Title IX Nondiscrimination Policy Effective 8/1/2024

Online Reporting System
Your name and contact information are NOT required for this reporting process.

Automotive Training Center does not discriminate on the basis of sex and prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that it operates, as required by Title IX, including in admission and employment.  

Automotive Training Center has adopted Title IX grievance procedures that provide for the prompt and equitable resolution of complaints made by students, employees, or other individuals who are participating or attempting to participate in its education program or activity, or by the Title IX Coordinator. These grievance procedures address complaints of sex-based harassment that involve a student party.  

Complaints:  

The following people have a right to make a complaint of sex-based harassment, requesting that Automotive Training Center investigate and make-a-determination about alleged sex-based harassment under Title IX:  

A “complainant,” which includes:   

• a student or employee of Automotive Training Center who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute sex discrimination under Title IX; or   

• a person other than a student or employee of Automotive Training Center who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute sex discrimination under Title IX at a time when that individual was participating or attempting to participate in Automotive Training Center’s education program or activity; 

• A parent, guardian, or other authorized legal representative with the legal right to act on behalf of a complainant; or   

• Donald VanDemark, Automotive Training Center’s Title IX Coordinator. 

Note that a person is entitled to make a complaint of sex-based harassment only if they themselves are alleged to have been subjected to the sex-based harassment, if they have a legal right to act on behalf of such person, or if the Title IX Coordinator initiates a complaint consistent with the requirements of 34 C.F.R. § 106.44(f)(1)(v).  

Automotive Training Center may consolidate complaints of sex discrimination against more than one respondent, or by more than one complainant against one or more respondents, or by one party against another party, when the allegations of sex discrimination arise out of the same facts or circumstances. When more than one complainant or more than one respondent is involved, references below to a party, complainant, or respondent include the plural, as applicable.  

 

Basic Requirements of Title IX Grievance Procedures:  

Automotive Training Center will treat complainants and respondents equitably.  

Automotive Training Center requires that any Title IX Coordinator, investigator, or decisionmaker not have a conflict of interest or bias for or against complainants or respondents generally or an individual complainant or respondent. As long as there is no conflict of interest or bias, a decisionmaker may be the same person as the Title IX Coordinator or investigator. Automotive Training Center presumes that the respondent is not responsible for the alleged sex discrimination until a determination is made at the conclusion of its grievance procedures. Automotive Training Center has established the following timeframes for the major stages of the grievance procedures:  

• Evaluation of the complaint and a decision whether to dismiss or investigate the complaint will occur no later than 10 school/working days after the complaint is received. 

• If a decision has been made to investigate the complaint, the school will complete the investigation within 30 school/working days after the decision is made to investigate the complaint. 

• Within 7 school/working days after the investigation is complete, the school will determine and report the outcome of the investigation.  

• Involved parties will have 3 school/working days to decide whether to appeal the decision of the school.  

Automotive Training Center has also established the following process that allows for the reasonable extension of timeframes on a case-by-case basis for good cause with written notice of any extension to the parties that includes the reason for the delay:  

• Automotive Training Center will notify all involved parties in writing of any extension to the aforementioned timeframes stating the reason (s) for the extension.  

Automotive Training Center will take reasonable steps to protect the privacy of the parties and witnesses during its grievance procedures. These steps will not restrict the ability of the parties to obtain and present evidence, including by speaking to witnesses; consult with their family members, confidential resources, or advisors; or otherwise prepare for or participate in the grievance procedures. The parties cannot engage in retaliation, including against witnesses. Automotive Training Center will objectively evaluate all evidence that is relevant and not otherwise impermissible—including both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence. Credibility determinations will not be based on a person’s status as a complainant, respondent, or witness.  The following types of evidence, and questions seeking that evidence, are impermissible (i.e., will not be accessed or considered, except by Automotive Training Center to determine whether one of the exceptions listed below applies; will not be disclosed; and will not otherwise be used), regardless of whether they are relevant:  

• Evidence that is protected under a privilege recognized by Federal or State law or evidence provided to a confidential employee, unless the person to whom the privilege or confidentiality is owed has voluntarily waived the privilege or confidentiality;  

• A party’s or witness’s records that are made or maintained by a physician, psychologist, or other recognized professional or paraprofessional in connection with the provision of treatment to the party or witness, unless Automotive Training Center obtains that party’s or witness’s voluntary, written consent for use in its grievance procedures; and  

• Evidence that relates to the complainant’s sexual interests or prior sexual conduct, unless evidence about the complainant’s prior sexual conduct is offered to prove that someone other than the respondent committed the alleged conduct or is evidence about specific incidents of the complainant’s prior sexual conduct with the respondent that is offered to prove consent to the alleged sex-based harassment. The fact of prior consensual sexual conduct between the complainant and respondent does not by itself demonstrate or imply the complainant’s consent to the alleged sex-based harassment or preclude determination that sex-based harassment occurred. 

