Sexual Respect-Sexual Misconduct

Prohibition of Harassment

Lane Community College is committed to providing an academic and work environment free of unlawful harassment. This procedure defines sexual harassment and other forms of harassment on campus, and sets forth a procedures for the investigation and resolution of complaints of harassment by or against any staff or faculty member or student within LCC.

This procedure and the related policy and procedures protects students, employees, unpaid interns, and volunteers in connection with all the academic, educational, extracurricular, athletic, and other programs of LCC, whether those programs take place in LCC’s facilities, an LCC bus, or at a class or training program sponsored by LCC at another location.

Sanctions

Student Sanctions: Sanctions may be imposed upon any student found to have violated this policy under the Student Code of Conduct. Students will have due process protection under the Code of Conduct procedures.

Staff Discipline: Any employee of Lane Community College who violates this policy is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment. Staff will have due process and just cause protection under applicable contracts and working agreements.

Definitions

General Harassment: Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. Harassment becomes unlawful where enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment or the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. Harassment shall be found where, in aggregate, the incidents are sufficiently pervasive, persistent, or severe that a reasonable person with the same characteristics as the victim of the harassing conduct would be adversely affected to a degree that interferes with his/her/their ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment, or resource.

For sexual harassment under Title IX, complaints must proceed under Title IX procedures. For other forms of sexual harassment or gender-based harassment, Complainants should use this procedure.

Gender-based harassment does not necessarily involve conduct that is sexual. Any hostile or offensive conduct based on gender can constitute prohibited harassment if it meets the definition above. For example, repeated derisive comments about a person’s competency to do the job, when based on that person’s gender, could constitute gender-based harassment. Harassment comes in many forms, including but not limited to the following conduct that could, depending on the circumstances, meet the definition above, or could contribute to a set of circumstances that meets the definition:

Verbal: Inappropriate or offensive remarks, slurs, jokes or innuendoes based on a person’s race gender, sexual orientation, or other protected status. This may include, but is not limited to, inappropriate comments regarding an individual's body, physical appearance, attire, sexual prowess, marital status or sexual orientation; unwelcome flirting or propositions; demands for sexual favors; verbal abuse, threats or intimidation; or sexist, patronizing or ridiculing statements that convey derogatory attitudes based on gender, race nationality, sexual orientation or other protected status.

Physical: Inappropriate or offensive touching, assault, or physical interference with free movement. This may include, but is not limited to, kissing, patting, lingering or intimate touches, grabbing, pinching, leering, staring, unnecessarily brushing against or blocking another person, whistling or sexual gestures. It also includes any physical assault or intimidation directed at an individual due to that person’s gender, race, national origin, sexual orientation or other protected status. Physical sexual harassment includes acts of sexual violence, such as rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, and sexual coercion. Sexual violence refers to physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent due to the victim’s use of drugs or alcohol. An individual also may be unable to give consent due to an intellectual or other disability.

Visual or Written: The display or circulation of visual or written material that degrades an individual or group based on gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation, or other protected status. This may include, but is not limited to, posters, cartoons, drawings, graffiti, reading materials, computer graphics, or electronic media transmissions.

Environmental: A hostile academic or work environment may exist where it is permeated by sexual innuendo; insults or abusive comments directed at an individual or group based on gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation or other protected status; or gratuitous comments regarding gender, race, sexual orientation, or other protected status that are not relevant to the subject matter of the class or activities on the job. A hostile environment can arise from an unwarranted focus on sexual topics or sexually suggestive statements in the classroom or work environment. It can also be created by an unwarranted focus on, or stereotyping of, particular racial or ethnic groups, sexual orientations, genders or other protected statuses. An environment may also be hostile toward anyone who merely witnesses unlawful harassment in his/her immediate surroundings, although the conduct is directed at others. The determination of whether an environment is hostile is based on the totality of the circumstances, including such factors as the frequency of the conduct, the severity of the conduct, whether the conduct is humiliating or physically threatening, and whether the conduct unreasonably interferes with an individual's learning or work.

Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where such conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive that it has the effect, intended or unintended, of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or it has created an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment and would have such an effect on a reasonable person.

This definition encompasses two kinds of sexual harassment:

"Quid pro quo" sexual harassment occurs when a person in a position of authority makes educational or employment benefits conditional upon an individual's willingness to engage in or tolerate unwanted sexual conduct.

"Hostile environment" sexual harassment occurs when unwelcome conduct based on a person’s gender is sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of an individual's learning or work environment, unreasonably interfere with an individual's academic or work performance, or create an intimidating, hostile, or abusive learning or work environment. The victim must subjectively perceive the environment as hostile, and the harassment must be such that a reasonable person of the same gender would perceive the environment as hostile. A single or isolated incident of sexual harassment may be sufficient to create a hostile environment if it is severe, i.e. a sexual assault.

Sexually harassing conduct can occur between people of the same or different genders. The standard for determining whether conduct constitutes sexual harassment is whether a reasonable person of the same gender as the victim would perceive the conduct as harassment based on sex.

Sexual Assault: Sexual assault means unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that is inflicted upon a person or compelled through the use of physical force, manipulation, threat or intimidation.

Workplace Harassment: Workplace harassment means conduct that constitutes discrimination prohibited by ORS 659A.030, including conduct that constitutes sexual assault or that constitutes conduct prohibited by ORS 659A.082 or 659A.112.

Consensual Relationships

Romantic or sexual relationships between supervisors and employees, or between administrators, faculty members, or staff members and students are discouraged. There is an inherent imbalance of power and potential for exploitation in such relationships. A conflict of interest may arise if the administrator, faculty members or staff member must evaluate the student’s or employee’s work or make decisions affecting the employee or student. The relationship may create an appearance of impropriety and lead to charges of favoritism by other students or employees. A consensual sexual relationship may change, with the result that sexual conduct that was once welcome becomes unwelcome and harassing. In the event that such relationships do occur, LCC has the authority to transfer any involved employee to eliminate or attenuate the supervisory authority of one over the other, or of a teacher over a student. Such action by LCC is a proactive and preventive measure to avoid possible charges of harassment and does not constitute discipline against any affected employee.

Academic Freedom

No provision of this Administrative Procedure shall be interpreted to prohibit conduct that is legitimately related to the course content, teaching methods, scholarship, or public commentary of an individual faculty member or the educational, political, artistic, or literary expression of students in classrooms and public forums. Freedom of speech and academic freedom are, however, not limitless and this procedure will not protect speech or expressive conduct that violates federal or State anti-discrimination laws.

Sexual Harassment under Title IX: Conduct that satisfies one or more of the following:

• An LCC employee conditions the provision of an aid, benefit, or service of LCC on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct (quid pro quo harassment);
• Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to LCC’s education program or activity;
• Sexual assault, including the following:
  • Sex Offenses. Any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.
  • Rape (except Statutory Rape). The carnal knowledge of a person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her/their age or because of his/her/their temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. There is carnal knowledge if there is the slightest penetration of the genital or anal opening of the body of another person.
  • Sodomy. Oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her/their age or because of his/her/their temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
  • Sexual Assault with an Object. To use an object or instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her/their age or because of his/her/their temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. An "object" or "instrument" is anything the offender uses other than the offender's genitalia, e.g., a finger, bottle, handgun, stick.
  • Fondling. The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her/their age or because of his/her/their temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
  • Sex Offenses, Non-Forcible Unlawful, Non-Forcible Sexual Intercourse.
    • Incest. Non-Forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
    • Statutory Rape – Non-Forcible. Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent. There is no force or coercion used in Statutory Rape; the act is not an attack.
  • Dating violence. Violence against a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. The existence of a relationship will be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
  • Domestic Violence. Violence committed:
    • By a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim;
    • By a person with whom the victim shares a child in common;
    • By a person who is cohabitating with, or has cohabitated with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner;
    • By a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of Oregon or
    • By any other person against an adult or youth victim protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of Oregon
  • Stalking. Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for his/her/their safety or the safety of others or suffer substantial emotional distress.

Understanding Force

Force is the use of physical violence and/or imposing on someone physically to gain sexual access. Force also includes threats, intimidation (implied threats), and coercion that overcome resistance or produce consent.

Coercion is unreasonable pressure for sexual activity. Coercive behavior differs from seductive behavior based on the type of pressure someone uses to get consent from another. When someone makes clear to you they do not want sex, they want to stop, or they do not want to go past a certain point of sexual interaction, continued pressure beyond that point can be considered coercive.

• NOTE: There is no requirement that a party resists the sexual advance or request, but resistance is a clear demonstration of non-consent. The absence of resistance is not conclusive that force was not used.
• In order to give effective consent, one must be of legal age.
• Sexual activity with someone who one should know to be, or based on the circumstances should reasonably have known to be, mentally or physically incapacitated (by alcohol or other drug use, unconsciousness or blackout), constitutes a violation of this procedure.
  • Incapacitation is a state in which someone cannot make rational, reasonable decisions because they lack the capacity to give knowing consent (e.g., to understand the “who, what, when, where, why or how” of their sexual interaction).
  • This procedure also covers a person whose incapacity results from mental disability, sleep, involuntary physical restraint, or from the taking of rape drugs. Possession, use and/or distribution of any of these substances, including Rohypnol, Ketamine, GHB, Burundanga, is prohibited, and administering one of these drugs to another student is a violation of this procedure. More information on these drugs can be found at 911 Rape Information.
• Use of alcohol or other drugs is not a defense for any behavior that violates this procedure.
• The sexual orientation and/or gender identity of individuals engaging in sexual activity is not relevant to allegations under this procedure.

Understanding Consent

In reviewing possible violations of sexual misconduct, the College considers consent as the voluntary, informed, uncoerced agreement through words and actions freely given, which a reasonable person would interpret as a willingness to participate in mutually agreed-upon sexual acts. Consensual sexual activity happens when each partner willingly and affirmatively chooses to participate.

Indications that consent is not present include: when physical force is used or there is a reasonable belief of the threat of physical force; when duress is present; when one person overcomes the physical limitations of another person; and when a person is incapable of making an intentional decision to participate in a sexual act, which could include instances in which the person is in a state of incapacitation.

Important principles regarding consent:

• Consent to one act does not constitute consent to another act.
• Consent on a prior occasion does not constitute consent on a subsequent occasion.
• The existence of a prior or current relationship does not, in itself, constitute consent.
• Consent can be withdrawn or modified at any time.
• Consent is not implicit in a person’s manner of dress.
• Accepting a meal, a gift, or an invitation for a date does not imply or constitute consent.
• Silence, passivity, or lack of resistance does not necessarily constitute consent.
• Initiation by someone who a reasonable person knows or should have known to be deemed incapacitated is not consent.

In the context of this policy, incapacitation is the state in which a person’s perception or judgment is so impaired that they lack the cognitive capacity to make or act on conscious decisions. The use of drugs or alcohol can cause incapacitation. An individual who is incapacitated is unable to consent to a sexual activity. Engaging in sexual activity with an individual who is incapacitated (and therefore unable to consent), where a person knows or ought reasonably to have understood the individual is incapacitated, constitutes sexual misconduct.

Promoting awareness of and prevention of sexual misconduct.

The College is committed to a comprehensive educational and training program to promote awareness of and prevent sex discrimination, including sexual misconduct.

• Training is available to all employees and students. The following trainings are available in-person and online:
  • Not Anymore for student online education and prevention program.
  • Public Safety offers a variety of trainings and workshops throughout the year. For more information refer to Public Safety’s Sexual Misconduct and Stalking Procedure
  • Lane TASK Bystander Intervention Program
• Lane SGA (Lane Student Government Association) is a student government association that is committed to working with students to create a learning climate that is welcoming to all students.
• Lane Community College students engage with other college/university students in and around Eugene through the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Coalition. We have collaborated with other institutions and agencies for the Coalition to provide community-wide training, prevention, and response to Gender-Based Sexual Misconduct.