Removing Camouflaged Barriers to Equality: Overcoming Systemic Sexual Assault and Harassment at the Military Academies
The Education Amendments of 1972 introduced requirements to protect female students from discriminatory policies at post secondary institutions. A portion of those amendments, commonly known as Title IX, require that no students be subjected to discrimination based on their sex by any educational institution or activity receiving federal financial assistance. An exemption under SS 1681(a)(4) however, explicitly prohibits application of Title IX to any educational institution whose primary purpose is to train individuals for military service or the merchant marine. Although those students are still subject to stringent conduct standards, the service academies themselves are tethered to sex discrimination policies only by their goodwill, reputation, and the boundaries of the Constitution. Answering only to the Department of Defense (or Transportation, in the case of the United States Merchant Marine Academy) does not hold these institutions accountable to their students or to the American public. The academies' attempts at combatting this widespread problem have been ineffective, and they continue to perpetuate a culture of sexual violence. This Note proposes the removal of exemption language from Title IX, or, alternatively, insists that the academies comply with mandatory reporting requirements under the Clery Act.