Title IX Wrongful Termination + Retaliation Attorney

Teachers, professors, and other faculty members at schools across the nation fall under the protections of Title IX.  This law protects students and school employees from discrimination based on sex, which can extend to employment discrimination and wrongful termination of faculty.  One of Title IX’s protections is that it also makes it illegal to retaliate against someone who files a sex discrimination claim.

If you were given harder work duties or were otherwise punished at a school or university job because of a Title IX claim you filed, contact The Law Office of Andrew Shubin today.  Our Title IX wrongful termination and retaliation attorney might be able to help you file a Title IX claim to get reinstatement, compensation, or other forms of relief for your wrongful termination and retaliation claim.  Call us at (814) 826-3586 to schedule a free case consultation.

When Does Title IX Apply to Wrongful Firing and Retaliation Claims?

Title IX governs all schools that receive public funding in the United States.  That covers K-12 schools as well as college, and it also covers both private and public schools.  This law also applies to other educational institutions, such as museums and libraries.

Title IX specifically covers sex discrimination cases.  This is generally taken to mean discrimination that involves treating a man differently than a woman.  However, Obama-era interpretations often used this to cover gender-based discrimination, which would apply to trans teachers and faculty members, too.  Supreme Court cases like Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989) have also held that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender stereotyping.

If adverse employment decisions were made against you based on your sex, Title IX should cover the case.  This can include disciplinary measures or discrimination short of wrongful termination and wrongful termination itself.

Examples of Retaliation in School Employment Sex Discrimination Claims

If you filed a Title IX complaint or made other complaints about sex discrimination, it might be illegal for your school to take adverse employment action against you.  In egregious cases, repeat complaints could even result in your termination.  Adverse employment decisions like this often count as retaliation if they are in response to your prior Title IX complaint.

Schools often find tricky ways to retaliate against employees for complaints.  Assigning you additional work tasks or refusing to allow you to take a post might be a subtle way of affecting your employment without outright, obvious action against you.  The following are all examples of adverse decisions that might be made in retaliation against an employee after sex discrimination complaints:

• Termination
• Denial of tenure
• Removal from boards, committees, or other faculty positions
• Removal from certain classes or curriculums
• Denial of research funding
• Moved offices or classrooms
• Other inconveniences or punishments

In many cases, schools and universities will try to claim that a penalty or punishment was unrelated to the Title IX complaint.  In many cases, this pretext is easy to see through.  If there was long-term evidence of the same issue or problem they claimed to discipline you for, but the administration never acted on it until after you filed your discrimination claim, their motives can be called into question.  Often, it becomes obvious that the school was merely using this as a neutral excuse to punish you, and courts may treat this as retaliation as well.

Suing for Wrongful Termination as Retaliation in Title IX Employment Cases

Wrongful termination is often one of the most serious forms of retaliation that teachers, professors, and other faculty face for filing complaints.  It is well within your rights not to stand for sex discrimination against you at work.  In education, where Title IX was specifically written to level the playing field, it is especially egregious.  However, many schools and universities would rather put their teachers and professors out of work than admit that what they did was wrong or have their reputation hurt.

If you were fired because you filed a Title IX complaint about sex discrimination, sexual assault, or sexual harassment at your school, you could be entitled to protections.  This kind of retaliation usually allows you to seek justice through two routes.  If you already filed a Title IX complaint, and that is what led to your wrongful termination, you might already be familiar with these options.  First, you could file a claim with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR); second, you could file a claim in court.

Complaints with the OCR often lead to investigations and administrative penalties.  Title IX violations and retaliation claims with the OCR can lead to significant penalties and help reform a school’s behavior and processes to prevent future Title IX discrimination.

On the other hand, lawsuits often have additional tools to help the victim directly.  If you file a lawsuit against your school for wrongful termination based on retaliation for a Title IX complaint, you might be entitled to economic relief and other forms of relief.  First, you could be entitled to lost wages.  These can cover any interruptions in pay while you looked for a new job as well as any differences in pay if you had to take a lower-paying job.  Second, you could be entitled to punitive damages.  Schools that retaliate against employees for Title IX complaints should be held accountable and be made to pay additional damages as a penalty.  Lastly, in some cases, reinstatement is appropriate.  This could entitle you to get your old position back, which could be especially helpful in resuming your career.

Call Our Title IX Employment Retaliation and Wrongful Termination Lawyers

Whether you faced wrongful termination or another form of retaliation after filing a Title IX discrimination case against your school or university, our lawyers might be able to help.  The Law Office of Andrew Shubin’s Title IX wrongful termination and retaliation attorney represents teachers, professors, and other faculty at educational institutions who were victims of Title IX violations or retaliation, including wrongful termination.  For a free legal consultation on your case, call our law office today at (814) 826-3586.