Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. It applies to all school entities that receive federal funding. Harassment prohibited by Title VI is an all-too-common challenge for students. It occurs when a student suffers unwelcome conduct from others based on their actual or perceived race or national origin.
Harassment prohibited by Title VI is not limited to harassment at the hands of other students – it also prohibits harassment by staff, employees or even other visitors to the school setting. Harassing conduct can include bullying based on race or national origin, slurs, taunts, discussing stereotypes, name-calling, as well as racially motivated physical threats or acts of violence.
Title VI mandates a response from the school when harassment creates a “hostile environment” – meaning, when it is sufficiently serious to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the recipient’s education programs and activities. To be sufficiently serious, the conduct must be (1) subjectively and objectively offensive and (2) either severe or pervasive.
The harassment does not have to be committed by just one person to raise Title VI concerns. It can be a compilation of harassing conduct committed by multiple persons, and it need not even all be directed at the victim. Furthermore, harassment committed within the school program by individuals from other schools or the community falls within Title VI's coverage.
Families of students who have experienced racial harassment should first provide support for the student that validates and affirms their experience. Next, the conduct should be reported to the school. Schools are required to accept even verbal complaints of racial harassment, which prompts their responsibility to investigate, determine whether a hostile environment has been created, and apply corrective steps to make sure the conduct stops.
Corrective steps include “prompt and effective” steps that are reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate the hostile environment, prevent it from re-occurring, and remedy the effects of the hostile environment.
Pending investigation, supportive measures should be given to the student to make sure they can continue to access all academic and extracurricular programs. A few of the most common supportive measures include:
Establishing a safety plan for the student
Connecting the student to a counselor or other go-to support person such as a trusted teacher or administrator
Eliminating or reducing contact with harassers
Increasing supervision and monitoring to prevent further instances of harassment
Racial harassment may also be brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC). Both agencies offer a complaint investigation process for instances of racial harassment.
A great resource for further information on racial and ethnic harassment is the Fact Sheet issued by OCR on July 2, 2024: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-factsheet-race-color-national-origin-202407.pdf.
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