Discrimination is unequal treatment of a person or a group of people based on their “protected class.” Your “protected class” is your:

• race, sex, color, national origin, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation, or status as a parent.

Discrimination stops you from being able to do something, have something, or enjoy something that other people get to do, have, or enjoy freely, because your protected class is different from theirs (your race, color, sex, religion, etc., is different from theirs).

Discrimination can make it hard for students to learn, employees to work, and any other beneficiary to have access to or enjoy the benefits of the DoDEA education or work experience, because they do not feel safe or accepted and/or are denied an equal chance to participate.

An Executive Order has the same power and force as a federal law passed by the U.S. Congress, but it is issued by the President. In 2000, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13160 requiring all federally-conducted education and training programs and activities to operate in a discrimination-free manner.

Discrimination is when one person is treated unequal from another based on their protected class, but not all unequal treatment is against the law.

1. Affirmative action programs: Some programs give extra help or advantage to a person because of their protected class to help make up for how people belonging to their protected class have been blocked from equal treatment in the past. This is called “affirmative action.” It is a form of “lawful” discrimination used to restore equal access to opportunity.
2. Minor acts: Sometimes, people don’t like or understand other people whose protected classes are different from their own. They end up saying or doing offensive things that are thoughtless, insensitive, insulting, or annoying. These are considered minor acts of “discriminatory harassment” that have superficial, transient impact and are resolved once the person is told to stop and they do. DoDEA’s conduct policy requires that everyone treat each other with respect, but federal law recognizes it would be impossible for DoDEA to guarantee you won’t ever experience annoyances, petty slights, or other minor acts motivated by discrimination. These minor offenses may be disciplined as a violation of DoDEA’s conduct rules, but such acts only become unlawful discrimination if they are so bad, or allowed to go on for so long, they create what is called a “hostile environment.”

DoDEA programs and activities include DoDEA schools, academic programs (including online and home schooling programs), sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities, counseling, special education programs or other supportive services, job skills training, scholarships, fellowships, internships, financial aid programs, summer enrichment or other special activity camps, teacher or other employee training, career enhancement programs, and any other programs or activities that DoDEA operates directly and/or is sponsored by DoDEA for the benefit of its students, employees, and other beneficiaries.

Harassment: Harassment, as that term is used in general, is when one person taunts, insults, teases, annoys, makes fun of, bullies, pinches, slaps, or touches, stalks, threatens, intimidates, undermines, gossips about, spreads false stories about, or just plain keeps picking on another person, even though they know the person doesn’t like it and has told them to stop.

Discriminatory Conduct/Harassment: Conduct is discriminatory when it is "unwelcome" and "offensive" based on a protected class. Harassment is “discriminatory harassment” when the reason one person is harassing another is based on that other person’s protected class. One of the most well-known types of discriminatory harassment is “sexual harassment” when conduct is based on sex or sexual orientation, but the term also includes being harassed because of your race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, or status as a parent (all of which is considered "discriminatory conduct").

Hostile Environment: A “hostile environment” is when discriminatory conduct/harassment gets so bad it is against federal civil rights law.

Minor offensive acts of discriminatory harassment, such as petty slights or annoying comments, are wrong and against DoDEA’s policy that we must treat each other with respect, but minor acts are not unlawful. They become unlawful when the harassment against you is so sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it makes you too angry, too hurt, too upset, or too afraid to focus on or enjoy what you’re doing at school or work, or makes you not want to come to school or to work, or makes it hard for you to participate in a program or activity, because you do not feel safe or welcome. When it gets this bad, it creates an unlawful “hostile environment.” Also, you don’t have to be the one being harassed to be in a hostile environment, because anyone else forced to witness it can be upset by it, too.

Discriminatory conduct/harassment that is so bad it creates a “hostile environment” is a tricky thing to explain. Being annoyed or upset by thoughtless, insensitive, or insulting minor acts or comments may be a violation of DoDEA’s conduct policy, but it is not necessarily enough to create what the law considers a “hostile environment.” There are four things that, when combined, create a hostile environment based on discriminatory conduct/harassment under the law:

FIRST: “Objectively Offensive” Behavior. The discriminatory behavior that you are complaining about has to be “objectively offensive,” based on the “Reasonable Person Standard.” This means that the behavior that you find offensive is the kind of thing that any reasonable person who was in a situation similar to yours would also feel is offensive, just as you do. The law does not protect against your own personal opinion of what you think is offensive, but protects against behaviors that most people would agree should be considered offensive.

SECOND: “Unwelcome.” The objectively offensive behavior must be clearly unwelcome before an offender may be held accountable.

THIRD: “Sufficiently Severe, Persistent, or Pervasive.” The objectively offensive behavior has to be “severe,” “persistent,” and/or “pervasive.” This means that behavior is something more than a petty slight or other minor act or annoyance. See “What is “severe, persistent, or pervasive” below to learn more.

