Faculty and Staff
According to Title IX, a "responsible employee" is an employee:
- Who has the authority to take action to redress sexual harassment/violence, or
- Who has been given the duty of reporting incidents of sexual harassment/violence or any other misconduct by students to the Title IX Coordinator or other appropriate school designee, or
- That a student/employee could reasonably believe has either the authority or the duty listed above.
At NCSSM, all adults are considered to be responsible employees and must report all incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence to the Title IX Coordinator. It is reasonable that a high school student and their legal guardians would assume that all adults on campus have both the duty and authority to report a minor experiencing sexual harassment and sexual violence.
Faculty and staff may be asked to make accommodations for students involved in a Title IX incident. Information about the incident will be shared on a need to know basis which means that the faculty and staff member will not be made aware of details of the incident. Accommodations will be handled through the Title IX Coordinator and the appropriate faculty and staff members. If a faculty member is asked to make an academic accommodation, the Dean of their department will be made aware of the request.
Accommodations may include but are not limited to the following:
- students not assigned to the same pod
- students alternate attending class with some sessions recorded for the student not attending
- scheduled use of campus facilities like the cafeteria, library, and PEC
- no contact orders between students
- students switching sections of a class
- residence hall room changes
- underloads
A student does not need to make a formal report resulting in a Code of Conduct investigation to ask for accommodations. If a student does not want to pursue a discipline charge and there is not evidence of on-going risk to other community that requires further investigation, they can still request an accommodation. Sometimes students do not want the respondent to be aware that they reported the incident at all so accommodations can also occur without a respondent being aware. The complainant does need to speak to the Title IX Coordinator in order to access accommodations.
Clinic and Counseling Staff are exceptions to the responsible employee reporting policy. If a student discloses sexual harassment or sexual violence to clinic and counseling staff, those staff and faculty members must assess the risk to the community and their other professional reporting obligations and decide if they need to report to the Title IX Coordinator. It is appropriate to refer or bring students to their counselor if they need additional support after they report an incident to a responsible employee but that employee is still required to report the incident to the Title IX Coordinator. Reporting to a counselor does not fulfill responsible employees' reporting obligation.