Procedure:
Unlawful Harassment and Discrimination of Students
I. PURPOSE:A. It is the policy of the Department of Technical and Adult Education that all students shall be provided an environment free of unlawful harassment (including sexual harassment), discrimination, retaliation, and intimidation.
B. All students are expressly prohibited from engaging in any form of harassing, retaliating, discriminating, or intimidating behavior or conduct.
C. Any student who has engaged in prohibited behavior or conduct will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including expulsion.D. All students are encouraged to report any act of unlawful harassment, discrimination, retaliation and/or intimidation. Reports will be treated in an expeditious and confidential manner.
E. The Department will not tolerate retaliation for having filed a good faith harassment and/or discrimination complaint or for having provided any information in an investigation. Any student or employee who retaliates against a complainant or witness in an investigation will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal or expulsion.
F. Any student who knowingly makes a false charge of harassment/discrimination or retaliation, or any student who is untruthful during an investigation is guilty of misconduct and may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal.
II. APPLICABILITY:
This procedure shall uniformly apply to all Department employees, technical college students, and other persons conducting business with the Department. This procedure applies to all interactions between staff and students, and between students, whether or not the interaction occurs during class or on or off campus.
III. RELATED AUTHORITY:
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972
Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Age Discrimination Act of 1975
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Procedure: Student GrievancesIV. DEFINITIONS:
For purposes of this procedure, the words listed below are defined as follows:
A. Unlawful Harassment (Other Than Sexual Harassment): Verbal or physical conduct that disparages or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual because of that person’s race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or disability. Harassment does one or more of the following:
1. Has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive academic or work environment, or
2. Has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s academic or work performance.
B. Examples of Unlawfully Harassing Conduct or Behavior (Other Than Sexual Harassment):
Harassing conduct or behavior includes, but is not limited to, epithets, slurs, negative stereotyping, or threatening, intimidating or hostile acts that relate to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability. This includes jokes or pranks that are hostile or demeaning with regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability. Harassing conduct may also include written or graphic material that disparages or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group because of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, or disability, and that is displayed on walls, bulletin boards, computers, or other locations, or circulated in the work place.
This is a representative list of harassing conduct or behavior and is not intended to be exhaustive.C. Sexual Harassment (a form of unlawful harassment): Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome requests for sexual favors, and other unwelcome verbal, written, electronic or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:Submission to such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual’s education;Submission to, or rejection of, such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for education decisions affecting such individual; or, Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.D. Examples of Sexually Harassing Conduct or Behavior: Sexually harassing conduct or behavior (regardless of the gender of the persons involved) includes:
1. Physical touching;
2. Sexual comments of a provocative or suggestive nature;
3. Suggestive looks or gestures;
4. Jokes, printed material or innuendoes intended for and directed to another employee;
5. Making acceptance of unwelcome sexual conduct, advances, or requests for sexual favors of any nature a condition for education, education decisions, or continued enrollment (pressure for sexual favors).
This is a representative list of harassing conduct or behavior and is not intended to be exhaustive.
E. Discrimination: The denial of benefits or admission to the college or to any of its programs or activities, either academic or nonacademic, curricular or extracurricular, because of race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or handicap and disability.F. Retaliation: Unfavorable action taken, unfavorable condition created, or other action taken by a student or employee for the purpose of intimidation that is directed toward a student because the student initiated an allegation of unlawful harassment/retaliation or who participates in an investigation.
G. Department: All Department of Technical and Adult Education work units, including technical colleges.
H. Employees: Any individual employed in a full or part time capacity in any Department work unit.
I. Non-Employee: Any third party (e.g. volunteer, vendor, contractor, etc.) who conducts business with or on behalf of a Department work unit.
J. President: The President of the technical college where the accused violator is currently enrolled.
K. Human Resources Director: The person holding the position of Human Resources Director at the DTAE Central Office or that person’s designee.
L. Local Investigator: The person at the technical college who is responsible for the investigation of unlawful harassment/retaliation complaints.
M. Compliance Officer: The person designated by the Commissioner to conduct investigations.N. Intimate parts of the Body: Intimate parts of the body mean the primary genital area, anus, groin, inner thighs, or buttocks of a male or female and the breasts of a female.
IV. ATTACHMENT:
Attachment 1 – Commissioner’s Statement Prohibiting Unlawful Harassment and DiscriminationV. PROCEDURE:
A. Policy Administration
The Commissioner’s Statement Prohibiting Unlawful Harassment and Discrimination should be permanently displayed on official bulletin boards of the Department and its technical colleges.Instructors/administrators must take ongoing proactive steps to ensure their classrooms are free from any type of unlawful harassment.
Any employee, student, contractor or volunteer who has any questions concerning this procedure should direct those questions to the Executive Director, Legal Services at (404) 679-1605, Human Resources Director at (404) 327-6927, or the Deputy Commissioner at (404) 679-1706.B. Reporting and Management Action
- All students are encouraged to report events of unlawful harassment, discrimination, and/or unlawful retaliation against themselves or others. A student may attempt to resolve any issue arising under this policy informally.
a. Allegations or suspicions of unlawful harassment or unlawful retaliation may be reported by the complainant to any college employee, the President of the technical college, Legal Services at (404)679-1605, the Commissioner’s Office at (404)679-1601, the Deputy Commissioner’s Office at (404)679-1706, or by email at UnlawfulHarassment@dtae.org.
