Tehachapi Unified School District (District) agreed to resolve a Title IX complaint alleging sexual and gender-based harassment of a gender non-conforming male student (Student), who attended Jacobsen Middle School. The Student committed suicide in September 2010, and was in the eighth grade at the time of his death. OCR investigated the complaint, and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division collaborated with OCR on the resolution with the District. The investigation found that the Student was targeted for harassment over two school years because of his nonconformity with gender stereotypes. OCR and the Justice Department determined that the harassment, which included ongoing and escalating verbal, physical, and sexual harassment by other students at school, was sufficiently severe, pervasive and persistent to interfere with the Student’s educational opportunities, and that despite having notice of the harassment, the District did not adequately investigate or otherwise respond to it. The District signed a Resolution Agreement in which it agreed to take all reasonable steps to ensure that all students enrolled in the District are not subject to sex-based harassment, and to respond promptly and appropriately to all reports of harassment. Specifically, the District will (1) revise its policies and regulations related to sex-based harassment and retain a consultant to provide mandatory trainings on such harassment for all students, administrators, teachers, counselors and other staff who interact with students; (2) assess the presence of sex-based harassment through annual school climate surveys, (3) form an advisory committee of administrators, students and parents to advise the district on school climate issues related to sex-based harassment, (4) take appropriate corrective action with respect to any employee who failed to respond appropriately to notice harassment of the Student, (5) develop a District-wide monitoring program to assess the effectiveness of the district’s anti-harassment efforts, and (6) provide semi-annual compliance reports to OCR and the Justice Department for the next five years. Read the Press Release | Read the Resolution Letter PDF (205K) | Read the Resolution Agreement PDF (116K)