HIGH COURT RESTRICTS LIABILITY OF SCHOOLS FOR HARASSMENT.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Reports

Few students who are sexually harassed would win federal damages from school districts under a tough legal test adopted Monday by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court.

In a victory for schools at all levels and a defeat for victims of harassment and women's rights groups, the justices made it extremely difficult to hold school districts responsible for a teacher's sexual misconduct under federal civil rights law.

The only way to find school districts liable for damages, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court's conservative majority, would be to prove that a district official knew of the teacher's misconduct and did little or nothing about it.

In such instances, the notified official must ``have authority to institute corrective measures on the district's behalf,'' said O'Connor, who was joined by the court's four other conservatives.

``We're gratified by the Supreme Court's decision,'' said Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association. ``It is important not to divert financial resources from the public schools when the school district itself engaged in no wrongdoing.''

She said the vast majority of her organization's 15,500 school districts have anti-harassment policies and procedures in place. The policies encourage school officials to act swiftly against harassment when they become aware of it, she said.

But a disappointed Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, said the Supreme Court's tough new legal standard had effectively ``removed one of the most important remedies to sexual harassment in our schools.''

The center supports plaintiffs in sexual harassment lawsuits.

``It applies to all elementary and high schools and to colleges that receive federal money,'' Greenberger said about the Supreme Court decision. ``It applies not only to harassment by teachers, but also by administrators, supervisors, principals and coaches. We'll have to wait for decisions in another round of cases to see if it also applies to student-on-student harassment.''

The ruling will have little effect on the Los Angeles Unified School District, said an administrator responsible for carrying out the district's civil rights policies.

The district already requires school officials to notify police immediately when a teacher is suspected of sexually harassing or abusing a student.

``The standard that we use is that, once a situation comes to your attention, you must remedy it,'' said Deanne Neiman, director of the district's Educational Equity Compliance Office.

Neiman said she was unaware of any pending sexual harassment cases involving students and teachers.

Neiman said the high court ruling places a greater burden on victims of sexual harassment to alert school officials of problems in the classroom.

``There was some surprise,'' Neiman said. ``School districts could interpret this as meaning less liability for them because the standard is higher. Hopefully, students will come forward, and we encourage them to come forward.''

Sexual abuse in schools is common, according to several studies. The studies show that four of every five girls recalled experiencing some form of sexual harassment in school. Usually, the harassers are students but, according to a 1993 survey by the American Association of University Women, 25 percent of harassed girls said they were victimized by teachers or other school officials.

The Supreme Court, splitting along ideological lines, narrowly interpreted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which provides that no one can be subjected to sexual discrimination under any educational program receiving federal financial assistance.

Since schools at all levels receive federal aid, Greenberger said ``this ruling has far-reaching consequences.''

The issue arose in the Lago Vista Independent School District near Austin, Texas, where Frank Waldrop, a 52-year-old social studies teacher in a public high school, seduced a 15-year-old student and had a year-long sexual affair with her.