Real Stories: Wills v. Brown University
Marketa Wills
Wills v. Brown University
Rhode Island
Marketa Wills, a student at Brown University, requested academic help from her chemistry professor. Upon her arrival, he shut his office door and asked Wills join him in prayer.
Several minutes later the teacher picked Wills up, put his arms around her waist and sat her on his lap. As he "prayed" about her problems, he fondled Wills multiple times during the hour and forty-five minutes she was in his office.
Wills complained to university authorities about the incident, but the school simply reprimanded the professor and placed him on probation, despite the school's official policy, which mandated suspension or dismissal of employees who sexually harass students.
Two months after the incident, the professor was given a raise.
Wills filed a suit against the school under Title IX, which makes it illegal for federally- funded education programs to discriminate on the basis of sex. Unfortunately, because of the Supreme Court’s decision in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent Schools, students who are victims of sexual harassment or sex discrimination must prove that the school had "actual knowledge" of the harassment and acted with "deliberate indifference" to the student's complaint in order for the student to recover effective remedies. Under the Gebser rule, it is now harder for students to recover effective remedies for sexual harassment under Title IX than it is for employees to recover under Title VII, thus leaving students less protected than adults against the same conduct. And, schools have a new incentive not to gain "actual knowledge" of sexual harassment against their students-- students like Marketa Wills.