Written Notice of Allegations: Upon initiation of these Title IX grievance procedures, Automotive Training Center will notify the parties in writing of the following with sufficient time for the parties to prepare a response before any initial interview:  

• Automotive Training Center Title IX grievance procedures and any informal resolution process;  

• Sufficient information available at the time to allow the parties to respond to the allegations, including the identities of the parties involved in the incident(s), the conduct alleged to constitute sex-based harassment, and the date(s) and location(s) of the alleged incident(s);   

• Retaliation is prohibited;  

• The respondent is presumed not responsible for the alleged sex-based harassment until a determination is made at the conclusion of the grievance procedures. Prior to such a determination, the parties will have an opportunity to present relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence to a trained, impartial decisionmaker;   

•  The parties may have an advisor of their choice who may be, but is not required to be, an attorney;  

• The parties are entitled to an equal opportunity to access the relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence or an investigative report that accurately summarizes this evidence. [If Automotive Training Center provides access to an investigative report: The parties are entitled to an equal opportunity to access the relevant and not impermissible evidence upon the request of any party]; and 

•  Automotive Training Center’s Code of Conduct prohibits knowingly making false statements or knowingly submitting false information during the grievance procedures.  

If, in the course of an investigation, Automotive Training Center decides to investigate additional allegations of sex-based harassment by the respondent toward the complainant that are not included in the written notice or that are included in a consolidated complaint, it will provide written notice of the additional allegations to the parties.  

 

Dismissal of a Complaint:  

Automotive Training Center may dismiss a complaint if:   

• Automotive Training Center is unable to identify the respondent after taking reasonable steps to do so;  

• The respondent is not participating in Automotive Training Center education program or activity and is not employed by Automotive Training Center;  

• Automotive Training Center obtains the complainant’s voluntary withdrawal in writing of any or all of the allegations, the Title IX Coordinator declines to initiate a complaint, and Automotive Training Center determines that, without the complainant’s withdrawn allegations, the conduct that remains alleged in the complaint, if any, would not constitute sex discrimination under Title IX even if proven; or  

• Automotive Training Center determines the conduct alleged in the complaint, even if proven, would not constitute sex discrimination under Title IX. Before dismissing the complaint, Automotive Training Center will make reasonable efforts to clarify the allegations with the complainant.   

Upon dismissal, Automotive Training Center will promptly notify the complainant in writing of the basis for the dismissal. If the dismissal occurs after the respondent has been notified of the allegations, then Automotive Training Center will notify the parties simultaneously in writing.  

Automotive Training Center will notify the complainant that a dismissal may be appealed on the basis outlined in the Appeals section. If dismissal occurs after the respondent has been notified of the allegations, then Automotive Training Center will also notify the respondent that the dismissal may be appealed on the same bases. If a dismissal is appealed, Automotive Training Center will follow the procedures outlined in the Appeals section.  

When a complaint is dismissed, Automotive Training Center will, at a minimum:   

• Offer supportive measures to the complainant as appropriate; 

• If the respondent has been notified of the allegations, offer supportive measures to the respondent as appropriate; and  

• Take other prompt and effective steps, as appropriate, through the Title IX Coordinator to ensure that sex discrimination does not continue or recur within Automotive Training Center’s education program or activity. 

Investigation:  

Automotive Training Center will provide for adequate, reliable, and impartial investigation of complaints.   

The burden is on Automotive Training Center, not on the parties, to “conduct an investigation” that gathers sufficient evidence to determine whether sex discrimination occurred.  

Automotive Training Center will provide to a party whose participation is invited or expected, written notice of the date, time, location, participants, and purpose of all meetings or proceedings with sufficient time for the party to prepare to participate.  

Automotive Training Center will provide the parties with the same opportunities to be accompanied to any meeting or proceeding by the advisor of their choice, who may be, but is not required to be, an attorney. 

• Automotive Training Center will not limit the choice or presence of the advisor for the complainant or respondent in any meeting or proceeding.    

• Automotive Training Center may establish restrictions regarding the extent to which the advisor may participate in these grievance procedures, as long as the restrictions apply equally to the parties. 

Automotive Training Center will provide the parties with the same opportunities, if any, to have people other than the advisor of the parties’ choice present during any meeting or proceeding. 

Automotive Training Center will provide an equal opportunity for the parties to present fact witnesses and other inculpatory and exculpatory evidence that are relevant and not otherwise impermissible.  

Automotive Training Center will review all evidence gathered through the investigation and determine what evidence is relevant and what evidence is impermissible regardless of relevance.  

Automotive Training Center will provide each party and the party’s advisor, if any, with an equal opportunity to access the evidence that is relevant to the allegations of sex-based harassment and not otherwise impermissible, in the following manner:  

• Automotive Training Center will provide an equal opportunity to access either the relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence, or the same written investigative report that accurately summarizes this evidence. [If Automotive Training Center provides access to an investigative report: Automotive Training Center will further provide the parties with an equal opportunity to access the relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence upon the request of any party.]; 

• Automotive Training Center will provide a reasonable opportunity to review and respond to the evidence or the investigative report. If Automotive Training Center conducts a live hearing as part of its grievance procedures, it will provide this opportunity to review the evidence in advance of the live hearing. [Automotive Training Center may decide whether to provide this opportunity to respond prior to the live hearing, during the live hearing, or both prior to and during the live hearing.]; and  

• Automotive Training Center will take reasonable steps to prevent and address the parties’ and their advisors’ unauthorized disclosure of information and evidence obtained solely through the sex-based harassment grievance procedures. 

 

 

Questioning the Parties and Witnesses:  

Automotive Training Center will provide a process that enables the decisionmaker to question parties and witnesses to adequately assess a party’s or witness’s credibility to the extent credibility is both in dispute and relevant to evaluating one or more allegations of sex-based harassment.   

[When Automotive Training Center chooses not to conduct a live hearing: Automotive Training Center’s process for proposing and asking relevant and not otherwise impermissible questions and follow-up questions of parties and witnesses, including questions challenging credibility, will: 

• Allow the investigator or decisionmaker to ask such questions during individual meetings with a party or witness; 

• Allow each party to propose such questions that the party wants asked of any party or witness and have those questions asked by the investigator or decisionmaker during one or more individual meetings, including follow-up meetings, with a party or witness, subject to the procedures for evaluating and limiting questions discussed below; and 

• Provide each party with an audio or audiovisual recording or transcript with enough time for the party to have a reasonable opportunity to propose follow-up questions.]  

[When Automotive Training Center chooses to conduct a live hearing: Automotive Training Center’s process for proposing and asking relevant and not otherwise impermissible questions and follow-up questions of parties and witnesses, including questions challenging credibility, will allow the decisionmaker to ask such questions, and either: 

• Allow each party to propose such questions that the party wants asked of any party or witness and have those questions asked by the decisionmaker, subject to the procedures for evaluating and limiting questions discussed below; or  

• Allow each party’s advisor to ask any party or witness such questions, subject to the procedures for evaluating and limiting questions discussed below. Such questioning will never be conducted by a party personally. [If Automotive Training Center permits advisor-conducted questioning and a party does not have an advisor to ask questions on their behalf, Automotive Training Center will provide the party with an advisor of choice, without charge to the party, for the purpose of advisor-conducted questioning. In those instances, will not appoint a confidential employee and may appoint, but is not required to appoint, an attorney to serve as an advisor].    

Refusal to respond to questions and inferences based on refusal to respond to questions: The decisionmaker may choose to place less or no weight upon statements by a party or witness who refuses to respond to questions deemed relevant and not impermissible. The decisionmaker will not draw an inference about whether sex-based harassment occurred based solely on a party’s or witness’s refusal to respond to such questions.  

Procedures for a Live Hearing, if offered: Automotive Training Center will conduct the live hearing with the parties physically present in the same geographic location or, at Automotive Training Center’s discretion or upon the request of either party, will conduct the live hearing with the parties physically present in separate locations with technology enabling the decisionmaker and parties to simultaneously see and hear the party or witness while that person is speaking. 

Automotive Training Center will create an audio or audiovisual recording or transcript of any live hearing and make it available to the parties for inspection and review.  

Determination Whether Sex-Based Harassment Occurred: Following an investigation and evaluation of all relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence, Automotive Training Center will:   

• Use the [preponderance of the evidence or, if applicable, clear and convincing] standard of proof to determine whether sex discrimination occurred. The standard of proof requires the decisionmaker to evaluate relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence for its persuasiveness. If the decisionmaker is not persuaded under the applicable standard by the evidence that sex discrimination occurred, whatever the quantity of the evidence is, the decisionmaker will not determine that sex discrimination occurred.   

• Notify the parties simultaneously in writing of the determination whether sex-based harassment occurred under Title IX including:   

• A description of the alleged sex-based harassment;  

• Information about the policies and procedures that Automotive Training Center used to evaluate the allegations;  

• The decisionmaker’s evaluation of the relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence and determination whether sex-based harassment occurred;  

• When the decisionmaker finds that sex-based harassment occurred, any disciplinary sanctions Automotive Training Center will impose on the respondent, whether remedies other than the imposition of disciplinary sanctions will be provided by Automotive Training Center to the complainant, and, to the extent appropriate, other students identified by Automotive Training Center to be experiencing the effects of the sex-based harassment; and  

• Automotive Training Center procedures and permissible bases for the complainant and respondent to appeal.  

