Page 159 - Merritt College Student Handbook and Planner 2021-2022

4. Verbal insults (in reference to gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability).
5. Rumors designed to cause the individual emotional distress or place him or her
in a bad light.
6. Physical assault.
7. Unwelcome direct propositions of a sexual nature.
8. Subtle pressures for unwelcome sexual activity, an element of which may be
conduct such as repeated and unwanted staring.
9. A pattern of conduct not legitimately related to the subject matter of a course,
which is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the education program or to create a hostile or abusive educational environment that includes one or more of the following:
(a) Comments of a sexual/racial nature or which are demeaning or derogatory
based on a disability, or
(b) Sexually explicit statements, questions, jokes, or anecdotes.
10. Unwanted attempts to establish a personal relationship.
11. A pattern of conduct that would cause dis-comfort or humiliate, or both, a
reasonable person at whom the conduct was directed that may include one or
more of the following:
(a) Unnecessary touching, patting, hugging, or brushing against a person’s
body,
(b) Remarks of a sexual nature about a person’s anatomy or clothing, or
(c) Remarks about sexual activity or speculations about a previous sexual
experience.
All persons should be aware that conduct towards a student that is not specifically identified in this policy may nonetheless constitute impermissible sexual, racial or disability harassment.
D. Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech
1. As participants in a public institution, the faculty and staff of the Peralta Community College District enjoy significant free speech protections found in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I of the California Constitution. The right of academic freedom includes a special area of protected speech. Consistent with the principles of academic freedom, course content and teaching methods remain the province of individual faculty members. Academic freedom, however, is not limitless. Academic freedom does not protect classroom speech that is unrelated to the subject matter of the course or in violation of federal or state anti-discrimination laws. Some speech
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