Instructors/administrators who have reason to believe that unlawful harassment, discrimination, and/or retaliation may exist shall immediately inform their President or one of the persons listed above in 1(a).
b. Such reports can initially be expressed in writing, by telephone, or in person; however, the report will ultimately be required to be in writing.
c. After an allegation is made to a department employee that employee shall report the allegation to the President, or his designee, as soon as possible, not to exceed 48 hours.An affected President may suspend, transfer or reassign personnel or students involved, in order to prevent possible further harassment, discrimination, retaliation or to facilitate the investigation. In emergency situations of a severe nature a President or their designee may take appropriate actions to protect the complainant/alleged victim and/or to deter the alleged violator from any further harassment of the complainant/alleged victim. If the alleged harasser is an employee, the affected President shall report all actions of this nature and any subsequent change in status or assignment to the Human Resources Director.
- The reporting individual should keep the information confidential unless release is approved, or unless final action has been approved pursuant to this procedure.
The Compliance Officer/local investigator shall notify the affected President of the complaint and the pending investigation, unless otherwise directed by the Commissioner.
- Unless otherwise authorized by the Commissioner in writing, no disciplinary action shall taken against the alleged violator until an investigation has been completed, a written report has been issued and action has been taken in accordance with this procedure.
- Any allegation of unlawful harassment, discrimination, or retaliation may be referred by the President of a technical college to the Executive Director, Legal Services for investigation by the Compliance Officer. Investigations by the Compliance Officer may be done in conjunction with the local investigator at the President’s request.
C. Investigations
Investigations will be conducted by gathering relevant information and interviewing appropriate witnesses. All witnesses provided by the complainant will be interviewed.
- All complaints of unlawful harassment, discrimination or unlawful retaliation shall be investigated thoroughly. Any President or local investigator is encouraged to consult with the Compliance Officer, Human Resources Director or Executive Director, Legal Services with any questions or concerns.
- If a complaint does not specify facts sufficient to allege unlawful harassment or retaliation as prohibited by this procedure, the local investigator may determine that the allegations shall not be investigated. This will be done with joint approval by the local investigator and President. In the case of an investigation being performed by the Compliance Officer this shall be done with joint approval of the Assistant Commissioner of Technical Education and the Executive Director, Legal Services. This decision will be made within 5 business days of receiving the complaint. Immediately following the decision, notice will be given to the complainant, and the complainant shall have the same rights of appeal as set forth in part V.E. of this procedure.
- Where a complaint is investigated, the investigation shall commence within 5 business days of receipt of the complaint.
4. The process from initial complaint to completed investigation should take no longer than 60 days. If additional time is needed, the complainant will be informed.
5. The local investigator/Compliance Officer who conducts the investigation will present facts in a written report to the President.
6 Reports concerning the unlawful harassment, discrimination, or retaliation of students will be processed and handled confidentially to the extent permitted by law.
D. Review and Disposition
- After reviewing the final report, the President shall make a recommendation, based on a preponderance of the evidence, as to whether the facts support a finding that unlawful harassment, discrimination, or unlawful retaliation has occurred. The President shall make this recommendation within 5 business days of receipt of the completed investigation.
- If the recommendation is that the facts do not support a finding of unlawful harassment, discrimination, or unlawful retaliation, and it is determined that no action should be taken, then the matter can be closed.
3. If the recommendation is that the facts do support a finding of unlawful harassment, discrimination, unlawful retaliation, or a policy violation, appropriate sanctions will be recommended and taken pursuant to the applicable disciplinary procedure (either student or employee).
4. The investigator will provide written notice to the complaining party and subject that the investigation is complete. Notice should be given within 5 business days, provided that if a disciplinary action is to be initiated, no parties will be notified until all disciplinary actions are served.
E. Appeal by Complainant
1. If the complainant wishes to appeal the recommendation by the president that the facts do not support a finding of unlawful harassment and/or discrimination, the complainant may do so in writing within 5 business days of receiving notice of the president’s recommendation.
2. The complainant must send the appeal by regular mail, facsimile, or email to the following:
Executive Director, Legal Services
1800 Century Place NE, Suite 400
Atlanta, Georgia 30345-4304
(404) 679-1615 (facsimile)
UnlawfulHarassment@dtae.org
3. The Executive Director of Legal Services will convene a diverse committee of at least three persons to review the investigative file to determine whether there are sufficient facts to support a finding of unlawful harassment/retaliation/discrimination.
4. If the facts do support a finding of unlawful harassment/retaliation/discrimination, appropriate sanctions will be taken pursuant to the applicable disciplinary procedure.
5. If the facts do not support a finding of unlawful harassment/retaliation/discrimination, the matter will be closed.
6. The Executive Director of Legal Services will provide written notice to the complaining party and subject of the investigation within 15 business days of the receipt of the appeal by the Executive Director of Legal Services.
V. RECORD RETENTION
Documents relating to formal complaints including investigations, dispositions and the complaint itself shall be held for 5 years after the graduation of the student or the date of the student’s last attendance.Revised March 9, 2007
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