Legal Limbo of the Student Intern: The Responsibility of Colleges and Universities to Protect Student Interns Against Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Sexual harassment, as a form of sex-based discrimination, has plagued American universities and colleges since women entered higher educa­tion. As more women continue to earn advanced degrees and hold posi­tions equal to men in power and status, the problem of sexual harassment may eventually occur less often. For now, however, sexual harassment disproportionately hinders the education of women students. Since, his­torically, women have attained undergraduate degrees in smaller numbers than men have, sexual harassment in colleges and universities threatens to undermine the increasing levels of education and achievement being attained by women.When Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced the Supreme Court's most recent decision about educational harassment, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, she described the decision in open court as assur[ing] that little Mary may attend class. With this opinion, Justice O'Connor clearly meant to signal, on behalf of the majority, that the Court intended to take harassment in educational institutions very seri­ously and to afford its victims the full sanctions of the civil rights acts. Unfortunately, however, the Court's decision in Davis may make it more difficult for some students to obtain remedies for sexual harassment. This Article examines the predicament

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