non-discrimination

The Woodside School District desires to provide a safe school environment that allows all students equal access and opportunities in the district's academic and other educational support programs, services, and activities. The District prohibits, at any District school or school activity, unlawful discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, intimidation, and bullying of any student based on the student's actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, nationality, ethnicity, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristic (see in our board policies for complete policy language).

Any student who feels that he/she has been subjected to unlawful discrimination described above or in district policy is strongly encouraged to immediately contact the compliance officer, principal, or any other staff member. In addition, any student who observes any such incident is strongly encouraged to report the incident to the compliance officer or principal, whether or not the alleged victim files a complaint (see in our board policies for complete policy language).

The following staff member has been designated as the District's Title IX & Uniform Complaint Procedure Coordinator and handles inquiries regarding issues related to EDUHSD non-discrimination policies:

Steve Frank, Superintendent
Woodside School District
sfrank@woodsideschool.us

Title IX
Pursuant to Federal Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”), implemented at 34 C.F.R. § 106.31, subd. (a), each MPCSD student and employee has a right to learn and work in an environment that is safe, free from unlawful discrimination and is treated equally and fairly. Woodside Elementary School District (WESD) is committed to providing a workplace and educational environment free of sexual harassment and considers such harassment to be a major offense, which may result in disciplinary action. This policy is inclusive of instances that occur while the following: on any school campus; at school-sponsored events and activities, regardless of location; through school-owned technology; and through other electronic means. In May of 2020, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued new Title IX regulations.  The new regulations describe what constitutes sexual harassment under Title IX, what triggers a school's legal obligation to respond, and how a school must respond.

The new regulations include:
  1. a specific definition of sexual harassment,
  2. specific items that must be included in the notice of a grievance process once a complaint is filed, and
  3. delineated steps and considerations that must be included in any investigation.
Further, in order to maintain compliance with Title IX, schools are required to respond to a sexual harassment complaint “without deliberate indifference”. A school is deliberately indifferent only if its response to sexual harassment is clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.
 
Sexual harassment is now officially defined as behavior on the basis of sex that is one or more of the following types of behavior: 
  1. A school employee conditioning provision of aid, benefit or service upon a person’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct, a.k.a. quid pro quo; or
  2. Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person, to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school’s educational program or activity; or
  3. Sexual assault, (an offense classified as a forcible or nonforcible sex offense under the uniform crime reporting system of the FBI), dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking
Summary of the new Title IX procedures.
Title IX Board Policies
  
Title IX Coordinator
        Every school or school district that receives federal funding (which includes almost all colleges and universities, as well as public elementary, middle, and secondary schools) is required to designate and/or adequately train at least one employee to coordinate the recipient's Title IX responsibilities.  Title IX regulations also require that the name(s) and contact information of each Title IX coordinator be made public by the educational institution.
Steve Frank
Title IX Coordinator &
Superintendent of Woodside Elementary School District
3195 Woodside Rd., Woodside CA 94062
sfrank@woodsideschool.us