Sexual Respect-Sexual Misconduct

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.

Understanding Sexual Respect

The College encourages a respectful academic and work environment. See Board Policies on Institutional Integrity- Global Directions and Harassment. Sexual respect is demonstrated by conduct and words that acknowledge each person as a sexual being and honors each person’s independent will as equal to the will of others, and greater than the will of others in all matters involving that person’s body.

Understanding Sexual Misconduct

The College has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct. Confirmed violations of this policy may result in sanctions against students or discipline of employees. College imposed sanctions or discipline does not relieve the accused of possible criminal or civil liabilities from outside the college.

Sexual Misconduct offenses include:

• sexual harassment;
• sexual assault or attempts to commit sexual assault;
• domestic violence/dating violence/intimate partner violence;
• sexual exploitation;
• stalking.

The College prohibits all forms of sexual misconduct by College students, employees or guests on College property or at College sponsored events, or, regardless of where the misconduct occurs, when both parties are members of the College community.

The following sections define conduct prohibited by the College under this policy.

Understanding Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Sex discrimination is the adverse treatment of an individual based on sex or gender, rather than individual merit. Sex discrimination may include abusive or harassing behavior, whether verbal or physical, that demeans or intimidates another individual because of sex, gender identity, or gender expression.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome, gender-based, verbal or physical conduct that is:

• sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with, denies or limits someone’s ability to participate in or benefit from the college’s educational program and/or activities in the workplace; and is:
• based on power differentials (quid pro quo), the creation of a hostile environment, or retaliation.

Understanding Sexual Assault.

Sexual assault includes non-consensual sexual contact up to and including rape, which is non-consensual sexual penetration.

Non-consensual sexual contact is:

• Any intentional sexual touch,
• However slight,
• With any object,
• By a man or a women upon a man or a woman,
• That is without consent and/or by force.

Non-consensual sexual intercourse is rape, defined as:

• Any sexual intercourse,
• However slight,
• With any object,
• By a man or a woman upon a man or a woman
• That is without consent or by force.

Domestic Violence is:

• violent misdemeanor or felony, violence committed by a person who is:
  • the current or former spouse, or
  • current or former cohabitant, or
  • person similarly situated under domestic or family violence law, or anyone else protected under domestic or family violence law.

Students are deemed to be cohabiting when they share access to the same private living space or bathroom.

Dating Violence is:

• violence by a person who has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.

The existence of such a relationship is based on consideration of:

• The length of the relationship;
• The type of the relationship; and
• The frequency of interaction between the people involved in the relationship.

Sexual Exploitation occurs when a person takes non-consensual or abusive sexual advantage of another for their own advantage or benefit, or to the benefit or advantage of anyone other than the one being exploited, and that behavior does not otherwise constitute one of other sexual misconduct offenses.

Stalking means a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for her, his, or others' safety, or to 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
• ASLCC (Associated Students of Lane Community College) 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.