The American Bar Association has handed down sanctions relating to sexual harassment and gender discrimination at The Thurgood Marshall School of Law at historically Black Texas Southern University in Houston. An ABA investigative committee visited the campus and heard complaints relating to sexual harassment and gender discrimination and determined that the law school was not meeting the standards set by the ABA.
The law school appealed the decision. But the ABA recently released its findings. The school must pay $15,000 and submit a plan to reduce sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the law school by this October.
James M. Douglas, interim dean of the law school, told the Houston Chronicle, that they had not discovered any incidents of gender discrimination. However, he said that “because there have been a number of allegations, it means we have to deal with the environment that creates those perceptions. If somebody says, ‘I feel I’m in a hostile environment,’ and you look into the facts, and the conclusion is that there is no hostile environment, it doesn’t relieve that person of their belief. Somehow you have to deal with those beliefs.”
