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The San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s response to a student’s report of sexual assault and stalking “violated Title IX at every stage” and was “deliberately indifferent,” the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found in its investigation of the private college.
The conservatory agreed to overhaul its Title IX policies as a part of an agreement with the department to resolve the investigation. The college also will reimburse the student who made the report up to $5,000 for health-related costs and allow her to retake for free any class in which her grade was negatively affected due to the college’s response.
The complainant said she was sexually assaulted twice and then stalked by another student at the conservatory. The college’s Title IX office didn’t provide her with supportive measures or act when the student she accused violated an active avoidance order.
As a result, the student told OCR, she had to miss required concerts, classes and lessons as well as postpone a final exam.
Under the terms of the agreement, the college will have to take steps to protect the student who reported the assault while she is on the conservatory’s campus. That includes issuing an order prohibiting the other student from being present on campus. The agreement also requires the college to give OCR information about complaints of sexual harassment during the academic years beginning in 2021–22 and how it responded to them.
“This resolution agreement with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music addresses its multiple failures to respond to alleged sexual assault and stalking as Title IX requires,” Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. “Today’s agreement commits the Conservatory to comply with Title IX to protect all its students in the future.”
