sports. This move includes rescinding rules that encourage educational institutions to address gender disparities, particularly in STEM fields, where women remain underrepresented. 

Simply put, Trump’s second term has moved beyond a repeat of his 2020 changes. The radical act of dismantling the Education Department, or stripping its Office of Civil Rights, would endanger the remaining scope of Title IX by making it harder to hold educational institutions accountable for fostering environments where women can learn and thrive free from discrimination or violence.

Without federal oversight, schools’ compliance with Title IX would go unmonitored, resulting in a system in which institutions may be allowed or emboldened to violate the law. Alone, many state and local education agencies lack the resources, expertise, or political will to adequately enforce Title IX’s protections. Women and girls would see the loss of critical resources designed to combat discrimination and violence, while also encountering barriers to full participation in sports and extracurricular activities. 

The administration’s cuts and policy shifts deliberately affect women and other students from marginalized groups, including LGBTQ students and those from ethnic and racial minorities, who also rely on the protections afforded by Title IX to ensure access to a fair and equal education. 

Beyond reverting to outdated, harmful regulations, the administration has sent a message that addressing gender discrimination and violence is no longer a priority for our country’s educational system. In a time when gender-based violence is a pervasive issue, dismantling the safeguards that were designed to protect students is not just short-sighted, it is dangerous.

Without institutional accountability for addressing sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination, survivors may experience long-term trauma, academic setbacks, or even drop out — disrupting educational and career trajectories. 

Likewise, the Department of Energy’s proposed changes would not only weaken the foundation for equal participation in federally funded programs but also signal a broader federal retreat from enforcing civil rights in education. These rollbacks bypass traditional public notice and comment periods, raising questions about their legality and transparency. 

The consequences are stark: fewer opportunities for women and marginalized groups in education and athletics, and a diminished federal commitment to combating sex discrimination in areas critical to career development and economic equality.

Discrimination in education frequently leads to fewer opportunities to pursue high-paying jobs, deepening gender and racial wage gaps over time. Furthermore, when these behaviors are accepted in schools, they can carry over into professional settings, perpetuating harmful work environments.

The path forward requires reinstating and strengthening the protections enshrined in Title IX, particularly to recenter survivors. We also need a DOE that ensures schools not only comply with the law, but also emphasize justice, fairness, and support.

LINCOLN — Officials in public schools or other Nebraska political subdivisions could be held liable if they fail to protect children in their care through a proposal inching forward in the Legislature.

, introduced by State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, was the subject of multiple days of debate and negotiations that ultimately resulted in a replacement of Hastings State Sen. Steve Halloran’s on Tuesday to become Wayne’s LB 25. The changes also leaned closer in some provisions involving legal liability to from State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln.

The amended LB 25 could allow lawsuits — in the case of child abuse or sexual assault of a child — against political subdivisions or their employees who have a duty to protect children against the crimes.

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The harm must be a “proximate result” of the political subdivision’s failure or an employee’s failure to exercise “reasonable care” to care for a child in their care or custody.

“Nothing is going to make these individuals completely whole,” Wayne told the Nebraska Examiner after the votes. “We’re just trying to provide the best remedy we can under the law.”

Wayne offered the amendment, which was adopted . Lawmakers then voted to advance LB 25 on a , with eight lawmakers “present, not voting.”

Opening ‘Pandora’s Box’

State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, a former prosecutor, led opposition to the measure, arguing that if school officials have knowledge of wrongdoing and fail to investigate, which is required under “reasonable care,” they can already be held accountable. She ultimately did not vote on LB 25 or any amendments.

Dungan and Wayne, who are also  lawyers, disagreed that the law Bosn pointed to would be adequate.

Bosn said she negotiated on a possible amendment with State Sens. Ben Hansen of Blair and Mike Jacobson of North Platte, possibly to cap recovery damages at $500,000.

Jacobson said those conversations also included whether to limit the scope of the bill to K-12 schools or add options for victims beyond lawsuits. Bosn said she wanted support on the front end and not after a harm has occurred.

LB 25 could favor attorneys representing families or children who have been harmed, Jacobson argued, as lawyers would be looking for “deep pockets.”

“I’m just saying you’re opening up Pandora’s Box when you go this route,” Jacobson said.

Dungan said there may always be “ambulance chasers” seeking money, but he joined Wayne in stating that lawyers have an ethical duty not to file frivolous lawsuits and noted that judges can throw cases out if they determine the actions are frivolous.

Goals of ‘protecting children’

State Sens. Steve Erdman of Bayard and Julie Slama of Dunbar both criticized opponents to Wayne’s bill who have said they want to protect children but voted against Wayne’s bill.

Erdman, who often is closely aligned with Halloran, defended the effort as targeting schools that aren’t doing everything right. If they are, “they have nothing to fear.”

