The University of Colorado filed a petition today for a rehearing with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding its September decision in a Title IX lawsuit brought by two former students.
Last month, the court reinstated the lawsuit from two women who say they were raped at a party for CU football recruits, as judges pointed toward sufficient evidence that the school failed to supervise visiting high school football stars.
The university maintains that the court’s decision conflicts with Supreme Court and 10th Circuit cases.
According to the brief, “The framework for evaluating an educational institution’s potential liability under Title IX has traditionally been narrowly drawn and precluded liability unless a Title IX recipient first had ‘actual knowledge’ of sexual harassment in programs and then exhibited ‘deliberate indifference’ to the known harassment.”
The court’s decision last month allowed potential liability without the necessity of finding that the university actually knew of prior harassment, the school said in a release.
The university also requests the rehearing on the grounds of the “exceptionally important questions” the case raises.
CU contends that under the court’s September decision, educational institutions of all levels are exposed to liability based upon the adequacy of their training, not whether they failed to respond to known harassment.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Baine Kerr could not be reached for comment this afternoon.
