EdLawConnect Blog

While school and community college districts have policies and complaint procedures to address overt unlawful discrimination and harassment in the workplace, there is a more subtle aspect of workplace culture which creates potential liability for employers – microaggressions.

In mid-October 2017, Hollywood movie executive Harvey Weinstein tumbled from grace when he was accused of sexual harassment from multiple actresses who had worked with him over the decades.  After the first complaint came in, more and more women began to come forward with their own allegations against Weinstein.  From there, out of the Weinstein complaints grew a new movement of women and men speaking out against other celebrities, politicians, and media personalities alleging sexual misconduct.  Social media responded with a “#metoo” movement where victims of sexual harassment and misconduct took to the internet to give light to a topic previously tucked away in the dark.

On September 28, 2014, Governor Brown signed into law SB 1174 (Lara), which will give voters an opportunity to rescind much of Proposition 227 (Prop 227), the 1998 initiative that replaced bilingual education with English immersion classes.  If passed, the new law will enable California’s public schools to provide multilingual instruction, granting more students access to valuable language skills and giving parents more choice over their children’s education.  In response to Governor Brown’s passage of SB 1174, Senator Ricardo Lara stated: