Our cases start with one person and one story, which is collaborated by many other women’s experiences.  Selenia Wilborn’s story is one that women of all professions can relate.

From our friends at the Title IX Blog: Title IX Covers Harassment in Truck Driving Program

In 2007, Selenia Wilborn (not pictured) was the only woman in her class in the Tractor-Trailer Truck Driving Program operated by a community college consortium in Alabama. Even though Wilborn was deemed a qualified for the program by the administrator in charge of admissions, her instructor initially refused to accept her to the program due to his belief that women should “be at home making babies.”

Wilborn sued the community college that administers the program, alleging that the harassment she faced violated Title IX and other laws (including Title VII, on the theory that the truck driving program acted as an employment agency due to its role in placing students in truck driving jobs). A federal court agreed that a jury could find that Wilborn had directed her complaints to the appropriate administrator, who while lacking supervisory authority over Wilborn’s instructors, was nevertheless the administrator authorized to receive students’ grievances. The fact that this administrator took no action in response to Wilborn’s complaints clearly satisfies the deliberate indifference standard. 

If Wilborn wins on Title IX this truck driving program and other vocational programs will have stronger motivation to institute and enforce policies to curtail discrimination and harassment.