This opinion piece on national Title IX policies is written by senior Ravina Nath, Title IX Club co-president.
It has been 1,000 days. Despite the many slogans, messaging campaigns and empty promises of a new Title IX rule in his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden has failed to pass one. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in all federally funded institutions, including Gunn. To me, it is a promise from those with power that we, as students, deserve a safe educational environment, because feeling unsafe means we cannot learn. In September, I had the privilege of going to Washington, D.C., with Know Your IX, a youth-led nonprofit working to end gender-based harassment and violence in schools. There, I lobbied senior officials at the U.S. Department of Education to finalize the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules and asked about the necessary pressures to get the rules passed.
Ensuring a fair and supportive environment for survivors of sexual violence is a fundamental matter of justice and equity. While due-process rights are essential, they must be balanced with the imperative to protect survivors. Every president sets their own Title IX rules, which determine how the courts interpret Title IX during their term. By stating that evidence in a Title IX case must be “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive,” the Trump administration significantly shifted the burden of proof in a way that harms survivors. This change discourages students from seeking justice and hinders educational institutions from providing it.
I decided to go to Washington because of the inadequacy of this status quo. Try to imagine a situation where your perpetrator or abuser could select anyone — a frat brother, their mother, their girlfriend, your professor — to interrogate you during the cross-examination of the evidence in their trial. Such an approach could re-traumatize a survivor, forcing them to relive an extremely painful experience. The Biden administration is unlikely to meet its October deadline for revising policies like these because the Department of Education has not yet submitted the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review. It is appalling that they are not prioritizing this deadline, as the implementation of the rules could be postponed for another school year, leaving all students vulnerable.
I push for national change because I believe it is my job as a student advocate to tell our decision-makers that it is not their right to tell us how to feel. Rather, it is their responsibility to listen when we have the courage to speak up about what happened to us. As a national student-engagement organizer of Know Your IX, I empower student organizers across the country to champion issues related to consent, safety and justice on their
campuses. This work is vital in ensuring that students have the tools and support they need to create safer and more equitable educational environments in their communities across the U.S.
With every additional day that the Trump Administration’s rules remain, student survivors are left without the justice and support they so desperately need. Current high school and college students are learning in a world where an effective Title
IX does not exist. As a senior, I have witnessed a generation of student survivors failed by the institutions intended to protect them.
By taking a stand, we can ensure that Gunn protects its students, survivors and all those suffering in silence. Join the Title IX Club in our fight not just for a better future, but for a better now.
