Hello everyone:
Welcome to the third in our series of focused discussions on EDEQUITY. Today we
begin our week-long Dialogue on Sexual Harassment and Title IX which will focus
on the current state of the law, the prevalence of the problem, successful
strategies schools can adopt to combat sexual harassment, and federal
enforcement and prevention efforts.
We are pleased to announce an addition to the panel of experts for the dialogue:
Mary Jo McGrath, Attorney at Law, President and Founder, McGrath Systems, Inc.
and Chair, U.S. Department of Education, Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools
Expert Panel.
Ms. McGrath has been a practicing attorney for over twenty years, specializing
in employee performance issues and legal mandates in the workplace. Her
training company, McGrath Systems, Inc., produces the highly acclaimed
educational video series for schools, "Sexual Harassment: Minimize the Risk" and
"Show and Tell: From Playground Bully to Sexual Harasser." Ms. McGrath has
delivered workshops on the subjects of sexual harassment awareness and
investigation and administrator accountability/teacher evaluation to over 60,000
school administrators in the U.S. She joins our previously announced panelists:
* Yolanda Wu, a staff attorney at NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where
she works in the areas of sexual harassment in the workplace and schools,
reproductive rights, and economic justice. She was one of the lawyers
representing Jane Doe in Doe v. Petaluma City School District, the first federal
court decision recognizing a claim for peer sexual harassment. Ms. Wu is a
member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, the National Coalition
for Sex Equity in Education, and sits on the Civil Rights Committee of the
Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Policy and Advisory
Committee of the Title IX Advocacy Project in Boston. Please note that Ms. Wu
will be participating only on Thursday, February 11 and Friday, February 12.
* Eleanor Linn, senior associate director, Programs for Educational Opportunity,
University of Michigan (the Region V Equity Assistance Center serving Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin). She has helped school
districts develop policies, complaint procedures, and staff, student, and parent
educational materials about sexual harassment. Ms. Linn served as senior
advisor to the American Association of University Women on "Hostile Hallways,"
the first national scientific survey on the prevalence of sexual harassment in
schools; and in 1998 prepared a report for the U.S. Department of Justice on the
effectiveness of existing programs and approaches for reducing sexual harassment
and sexual violence in schools. Ms. Linn taught in the Somerville,
Massachusetts school system for seven years, and was on the faculty of
Northeastern University.
* A representative from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil
Rights, the federal agency with responsibility for enforcing Title IX will be
joining us from February 10.
Separate e-mail messages will follow with the opening statement of each
panelist. To respond, simply hit "reply" to any of these messages and your
comments/questions will be distributed to the panelists and the EDEQUITY list as
usual. Messages will be posted throughout the day from today to Tuesday,
February 16. Final comments will be posted at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on
Tuesday, February 16 and the dialogue will officially close at 5 p.m.
Before we begin, a word about EDEQUITY's policy on subscriber conduct and a few
rules for the discussion.
First, remember that EDEQUITY is a public list and not everyone who subscribes
will necessarily have the same agenda. In fact, we have learned from previous
experience that some have subscribed to our list simply to disrupt the
discussion. Please be aware of this as you respond to messages. Usually the
best strategy is to ignore inflammatory, anti-equity statements.
Differences of opinion are expected, but all messages must be respectful and
civil. Abusive language will not be tolerated. Messages not meeting this
standard will be returned to the sender for revision.
To allow for broad participation from the members of the list and to ensure that
the panelists can respond to the concerns of as many list members as possible,
please limit your messages to TWO per DAY.
To help the flow of the discussion, indicate in the first line of your message
whether you would like a response from a particular panelist (s) or if you are
addressing your comment/question to the entire list.
Finally, let me remind you that we will post messages only on any topic of
sexual harassment and Title IX until the end of the day on Tuesday, February
16th. We will resume posting other EDEQUITY messages on the morning of
Wednesday, February 17.
We look forward to your thoughtful participation.
Susan
Susan J. Smith
EDEQUITY Moderator
<edequity-admin@mail.edc.org>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:14:10 EDT