5.4.17 Mandated Reporting

adopted: Feb-2021
last revised: Feb-2021

Richland Community College employees (faculty, staff, and administrators) are expected to report actual or suspected discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation to the Title IX Coordinator or other appropriate officials immediately, although some limited exceptions exist. These individuals are designated Mandated Reporters.

If a Complainant expects formal action in response to their allegations, reporting to any Mandated Reporter can connect them with resources to report crimes and/or policy violations, and these employees will immediately pass reports to the Title IX Coordinator (and/or police, if desired by the Complainant), who will take action when an incident is reported to them.

Employees must also promptly share all details of behaviors under this Policy that they observe or have knowledge of, even if not reported to them by a Complainant or third party.

Complainants may want to consider carefully whether they share personally identifiable details with non-confidential Mandated Reporters, as those details must be shared with the Title IX Coordinator.

Failure of a Mandated Reporter to report an incident of harassment or discrimination of which they become aware is a violation of Richland Community College Policy; the Mandate Reporter can therefore be subject to disciplinary action for failure to comply.

Though this may seem obvious, when a Mandated Reporter is engaged in harassment or other violations of this Policy, they still have a duty to report their own misconduct, though Richland Community College is technically not on notice simply because a harasser is also a Mandated Reporter unless the harasser does in fact report themselves.

Finally, a Mandated Reporter who is a target of harassment or other misconduct under this Policy is not required to report their own experience, though they are, of course, encouraged to do so.