Title IX penalties for sexual misconduct can severely damage your education as well as your career. If you’re found guilty of sexual misconduct under Title IX in California, your school has the right to impose a suitable sanction as a penalty.

The schools determine the sanctions against a student based on several reasons. The severity of the incident plays a vital role in deciding the penalties. The school also checks for other violations on the student’s disciplinary record. Intimidating the complainant or witnesses during the investigative process comes under retaliation and is illegal by law. If the accused student is found doing this, it can worsen the sanctions. 

Penalties for Title IX sexual misconduct: 

These are the following penalties applied by the schools if a student is charged with sexual misconduct:

• A written warning from the school is given to the accused student. 
• The accused student is barred from using campus facilities. They may also lose university-provided housing. 
• The student is put on disciplinary probation.
• The student may be required to participate in campus community service.
• Mandatory counseling of the accused student.
• Temporary school suspension or expulsion.

Suspension or expulsion is the most common sanction used by schools to punish students responsible for sexual misconduct.

A suspension given by the school, in this case, could last anywhere from one semester to years. The student charged with misconduct may not be allowed to return until the accuser has graduated. Other than that, expulsion also takes place in a lot of cases. An expulsion is a traumatic experience that has several secondary effects.

Leaving campus due to sanctions can negatively impact the student’s education. Any credits earned during the semester or in previous years would be lost. The student might end up forfeiting any payments made for tuition. This also makes the procedure of appealing the sanctions against them even more challenging.

If a student is expelled from any of California’s state system schools, the student is ineligible to enroll at any other school in the state. Schools may also add a mark in the transcript mentioning the nature of the student’s offense. This will complicate the process of enrolling in schools anywhere else. The student’s academic career could be completely over.

Nevertheless, even if the student is not expelled, a Title IX charge might get the financial aid canceled. It makes it hard to seek internships as well. A student’s chances of getting accepted into graduate school also get damaged. It can also deprive the student of getting a job after college.