Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policies and Procedures

Relevant Excerpt

Unlawful harassment is conduct that creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile working or academic environment, or that interferes with work or academic performance based on a person’s protected status, including race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex (which includes harassment based on gender, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, family care leave status, or other status protected by anti-discrimination and anti-harassment statutes, such as Titles VII or IX of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Such harassment can be physical, verbal, or visual. Harassment can be committed by employers, coworkers, fellow students, and third parties. Generally, statements and/or conduct legitimately and reasonably related to the College’s mission of education do not constitute harassment.

To count as harassment under this policy, such conduct must:

• be based upon one or more of the categories mentioned above;
• be offensive to the individual complaining of harassment and offensive to a reasonable person; and
• be so persistent, repetitive, pervasive, or severe that it has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s academic or professional performance or creating an intimidating, abusive or hostile educational, employment or living environment at the College.

Harassment may also occur when submission to conduct described above is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, education, living environment at the College, or participation in a College activity.

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One form of unlawful harassment is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment may be either “quid pro quo” harassment ... or “environmental” harassment, where the individual is subjected to a hostile or intimidating environment, in which verbal or physical conduct, because of its severity and/or persistence, is likely to interfere with an individual’s work or education, or to affect adversely an individual’s living conditions. Occasional compliments that are generally accepted as not offensive or other generally accepted social behavior, on the other hand, do not constitute sexual harassment. Sexually harassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire.

Examples of sexual harassment may include such conduct as: ...

• Direct propositions of a sexual nature; ...
• A pattern of conduct that would discomfort or humiliate, or both, a reasonable person at whom the conduct was directed that includes one or more of the following: (1) unnecessary touching, patting, hugging, or brushing against a person’s body; (2) remarks of a sexual nature about a person’s clothing or body, whether or not intended to be complimentary; (3) remarks about sexual activity or speculations about previous sexual experience; or (4) other comments of a sexual nature, including sexually explicit statements, questions, jokes or anecdotes;
• Certain visual displays of sexually-oriented images outside the educational context;