The U.S. Department of Education announced that its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has reached an agreement with Wesley College in Dover over a case of sexual misconduct.
OCR determined that students accused of sexual misconduct had their Title IX rights violated by Wesley in the course of its investigation of the case.
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
“With this agreement, Wesley College undertakes a strong commitment to equitably address sexual violence and sexual harassment for all parties, including both accused students as well as accusers, consistent with the fairness mandate of Title IX,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights. “I look forward to continuing to work with Wesley College to support its efforts to ensure student safety, including through promoting processes all students can believe in to protect their rights.”
The probe was based on a complaint filed on behalf of an accused student asserting that Wesley failed to fully investigate a report of sexual misconduct against the accused student. The complaint alleged that the student was wrongly charged and expelled within seven days in April 2015, before his anticipated graduation. Three other students were also accused of the same conduct and received the same punishment.
OCR found that Wesley College violated Title IX by failing to provide accused students with essential procedural protections and also by not adhering to its safeguards provided for in its disciplinary policies and procedures.
OCR found that the accused student about whom the complaint was filed was not provided a full opportunity to respond to the charges, rebut the allegations, or defend himself at his hearing.
Under the resolution agreement, Wesley College agreed to take actions to remedy the Title IX violations,
A copy of the resolution agreement is posted here. And, a copy of the letter can be found here.
