Make sure your child's school is doing all it should to prevent sexual harassment.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court granted parents who claimed that their child was sexually harassed by another student the right to sue their school district, which allegedly knew that the harassment was taking place and failed to take corrective action. The Court, in the case of Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (http://laws.findlaw.com/us/526/629.html) reasoned that obvious sexual harassment serious enough to cause a child's grades to plummet, or make her too scared to go the gym or walk in the hallways, denies that student the right to equal participation in school programs, in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

To understand what the Court decided and why it's important, a little background is in order. Title IX makes it illegal for any educational institution which receives federal funds -- from preschool to graduate school -- to discriminate on the basis of sex. If you've followed the growth of women's college athletic programs and the international success of U.S. women athletes, you know some of the good Title IX has wrought.

But Title IX doesn't just target sports. It is a general anti-discrimination in education law, prohibiting such things as gender-based pay differences, gender-based tenure decisions, and gender-based admission to special programs.

The significance of the Davis case is that for the first time the Supreme Court ruled Title IX requires a school district to stop serious sexual harassment by one student against another. And just as significant when it comes to encouraging schools to reign in sexual bullying, it permits parents to sue districts that don't take action for money damages. But because they have this new legal weapon, it will undoubtedly be much easier to get teachers and administrators to pay attention and take action when a child claims to be harassed.

What the Parents Claim Happened

In the Davis case, the Court was faced with a story of youthful bullying that would make any parent's blood boil. As part of deciding the legal issue, the Court assumed that the child's story was true -- there has as yet been no trial. The tale began when an eleven-year-old fifth grader complained that another kid repeatedly said sexually inappropriate things to her, such as: "I want to get in bed with you," touched her breasts and genital areas, chased her, and rubbed up against her in the hallways. The girl also said that even though she many times pleaded for help from her teachers and her principal, no action was taken. The result, her parents claimed, was that her ability to do school work and participate in school activities suffered and that she became so depressed she wrote a suicide note.

And it wasn't just the 11-year-old who complained. Her mother repeatedly attempted to get school officials to take action, with little or no result. In fact, it took more than three months of complaints before she was even able to get her daughter's seat changed so that she wasn't sitting next to the abusive boy. And not only was the boy never disciplined, when a group of other students got together and complained that he had also been harassing them, the teacher wouldn't even let their group see the principal.

Several important facts stand out when considering the insensitive treatment of the student.

• Although the school principal did meet with the harassed student's mother, instead of investigating, she claims that he asked her why no other students complained.
  
  
• Neither the school nor the school district had a policy covering what action teachers should take should students sexually harass each other.
  
  
• Teachers had been given no guidance or training on how to handle such behavior in the classroom.

Given this sorry story and coupled with the school's apparent indifference to what was claimed to be going on, the Supreme Court ruled that the mother's lawsuit could go forward. If she wins, she can demand that the district do something to protect her daughter and compensate her for the damages she suffered as a result of its inaction.

Controlling Harassment in the Schools

It's important to understand that the Supreme Court did not hold that a school district can be sued for ignoring run-of-the-mill schoolyard cruelty and teasing. Instead, it went to great lengths to make it clear that Title IX is only violated if a school district fails to take reasonable action against serious, long-term student-to-student sexual harassment that the district employees clearly knew about and could have taken reasonable steps to stop.

Here are several situations that won't normally qualify as serious enough upon which to base a lawsuit, even if the abusive conduct has sexual overtones:

• occasional teasing or name calling
• playground pushing and shoving, and
• a serious incident, such as a fight, that only happens once.