Definitions
Harassment - includes but is not limited to unwelcome slurs, jokes, verbal, graphic or physical conduct relating to an individual’s race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin or disability. The term “harassment” may also include conduct of employees, supervisors, vendors, faculty and/or students who engage in verbally or physically harassing behavior which has the potential for humiliating or embarrassing an employee of VC.
Sexual Harassment consists of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:
- Submission to such conduct is an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment;
- Employment decisions are based on an employee’s submission to or rejection of such conduct; or,
- Such conduct interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, threatening, hostile or offensive working environment.
(In accordance with the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act, the terms dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking are defined as follows):
Dating Violence – violence, including sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse, committed by an individual who is currently in, or who was in the past in, a romantic or intimate relationship with the victim. The relationship’s existence is to be determined based on the statement of the individual who makes the report and with consideration of the length and type of the relationship and the frequency of interaction between the partners. The definition does not include acts defined as domestic violence.
Domestic Violence -a felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by the victim’s current or former spouse or intimate partner; by an individual who shares a child with the victim; by an individual who currently is cohabitating or who has cohabitated in the past, with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; by an individual who is similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the law of the jurisdiction where the crime occurred; or by any other individual against an adult or child who is protected from those acts by the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction where the crime occurred.
Sexual Assault – an offense meeting the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program definition of rape, fondling, incest, or statutory rape.
Stalking -engaging in a course of conduct targeting a particular person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or that of others or to suffer substantial emotional distress, defined as significant mental suffering or anguish that may require professional treatment or counseling. A course of conduct is two or more acts, including acts in which the perpetrator directly, indirectly, or through another person, and by any method, action, device or means, follows, monitors, surveils, threatens, observes, or communicates to or about a person or interferes with a person’s property.
Vernon College strictly adheres to Texas Penal Code definition of consent (Section 1.07).