• Automotive Training Center will not impose discipline on a respondent for sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX unless there is a determination at the conclusion of the Title IX grievance procedures that the respondent engaged in prohibited sex discrimination.  

• If there is a determination that sex discrimination occurred, as appropriate, the Title IX Coordinator will:   

• Coordinate the provision and implementation of remedies to a complainant and other people Automotive Training Center identifies as having had equal access to Automotive Training Center education program or activity limited or denied by sex discrimination;  

• Coordinate the imposition of any disciplinary sanctions on a respondent, including notification to the complainant of any such disciplinary sanctions; and  

•  Take other appropriate prompt and effective steps to ensure that sex discrimination does not continue or recur within Automotive Training Center education program or activity. 

• Comply with the Title IX grievance procedures before the imposition of any disciplinary sanctions against a respondent; and  

• Not discipline a party, witness, or others participating in the Title IX grievance procedures for making a false statement or for engaging in consensual sexual conduct based solely on the determination whether sex discrimination occurred.  

The determination regarding responsibility becomes final either on the date that Automotive Training Center provides the parties with the written determination of the result of any appeal, or, if no party appeals, the date on which an appeal would no longer be considered timely.   

 

Appeals:  

Automotive Training Center will offer an appeal from a dismissal or determination whether sex-based harassment occurred on the following bases:   

• Procedural irregularity that would change the outcome;   

• New evidence that would change the outcome and that was not reasonably available when the determination or dismissal was made; and 

• The Title IX Coordinator, investigator, or decisionmaker had a conflict of interest or bias for or against complainants or respondents generally or the individual complainant or respondent that would change the outcome.   

If a party appeals a dismissal or determination whether sex-based harassment occurred, Automotive Training Center will:  

• Notify the parties in writing of any appeal, including notice of the allegations, if notice was not previously provided to the respondent;  

• Implement appeal procedures equally for the parties;  

• Ensure that the decisionmaker for the appeal did not take part in an investigation of the allegations or dismissal of the complaint;  

• Ensure that the decisionmaker for the appeal has been trained consistent with the Title IX regulations; 

• Communicate to the parties in writing that Automotive Training Center will provide the parties a reasonable and equal opportunity to make a statement in support of, or challenging, the outcome; and 

• Notify the parties in writing of the result of the appeal and the rationale for the result.  

Any additional procedures or bases for appeal Automotive Training Center offers will be equally available to all parties.  

Informal Resolution, if offered: In lieu of resolving a complaint through Automotive Training Center Title IX grievance procedures, the parties may instead elect to participate in an informal resolution process. Automotive Training Center will inform the parties in writing of any informal resolution process it offers and determines is appropriate, if any. Automotive Training Center will not offer informal resolution to resolve a complaint when such a process would conflict with Federal, State, or local law. Before the initiation of an informal resolution process, Automotive Training Center will explain in writing to the parties:  

• The allegations;  

• The requirements of the informal resolution process;  

• That any party has the right to withdraw from the informal resolution process and initiate or resume grievance procedures at any time before agreeing to a resolution;  

• That if the parties agree to a resolution at the end of the informal resolution process, they cannot initiate or resume grievance procedures arising from the same allegations;  

• The potential terms that may be requested or offered in an informal resolution agreement, including notice that an informal resolution agreement is binding only on the parties; and  

• What information Automotive Training Center will maintain and whether and how Automotive Training Center could disclose such information for use in Title IX grievance procedures if such procedures are initiated or resumed. 

Supportive Measures:  

Automotive Training Center will offer and coordinate supportive measures as appropriate for the complainant and/or respondent to restore or preserve that person’s access to the Automotive Training Center’s education program or activity or provide support during Automotive Training Center’s Title IX grievance procedures or during the informal resolution process. For complaints of sex-based harassment, these supportive measures may include: 

• Referrals to counseling and/or medical services. 

• Deadline extensions on classwork 

• Leave of absence 

• mutual restrictions on contact between the parties  

• assignment to a different class (if both parties are scheduled in the same course and time schedule). 

• Changing an employee’s work schedule. 

• Assistance with filing a criminal complaint and/or seeking an order of protection 

Disciplinary Sanctions and Remedies:  

Following a determination that sex-based harassment occurred, Automotive Training Center may impose disciplinary sanctions, which may include: 

• Students– verbal or written warning, probation, suspension, expulsion, or requirement to seek counseling; 

• Employees- suspension from work for two weeks without pay and the requirement to seek counseling or other appropriate training or loss of employment. 

 Automotive Training Center may also provide remedies, which may include: 

• Providing access to medical, mental health, victim advocacy, and academic support services. 

• Implementing a no contact order on the perpetrator. 

• Adjusting class schedules so that the perpetrator and complainant do not share classes. 

• Allowing the complainant to withdraw from a class, rearrange their exam schedule, switch classes. 

• Informing the complainant of their right to file a report with the police.