He said he couldn’t understand why LB 25 was controversial and that when he returns to his district in western Nebraska, he can say he did everything to protect Nebraska’s most vulnerable while some of his colleagues thought protecting the state was more important.

“When you vote, you will clarify to the voters, to the public, where you really stand on protecting children,” Erdman said.

Slama pointed to other bills that were debated this session with a stated goal to protect children from or to based on students’ sex at birth. The introducers of those bills, State Sens. Joni Albrecht of Thurston and Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, opposed Wayne’s amendment and voted against advancing LB 25.

Halloran told the Examiner he was happy there would be some parity to hold public schools accountable when similar lawsuits are already allowed against private schools.

Some opponents argued allowing lawsuits against public schools would increase property taxes.

Slama challenged opponents on that point.

“How many child molesters is your school district employing if it’s going to impact your bottom line?” she asked.

Accountability and recovery

State Sen. Christy Armendariz of Omaha said she supports suing any entity if its employees  commit crimes against children but wanted LB 25 to be more refined, such as more closely targeting criminals.

“We have very little, if any, control over policies, hiring, employee practices within a school building,” Armendariz said. “To reach out to the taxpayer to pay the financial penalty would be extremely ineffective at changing the culture we’re trying to change.”

Armendariz told the Examiner that LB 25 is an opportunity to put everyone on notice that harming a child is “absolutely not acceptable,” but she said the bill “completely misses that point.”

She said holding employees financially accountable could change a culture and suggested that lawmakers should allow victims to go after funds the employee may be connected to, such as employee unions or health care and pension plans.

“That’s outside of the box thinking, but maybe those pension funds need to be held accountable to the offenders that they support,” Armendariz said.

Wayne said once a perpetrator is behind bars, there may be no financial recovery left, but he said a bigger issue is whether schools, cities or counties are aware that harm is possible and that if they don’t act, that should come with some liability.

“I’m proud of this Legislature today, and I think we’re passing a bill that can help kids,” Wayne said.

With three days left in the legislative session, LB 25 will need to return for debate sometime Wednesday. If it advances, the final vote will be taken on the last day of the session: April 18.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

Under a bill proposed by a Republican delegate, Virginia schools could be required to have a school employee check every bathroom every half-hour to ensure students are safe.

The proposal follows a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.

“It’s a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended,” said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, the bill’s patron. “Nothing is set in stone until … it gets that ink from the governor’s pen.”

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Proposal

Under the , named Celeste’s Law after the Hampton student, public schools would be required to have an employee in each school check every restroom in the building no less frequently than once every 30 minutes during normal school hours.

“If they are walking around, going to the bathrooms and checking them, on the way they’re also observing everything else that’s going on,” Cordoza said. “If someone is planning to do something to harm other students — they go to their locker, they grab something else — they may see that. So it’s really making the job more efficient.”

Cordoza said the culture in schools has changed in recent years, a factor that partly led him to introduce the bill.

He also said his legislation doesn’t envision teachers being taken out of the classroom to conduct the security checks. The bill specifically mentions employees conducting the checks would include “any school resource officer or any school security officer.”

“We don’t want to overburden school resource officers or SSOs either,” he said. “We just want to make sure our kids are safe, and I want to do that in the most effective and efficient way possible.”

Hampton case

Cordoza said he promised Nikia Miller, the mother of the Hampton student, that he would do everything he could to make sure a similar situation didn’t happen to any other children in his area or the commonwealth more broadly.

In March 2020, an elementary school principal in Hampton City Public Schools alerted Miller that her child had been sexually assaulted multiple times by another student who was a year older. Miller’s daughter was 6 when the alleged assaults began.

Miller told she believes there were at least 10 cases of assault against her daughter during an 18-month period. The child developed repeated anxiety and panic attacks and had to attend weekly therapy sessions, the mother said. She was also moved to another school.

Last year, Miller filed a $5 million lawsuit against Hampton schools, the reported, saying the division had been negligent.

Hampton City Public Schools in response stated it had conducted an investigation along with the Hampton City Police Division that found two female second graders who attended different after-school programs had met in a girls’ restroom after school hours.

The school division said it had no knowledge of the encounters until after the fact.

“Hampton City Schools staff members remain committed to ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students,” the school division said to WTKR last year.

The school division said that at the parent’s request, it had enrolled the aggrieved student at another school and offered counseling.

The Hampton case isn’t the only Virginia incident to unfold in a school bathroom.

In 2021, a high school student in Loudoun County Public Schools assaulted two female students on separate occasions. The first assault occurred in a bathroom; subsequently, the teenager was transferred to another school, where he assaulted another student. The first victim , saying it failed to follow Title IX processes for sexual assaults or even begin an investigation until five months after the assault.

