A Primer on College Campus Sexual Assault

Abstract

Colleges and universities over the past several years have experienced a plethora of litigation involving student-on-student sexual assaults. The majority of these suits assert Title IX causes of action. A common claim alleged under Title IX in federal court is the deliberate indifference claim. The crux of these suits are that the university was deliberately indifferent, had an officially policy of deliberate indifference creating a heightened risk of sexual harassment to the plaintiff. For liability to attach the university response must be unreasonable, deliberately indifferent, the respondent-student was under the university control, effectively precluded the student access to an education and had actual notice of the alleged harassment or assault. It is important that counsel read the cases in his or her jurisdiction to glean the application of Title IX litigation. This area of the law is developing rapidly.