Recent Development by Montré D. Underwood
Frank Waldrop, a teacher at Lago Vista's high school, began making sexually suggestive comments to his student, Alida Star Gebser, in the spring of 1992 and had sexual intercourse with her during that semester, throughout the summer, and into the next school year. Gebser wanted Waldrop to continue being her teacher, but she did not know how to react with respect to her encounters with him outside the classroom. Gebser's misgivings, however, were soon compounded when the parents of two other students reacted to Waldrop's general classroom conduct and comments by complaining to the high school principal in October of 1992. Waldrop apologized to the parents and stated that the behavior would not happen again. Nevertheless, in January of 1993, a police officer discovered Waldrop having sexual intercourse with Gebser and arrested him.
Gebser and her mother sued the school board of Lago Vista in November of 1993, seeking to hold it liable for the sexual harassment of Gebser. Seeking compensatory and punitive damages, they asserted claims under Title IX and state negligence law. The case was removed from state court to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The district court reasoned that Congress had enacted Title IX to proscribe discriminatory policies in education programs supported by federal funds. Furthermore, the court found that school districts must fail to make a good faith response to notice of a discriminatory practice in order for it to be interpreted as the school district's policy. The district court then granted summary judgment in favor of Lago Vista on all of the claims against it and remanded the claims against Waldrop back to state court.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling. The Fifth Circuit refused to impose strict liability, constructive notice, or the common-law agency principles as a basis for liability against a school board for the sexual harassment of a student by a teacher. Moreover, the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed its prior holding that a school district will not be liable under Title IX for a teacher's sexual harassment of a student unless an employee, to whom the school district gave supervisory authority over the teacher, had actual knowledge of the discriminatory behavior and the power to end it, yet failed to take action. The United States Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court's decision, holding that absent an express provision by Congress, a school district will not be answerable in damages under Title IX for a teacher's sexual harassment of a student unless the school district actually knew of the harassment and acted with deliberate indifference. Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, 118 S. Ct. 1989, 2000 (1998).
About the Author
Montré D. Underwood.
Citation
73 Tul. L. Rev. 2181 (1999)