Cordoza, who said he is familiar with the Loudoun cases, said the General Assembly must “now proactively try and prevent it from happening.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

The researchers — “Team TALKS” — are interested in hearing from participants who are passionate about creating schools free of sexual misconduct and would like to share their experiences and insights. They will take part in one 75-minute to share their insights, hear from peers and colleagues, and learn about researchers’ findings and recommendations. 

Team TALKS wrote to Stop Sexual Assault in Schools — which is collaborating on the research — that “a deeply concerning issue persists and negatively affects the lives of countless young people: peer-to-peer sexual harassment and assault. School administrators and Title IX coordinators are critical in creating a sustainable change that reduces sexual harassment and assault among students in school.” They aim to understand school administrators’ needs in “preventing, investigating and processing incidences of sexual misconduct.”

Obstacles to making sustainable change stem from “the lack of resources to support Title IX compliance, including for Title IX coordinators, who are responsible for ensuring schools are complying with Title IX and responding appropriately to sex discrimination, including sexual harassment,” Shiwali Patel, director of justice for student survivors and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, noted in correspondence with Stop Sexual Assault in Schools.

Beyond Title IX compliance, administrators must also learn to address the many underlying factors that contribute to persistent sexual harassment in schools: inconsistent training, underreporting, poor recordkeeping of incidents and ongoing hostile climates for LGBTQ and other vulnerable students. 

The university researchers are collaborating with the national nonprofit , which educates schools, students and families about the right to an equal education free from sexual harassment and assault. The nonprofit will make the researchers’ data and recommendations freely available to schools, gender-equity organizations and others to shape new resources and legislative initiatives.

Stop Sexual Assault in Schools board chair Heidi Goldstein, a long-time advocate for gender equity in the Berkeley Unified School District and consultant to other school districts in Alameda County, California, underscores the importance of this project:

“This research is immensely valuable because there is very little data around how K-12 school districts set up their nondiscrimination and compliance offices, or clarity around the kinds of supports districts need to effectively manage these issues. Especially in times of lean funding, districts are searching for guidance on how to train staff to comply with state and federal nondiscrimination regulations, while facilitating coordination across departments tasked with student culture, discipline, special services and stakeholder communications when incidents arise. 

“The insights from the Team TALKS work will help K-12 districts more effectively manage their nondiscrimination infrastructure by identifying areas of targeted investments for staff, tools, training and student culture programs to improve their ability to prevent, manage and resolve incidents.”

The study is particularly timely with new federal Title IX regulations expected to be in March. Participants’ contributions will help define concrete needs and remedies that districts can use to improve their procedures and sexual misconduct responses. 

School administrators and Title IX coordinators who are interested in participating in a focus group can sign up .

But that wasn’t the case in Loudoun County where former schools chief Scott Ziegler was indicted last week in a high-profile case in which a teen boy assaulted two female classmates months apart — with no warning to the greater school community after the first attack.

This time, it was Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, elected last year on a pledge to empower parents, who spearheaded the investigation into the district’s handling of the case: Acting on his state Attorney General Jason Miyares impaneled a special grand jury to investigate the school system’s alleged coverup and mishandling of the assaults. Its findings were released earlier this month in a .

Ziegler was fired after the grand jury found he lied to the public about the first incident, which took place in a girl’s bathroom. 

The location sparked outrage among those who believed the assault was tied to the district’s decision to allow students to use the bathroom of their choosing rather than the one that corresponds with their sex assigned at birth. The attacker was wearing a kilt at the time. Despite early rumors, he is not transgender and the bathroom policyuntil long after the first assault.

Both Ziegler and the district spokesperson were with the former superintendent facing multiple misdemeanors, including false publication, and his colleague, Wayde Byard, accused of felony perjury. Ziegler was also charged in connection with a special education teacher who said the district failed to take action after she complained of being and then retaliated against her for speaking out.

Ziegler, in a statement to The Washington Post last week, spoke about the grand jury investigation and said, “I am disappointed that an Attorney General-controlled, secret, and one-sided process — which never once sought my testimony — has made such false and irresponsible accusations. I will vigorously defend myself. I look forward to a time when the truth becomes public.”

Youngkin’s intervention, while unusual, is no surprise. Conservative parents in Loudoun County, riled by the district’s COVID policies, teachings about systemic racism and alleged sexualization of children through LGBTQ literature, have been among the most vocal in the country since the pandemic began. Youngkin capitalized on that during his campaign and came through with his promise to give parents statewide a greater say in the goings-on at their children’s school — starting with Loudoun County.

After the grand jury report was released, Youngkin addressed the backlash to his direct role in setting the investigation into motion.