FOURTH: “Unreasonably Denies, Limits, or Interferes with Equal Access.” This means that the impact on you denies, limits, or interferes with your equal access to educational, work, or training opportunities and benefits. In other words, the discriminatory harassment is so bad it makes you too angry, too hurt, or too afraid to focus on or enjoy what you’re doing at school or work, or makes you not want to come to school or to work, or makes it hard for you to participate in a program or activity, because you do not feel safe or accepted.

“Severe” discriminatory harassment is when a single act is so bad and the negative impact is so extreme that any reasonable person in the same situation would agree the one act is enough to create a hostile environment.

“Persistent” discriminatory harassment is when someone is committing minor acts of harassment against you, again and again, even after you’ve told them to stop or you asked your principal or first-line supervisor to make it stop, but it keeps happening. Even though each offense, by itself, alone, is “minor,” having it happen again and again creates a “hostile environment” for you, because it doesn’t stop.

“Pervasive” discriminatory harassment can happen in two ways: First is when one person commits a minor act of harassment against you and it spreads to other people who copy it and start doing it to you, too. Second is when one person commits a single minor act of harassment against you, but then they also do it to other people, too, creating a hostile environment wherever that person goes.

Even if the offensive discriminatory acts against you do not meet all four of the elements required for it to be considered a hostile environment, the harassment may still be a violation of DoDEA’s general conduct code. So, be sure to report the behaviors, anyway. It’s always better to speak up rather than suffer in silence.

DoDEA is directly responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent, or promptly respond to and effectively resolve, the following when it happens in relationship to a DoDEA-conducted or sponsored program or activity:

Not Resolving Reports of Peer-to-Peer Discriminatory Conduct: A “peer” is someone who is in an equal position, or who has equal authority, to you. Peer-to-peer discriminatory conduct is when a student discriminates against another student, an employee against another employee of equal or higher rank, a volunteer against another volunteer, a parent against another parent, and so on. DoDEA is responsible for promptly responding to reports of peer-to-peer discriminatory conduct (from students, employees, or other beneficiaries) and for taking reasonable steps to stop it. No DoDEA employee may allow peer-to-peer discriminatory conduct to go on between students or other beneficiaries under their supervision once they are made aware of it.

Employee-to-Student or Employee-to-Other Beneficiary Discrimination: No DoDEA employee may unlawfully discriminate against a student or other beneficiary. DoDEA is responsible for promptly responding to and resolving reports from students, parents, volunteers, visitors, and other beneficiaries claiming an employee has discriminated against them or has been allowing a peer to discriminate against them.

Supervisor-to-Subordinate Employee Discrimination: DoDEA is directly responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent unlawful discrimination by a supervisor (or any higher-level DoDEA official) against a subordinate, which includes acts of sexual harassment or other discriminatory conduct/harassment, and promptly responding to and effectively resolving any employment-related complaint.

No. In the event it is substantiated that DoDEA has been, or continues to be, out of compliance with its EO 13160 responsibilities, DoDEA may offer, at its sole discretion, any non-monetary remedies that may be required to restore DoDEA to EO 13160 compliance. Remedies are intended to place a person adversely impacted back into a position as close as possible to where they would have been had there been consistent compliance.

Under DoDEA’s DRP, you may file a formal report alleging any one or more of the following types of discrimination:

1. Disparate Treatment (Unequal Treatment).
2. Hostile Environment Based on Discriminatory Conduct/Harassment.
3. Disparate Impact (Policy or Practice).
4. Retaliation.

Instead of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, DoDEA is required to protect against sexual harassment and sex discrimination under EO 13160. You can file a DoDEA DRP formal report of sex discrimination, but not a “Title IX” complaint. Here‘s why:

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, commonly known as “Title IX,” protects against sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in civilian public and private schools that accept federal money from the U.S. Department of Education (US ED). DoDEA schools are different, because DoDEA is actually a federal agency, itself, and a component of the Department of Defense. DoDEA gets its funding directly from Congress, not through the US ED. Title IX only applies to schools that get money from the US ED. You can’t file a sex discrimination complaint against DoDEA with the US ED, because the US ED has no authority over DoDEA.

“Sexual harassment” is misconduct that includes any one or more of the following actions:

1. Unwelcome or unwanted sexual advances.
2. Requests for sexual favors.
3. “Objectively offensive” and “sufficiently serious” spoken, written, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, as defined under DoDEA Administrative Instruction 1443.02. Check out DoDEA’s website on Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention (SHAP) to learn more.

No. Section 8-801 of EO 13160 expressly states, “This order is not intended, and should not be construed, to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or its employees.”

Visit DoDEA’s Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention (SHAP) webpage.

The Civil Rights Program is an “anti-harassment program” for students, employees, and other beneficiaries when the harassment is based on a protected class. You can make a report about discriminatory conduct or other discrimination that is happening to you or bring a report on behalf of someone else. The important thing is to work together with your school administrators to keep DoDEA discrimination-free.

Each of the protected classes governed under the DoDEA Civil Rights Program are defined in DoDEA Administrative Instruction 1443.01.