ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1991, when petitioner Alida Star Gebser was an eighth grade student at a middle school in respondent Lago Vista Independent School District, she joined a high school book discussion group led by Frank Waldrop, a teacher at Lago Vista's high school. During the book discussion sessions, Waldrop often made sexually suggestive comments to the students. He initiated sexual contact with Gebser in the spring, when, while visiting her home ostensibly to give her a book, he kissed and fondled her. Gebser and her mother filed suit against Lago Vista and Waldrop in state court in November 1993, raising claims against the school district under Title IX. Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 with two principal objectives in mind: "to avoid the use of federal resources to support discriminatory practices" and "to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices".
