The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today
announced the release of a report titled
Peer-to-Peer Violence and Bullying: Examining the Federal Response. The report develops recommendations to further address the problem of bullying and harassment based on sex, race, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, and religion in public K-12 schools. One of the issues addressed is the extent to which Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act reaches bullying based on religion. The report says:
Although Title VI does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, it does forbid discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Both ED [U.S. Department of Education] and DOJ [Department of Justice] have taken the position that Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, regardless of whether those groups share a common faith....
Although ED enforces Title VI with respect to harassment of members of religious groups based on their shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, Title VI itself leaves a hole in ED‘s enforcement. That is, Title VI does not protect against harassment of students based solely on their religious faith, nor does it protect against harassment of students who belong to religious groups that do not have shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. As a result, ED cannot protect students from the ―peculiar harms created by religious bigotry. Furthermore, under current law, religious groups with shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics receive certain protections that religious groups without shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics do not receive; and would-be discriminators can evade Title VI
liability by claiming that students harass based solely on religious bigotry.
Advocates urge Congress to close this ―loophole by passing legislation that protects against harassment of students based on their religion.
Extensive testimony and background materials are
also available on the Civil Rights Commission's website.
