Deborah L. Brake, School Liability for Peer Harassment After Davis: Shifting From Intent to Causation in Discrimination Law

Deborah L. Brake, School Liability for Peer Harassment After Davis: Shifting From Intent to Causation in Discrimination Law, 12 Hastings Women’s L.J. 5 (2001). 

“This essay seeks to explain the Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education case as an interpretation of discrimination that notably and correctly focuses on how institutions cause sex-based harm, rather than on whether officials within chose institutions act with a discriminatory intent. In the process, I discuss what appears to be the implicit theory of discrimination underlying the Davis decision: that schools cause the discrimination by exacerbating the harm that results from sexual harassment by students. I then explore the significance of the deliberate indifference requirement in this context, concluding that the standard, for all its flaws, is distinct from and superior to a search for discriminatory intent. The final section offers a brief analysis of what Davis could mean for discrimination law more broadly if courts seriously applied the insights embedded in the Davis case.”