Ensuring Justice for Individuals on Campuses in Michigan & Nationwide
Our Team is Dedicated to Seeking Justice for Individuals Facing Harassment and Other Forms of Discrimination in Schools.
Individuals who have faced harassment and discrimination in school have several ways to pursue justice. Our advocates help you achieve your goal of being safe and treated fairly on campus.
Our Partners Across the Country:
We have unique, close relationships with the country’s leading non-profit advocacy groups, with whom we regularly confer, and at times, “partner” on cases, to increase a student’s ability to obtain justice. Such groups include:
- Brandeis Center: The Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc. (LDB) is an independent, non-partisan institution for public interest advocacy, research, and education. The Center’s mission is to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and to promote justice for all.
- Chabad House: Chabad on Campus recognizes the increase of Antisemitism on college campuses nationwide, and offers Jewish students a safe haven and place to turn to during this dark time.
- Know Your IX: Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding (the vast majority of schools). Title IX protects LGBTQ+ survivors, too — and it also provides important protections to LGBTQ+ students who face widespread bullying and harassment that can impede their access to education.
Education and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance, which includes Colleges, Universities, and institutions of education that receive Federal financial assistance, including from the Department of Education.
Discrimination can take place in several ways, including being subjected to verbal and physical harassment, threats by individuals or school groups, as well as other misconduct that interferes with your rights to attend classes and academic events without fear or concern that your ethnic or religious background – as well as your own exercise of free speech – will subject you to danger.
It is also unlawful for schools to retaliate against anyone who demands protection of these rights.
Title IX and Sex Discrimination
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance, providing:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Colleges, Universities, and institutions of education must ensure that education programs and activities are conducted without any form of discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity. These institutions are prohibited by Title IX from retaliating against anyone who demands protection of these rights.
Our Firm’s Powerful Advocates:
- Cari Simon, Harvard Law School alum and Inaugural Fellow at the Harvard Gender Violence Clinic is one of the Nation’s Top Title IX Attorneys representing survivors of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, and sexual harassment in University and K–12 settings nationwide. Ms. Simon has been credited with the inclusion of stalking and dating violence in the definition of sexual harassment under Title IX, and her impact litigation ensured universities are responsible under Title IX for sexual violence at fraternity houses.
- Douglas Fierberg, Attorney and Owner of The Fierberg National Law Group expanded his trial practice in Washington D.C. beyond vehicle accidents, premises liability, and catastrophic personal injury cases, to establish and include the only legal practice representing school violence victims and survivors nationwide. Today, the firm and its attorneys constitute the premier national trial practice dedicated to serving victims, families, and survivors of school violence.
Don’t hesitate to contact The Fierberg National Law Group. Our attorneys work on your behalf to secure your rights to access education in an environment that is free from discrimination, including harassment and violence. We can help you hold schools and their administrators accountable when they fail to provide a safe learning environment as required by law.