OPINION: A step in the right direction

Jun. 28—Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972 — 50 years ago last week.

It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government.

Title IX was also pioneered by the first woman to be elected to Congress, Patsy Mink. To us, Title IX may seem like a given — something many of us expect to have — but Title IX has shaped how women and LGBTQ+ have been treated for years.

In the years that follow Title IX, many things changed for women. In 1973, the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade opinion that established the right to an abortion. Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the "The Battle of the Sexes" tennis exhibition match.

In 1974, The Women's Educational Equity Act provided grants and contracts to help with "nonsexist curricula," as well as to help institutions meet Title IX requirements.

In 1975, former President Gerald Ford signed Title IX athletics regulations, which gives athletic departments up to three years to implement new standards, after noting "it was the intent of Congress under any reason of interpretation to include athletics."

The Obama administration said transgender students at public schools should be allowed to use the bathroom or locker room that matches their gender identity. In 2016, the guidance was rescinded by the Trump administration.

In 2020, more protections focusing on sexual harassment were added.

We are still seeing changes of Title IX today.

President Joe Biden shared earlier this week he plans to reinstate some Title IX policy that was removed during the Trump administration. These protections would combat sexual discrimination by boosting victim protections and modifying language to include sexual orientation and gender identity for LGBTQ+ students.

"Over the last fifty years, our nation has made monumental progress in advancing equity and equality for all students, including by narrowing gender gaps in sports, expanding opportunities in science and technology fields, and protecting students from sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment and sexual violence," Biden said in a White House statement.

"This is what America is all about: possibilities. Millions of women and girls have benefited from the change that Title IX helped make possible," he added.

Sometimes Title IX fails us.

At Penn State, assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky abused boys for years — and was further enabled by legendary head coach Joe Paterno and other university power brokers who violated Title IX by failing to report the abuse for more than a decade.

Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse on June 22, 2012, and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.

At Michigan State University, Larry Nassar began sexually abusing children and undergraduates on campus in the 1990s, but university officials ignored multiple students' reports of abuse, allowing him to abuse over 500 athletes. For 18 years, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team, which gave him access to hundreds of girls and young women whom he sexually abused.

Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on Dec. 7, 2017, after pleading guilty to child pornography and tampering with evidence charges on July 11, 2017. On January 24, 2018, Nassar was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty in Ingham County to seven counts of sexual assault of minors.

On Feb. 5, 2018, he was sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in Michigan State prison after he plead guilty to an additional three counts of sexual assault in Eaton County.

Even when it comes to sports, the gap between women's and men's sports is still large.

According to a report from the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), just 60% of girls compete in high school sports compared to 75% of boys. This gap continues to the collegiate level, as 86% of NCAA schools are not offering opportunities proportionate to their enrollment — meaning some female student athletes are not receiving the same amount of scholarships as their male peers.

Title IX only benefits the people it is supposed to protect if it is followed.

Title IX is able to strip funding from institutions that violated the policies — but that has never happened.

One thing that I have noticed in my experience reporting on Title IX is that even when violations are found, many still go on to work at other institutions. What is the point in having these protections if we are allowing these same people to go and potentially cause the same harms somewhere else?

Whether it is preventing a victim of sexual assault from being supported, or limiting young women's access to sports; there needs to be more enforcement. Title IX only works if it is enforced.