The Lawyer Who Can’t Let It Go

Told in her own words, the story of Shiwali Patel, Director of Safe and Inclusive Schools and Senior Counsel. 

I have been working as a Title IX lawyer for eight years now. But when I started college back in 2001, I had no idea what Title IX—the landmark civil rights law that protects against sex discrimination, including sexual assault and other sex-based harassment, in education—was.

What I did know was that my school was victim-blaming survivors of sexual assault and other forms of sex-based harassment. What I did know is that my school didn’t adequately support student survivors, and students weren’t even aware of the limited resources that were available to assist them. The closest rape crisis center to us was across a river away from campus.

What I will never forget is how my school sanctioned two student survivors because, before they were sexually assaulted, one of the survivors drank alcohol while underage and the other smoked marijuana. I remember how unfair it felt to me and so many other students that our school responded to their victimization by punishing them, sending a message that student survivors risk punishment when reporting their assault.

Watching these abuses of power, I had no choice but to act. Through college onward, I dedicated my life to fighting for survivors, and eight years after law school, I landed what I thought was my dream job as a lawyer: Title IX policy attorney in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Finally, I was at the helm of power, perfectly positioned to influence federal policy—including for student survivors—for the greater good.

But then, Donald Trump took office. In one fell swoop, he decimated Title IX protections. Suddenly, in the halls of my “civil rights” workplace, I heard Trump officials refer to students accused
of sexual assault as the real “victims.” I heard the head of OCR tell The New York Times that 90 percent of student sexual assault complaints “fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ‘we broke up,’ or ‘she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.’” Suddenly, it felt like I was back in college again.

In 2018, I’d had enough. I left OCR for an organization that’s always managed to force institutions toward progress, eve (and especially) in impossible circumstances: NWLC. I was now able to advocate against Trump’s attacks on students’ civil rights from the outside, and I later led the Law Center’s lawsuit suing the Trump administration for its weakening of Title IX protections against sexual assault and harassment in 2020.

But my work has never been more vital than it is today.

In his 2020 campaign, President Biden promised to “immediately” put an end to Trump’s undermining of Title IX, and while it turned out it wasn’t as simple as that, now, four years later, we finally have restored Title IX protections in the form of a new Title IX rule. But unfortunately, the fight isn’t over. Almost immediately after the release of the Biden Title IX rule, extremists, including many conservative states, began filing lawsuits to stop the protections promised by the rule.

It enrages me that the rights I was fighting for in the early 2000s are the same rights I am fighting for today. It enrages me that the Trump rule allowed survivors to be cross-examined by their rapists’ frat brothers. It enrages me that schools have dismissed so many Title IX sexual harassment complaints because of the Trump rule—a rule that extremists are pushing to keep in place. It horrifies me that despite a student saying, “What the school did to me was worse than what my rapist did to me,” extremists want schools to do less to support survivors. Just like when I was in college, this rage is compelling me to action. For the past three years, I have been leading the Law Center’s efforts to restore, defend, and expand Title IX. I’m not giving up until all survivors’
rights are restored.

Thank you for staying with us in this fight.

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