This one-day course, Free Speech and Responding to Protests and Activism in Educational Settings, provides a comprehensive overview of the complexities involved in navigating tensions between freedom of expression and ensuring an educational environment free from harassment and discrimination. ATIXA’s expert faculty will explore schools’ responsibilities in responding to protests, preventing and addressing disruptions, and ensuring that all voices are heard in a respectful and lawful manner. Topics include understanding the limits of free speech, addressing hate speech and harassment, protest management strategies, referral considerations to other institutional support systems or processes, and institutional legal obligations. Through case studies and practical exercises, participants will gain the skills needed to respond to Title VI discrimination and harassment complaints in a timely and equitable manner.
Pre-learning will be available to the course participants when the ATIXA Event Lobby opens 5 days before the start of the course.
Recommended Prior Learning:
When you register for this course you will receive access to the eTraining pre-learning Civil Rights Fundamentals for Educators. Go to your ATIXA Event Lobby and login. In the lobby, you will see the Civil Rights Fundamentals for Educators eTraining link that you can click on for additional instructions to login and take the eTraining. Contact events@atixa.org with any questions.
After completing this training, participants will be able to:
- Create or improve procedures for responding to Title VI complaints, ensuring timely and effective action
- Explain the legal principles governing free speech and protest activity in public and private educational institutions, including the limits of those rights
- Distinguish between protected speech, hate speech, and harassment under federal and state law, and understand the institution’s role in addressing each
- Assess how to balance the rights of protestors with the need for safety, maintaining order, and protecting the educational environment
- Create clear and legally sound institutional policies and protocols for handling protests, ensuring compliance with free speech protections
- Implement strategies to manage protests that disrupt institutional operations while respecting lawful expressions of free speech
- Develop proactive strategies to foster open, respectful dialogue on controversial issues, reducing the likelihood of conflicts escalating to protests
Who Should Attend?
- Compliance Officers
- Student Affairs Administrators
- Campus Security Personnel/School Resource Officers
- District/Institutional Leaders
- Legal Counsel Responsible for Managing Free Speech and
- Protest-Related Issues in Educational Environments
- The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) oversees Title VI enforcement for educational institutions.
- For employment-based complaints, enforcement falls under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
- Title VI addresses race, color, and national origin discrimination (which includes shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics) in federally funded programs.
- Title IX covers sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and misconduct.
- Failure to address practices or instances that create a hostile environment based on race, color, or national origin.
- Usually this requires only remedial response. The Title IX focus on discipline is less pressing under Title VI, unless a VI remedy requires discipline to end a hostile environment.
- Discriminatory policies or programs, such as scholarships, cultural centers, or initiatives that exclude certain races from access or full participation.
- Targeted programs specifying preferred participants/attendees are permissible under Title VI, as long as no one is excluded from participating/attending.
- Inequitable disciplinary actions that disproportionately affect certain racial or ethnic groups.
- Scholarship inequity.
- Whether a program has a sufficient basis to justify affirmative action.
- Appoint a designated Title VI Coordinator to oversee compliance and investigations; centralize all reporting, complaint processing, and case management.
- Revise policies and procedures to ensure they align with current Title VI expectations.
- Provide regular training for administrators, faculty, and staff on discrimination covered by Title VI, free speech/expression, filing a complaint, and the school/institution’s grievance process.
- Conduct climate surveys and assessments to monitor Title VI-related discrimination trends.
- TNG designs and administers such surveys.
- Executive Orders direct federal agencies, including OCR, to prioritize enforcement in specific areas, such as anti-white bias and anti-Semitism.
- They also seek to limit funding for institutions that promote race-based preferences.
- Institutions should monitor policy updates and legal challenges that may impact their compliance obligations, but the EO’s themselves cannot require schools to do or not do anything, directly.
- Any organization receiving federal financial assistance, including corporations, law enforcement, and nonprofits, must comply with Title VI.
- Businesses with federal contracts should assess their hiring, training, and workplace policies to ensure compliance.
- Expect increased federal scrutiny of race- and national origin-related issues, especially in higher education and government-funded programs.
- Organizations should prepare for policy revisions, litigation risks, and the need for expanded compliance training.
- Schools and institutions that fail to comply may lose federal funding or face the risk of civil rights investigations.
- Establish clear, centralized reporting processes, similar to Title IX complaint procedures.
- Train investigators and decision-makers to manage Title VI cases with procedural consistency.
- Consider models that build-in this approach, such as ATIXA’s 1P2P.
- Implement grievance procedures, including options for alternative resolution that are compliant with Title VI regulations and federal and state guidance and laws.
- Look beyond single incidents to view the totality of the circumstances.
- ATIXA has launched Title VI Coordinator and Investigator curriculum pathways and is working diligently on expanding resources and membership benefits for the Title VI field.
- Schools and institutions can seek legal guidance, OCR resources, and external consultants for policy development.
- Workshops, certification programs, and compliance audits can help institutions stay ahead of enforcement trends.
To obtain certification from ATIXA, you will need to sign-in to your Event Lobby each day of training and attend the whole event. It is our expectation that you are present for the entire duration of your training course. Certification will only be provided once ATIXA has verified attendance through the Event Lobby. Please allow 7-10 days following the completion of the course and then log in on our website and visit the My ATIXA page to access the Continuing Certification Credit (CCC) program system. Please follow the instructions on the webpage to obtain your certification. Our CCC program allows those certified by ATIXA to track, maintain, and extend their professional development through our programs.
Training & Certification Course registration fees include:
- Attendance for each day of training or access to eTraining course for three months
- An extensive course-specific selection of articles, customizable forms and templates, case studies, videos, and more
- Instructional slides or transcript for eTraining
- Access to ATIXA content experts
- Ability to interact with faculty and attendees via course discussion and activities
- Certification upon corresponding course completion
Upcoming Sessions
| Schedule | Member | Non-Member | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
June 13 8:30am - 4:30pm PT Doubletree by Hilton |
$799 | $999 | |
|
July 18 10:00am - 5:00pm ET |
$799 | $999 |
The pricing above is effective if purchased today. Take advantage of our Early Bird Pricing to secure your spot at a reduced rate until typically 10 weeks prior to the event. After the Early Bird pricing ends, our Regular Pricing takes effect, typically available up to 2 weeks before the event begins. Last Chance Pricing is your final opportunity to register, typically during the last 2 weeks before the event start date.
Register yourself or your team for two to four courses and receive a 15% discount; register for five or more and receive a 25% discount. Please create your order, click the 'Pay Later' option upon checkout, and reach out to events@atixa.org for the discounts to be applied.
Contact events@atixa.org to learn more about multi-registration discounts.