“I do believe that part of my job as governor is to make the decisions to shine light on circumstances like this,” he told . “And at the end of the day, we were going to … make sure that the facts were clear, and that those that had, in fact, violated their duty would be held accountable. And that’s exactly what happened.”

The grand jury’s recounting of the case seemed to shed more light on the disturbing series of events than the political heat they generated.

The offender, just 14 years old at the time of the first attack on May 28, 2021, arranged to meet a classmate in the bathroom for a consensual encounter only to forcibly sodomize her. The victim’s father, who drove to campus soon after, was chastised by school officials for causing a ruckus at the front office. Administrators alerted parents to his behavior that day — not to the sexual assault. 

Even worse, parents said, school officials were warned more than two weeks earlier about the boy’s troubling behavior: A teaching assistant, writing to a superior at Stone Bridge High School about his infractions, ended with, “I wouldn’t want to be held accountable if someone should get hurt,” the grand jury found.

Parents were even more enraged by what came next: The boy was merely transferred to another school — rather than placed in a more secure setting — where he sexually assaulted and nearly asphyxiated another girl at his new campus on October 6, 2021.

The grand jury blamed the district for the second assault, attributing it to a “remarkable lack of curiosity” and “adherence to operating in silos.” Among the more surprising revelations: A special education teaching assistant walked into the bathroom during the first assault, saw two sets of feet in one of the stalls and did nothing about it.

The report also noted a June 22, 2021, school board meeting in which the superintendent said, in response to a question, “to my knowledge, we don’t have any records of assaults occurring in our restrooms.” He was lying, the grand jury found: He and other school staff had already discussed the offense. Ziegler has said he thought he was being asked if they had records of any transgender or gender-fluid students assaulting other students in school bathrooms.

And there was a lead up, too, to the second assault. On Sept. 9, the boy grabbed a girl aggressively, tapped her head with a pencil and asked if she posted nude photos online. He asked another boy in his class “if his grandmothers’ nudes were posted online,” according to the report.

The superintendent, deputy superintendent and chief of staff were alerted to these incidents and knew this was the same boy involved in the earlier assault, the grand jury reported. 

“Despite having a 12-page disciplinary file, wearing an ankle monitor, being closely monitored by the Broad Run principal, knowledge of this incident by the highest administrators in LCPS … the individual received nothing more than a verbal admonishment,” they wrote. 

A juvenile court judge found sufficient evidence to sustain the charges in the first assault in October 2021 and the teen pleaded no contest to the charges in the second assault a month later. The judge to receive treatment, counseling and full rehabilitation at a locked residential facility until he turns 18, noting, “This one scares me.”

Erin Poe, who has three sons in the district, said she was devastated upon learning the scope of school administrators’ dishonesty and ineptitude. 

“I cannot imagine what this has done to the girls’ lives,” she said, adding she laments the district’s “unconscionable” decision to hide this news from families and move the offending student to another campus. “The entire situation was handled so poorly, from the victims to the child who committed these acts. All the way around, things need to change.”

Poe, co-founder of , an activist group, told �鶹��Ʒ she’s grateful for the Republican governor’s intervention: She voted for Youngkin and hopes he’ll help expose the district’s wrongdoings. 

“I was happy to see Youngkin was going to make Loudoun County an example,” she said, adding his involvement, “would make it harder for them to do things the way they want — rather than the way it should be handled.”

But Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said Youngkin’s role has gone “above and beyond.” He said the investigation into the district’s handling of the case could have happened without him. 

“I think it’s just part of his politics to continue to come across as the champion of education in Virginia — and a champion of parents’ rights,” said Domenech, who lives in Virginia and has closely watched Youngkin’s ascent and the scandal plaguing the Loudoun schools.

He said both Youngkin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who during the pandemic — are “out of line.” 

He cited DeSantis for removing board members from Broward County schools this summer after a grand jury accused them of related to their role in managing a campus security program. DeSantis ordered the grand jury to investigate the district after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in 2018. 

That probe also resulted in the 2021 indictment on felony perjury charges of former Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, of the hardline governor. Runcie has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

“DeSantis has gotten himself involved in education to a level we have never seen,” Domenech said. “He’s, in a number of school districts, removed board members, appointed board members — which is really a local election process. I’ve been in this business for 55 years and have never seen anything like this.”

In Loudoun County, the parents of the second victim had little use for school leadership across the board, according to a statement they issued after the release of the grand jury’s report.

“The senior leaders at both high schools, along with the Loudoun County Public Schools and the School Board members, should be reminded that our fifteen-year-old daughter displayed more courage and leadership when she reported what happened to her to the Sheriff’s Resource Officer than any of them ever did,” they said. “The ineptitude of all involved is staggering.”

Disclosure: Andy Rotherham is a member of the Virginia Board of Education and sits on �鶹��Ʒ’s board of directors. He played no role in the reporting or editing of this story.