Sexual Misconduct Definitions

RSC Definitions of Prohibited Sexual Misconduct

Offenses prohibited under the College’s policy include, but are not limited to: sexual harassment; sex discrimination (including sexual orientation discrimination and gender identity or gender expression discrimination); non‐consensual sexual intercourse (or attempts to commit same); non‐consensual sexual contact (or attempts to commit same); sexual coercion; domestic/dating violence; stalking; and sexual exploitation (or attempts to commit same).

RSC POLICY DEFINITIONS:

(1) Sex Discrimination: 

(A) Includes sexual harassment and is defined as conduct directed at a specific individual or a group of identifiable individuals that subjects the individual or group to treatment that adversely affects their employment or education, or institutional benefits, on account of sex or gender (including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression discrimination). It may include acts of verbal, nonverbal or physical aggression, intimidation or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature.

(B) Pregnancy Discrimination: 

(i) The College prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom. Discrimination of the basis of pregnancy should be reported in accordance with this policy. Employees, students and visitors with questions regarding accommodations during pregnancy are encouraged to contact the Office of Human Resources, 6420 S.E. 15th Street, Midwest City, OK 73110, ADM Room 104, (405) 733-7979. For complaints arising under this policy, please report to the Senior Director, Human Resources/AAO.

(2) Sexual Harassment: 

(A) Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination.

(i) The College is committed to stopping, preventing and remedying sexual harassment whenever and however it occurs; however, in the interest of directing complainants to the appropriate grievance procedure, the definition of hostile environment is dissected to include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII definition as well as the Higher Education Act of 1972, Title IX definitions.

(ii) For harassment to be actionable under Title VII the offensive conduct must be sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create a hostile working environment.

(iii) For harassment to be actionable under Title IX the offensive conduct must be severe and pervasive and objectively offensive so the conduct effectively denies a person equal educational access.

(iv) The distinction between the 2 definitions allows the College to balance Title IX enforcement with free speech and academic freedom.

Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment

 (i) Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment includes conduct that is sufficiently severe, pervasive or persistent, objectively and subjectively offensive (see 2Ai-iv above) that it alters the conditions of education or employment or institutional benefits of a reasonable person with the same characteristics of the victim of the harassing conduct. Whether conduct is harassing is based upon examining a totality of circumstances, including but not limited to:

(a) The frequency of the conduct;

(b) The nature and severity of the conduct;

(c) Whether the conduct was physically threatening;

(d) Whether the conduct was deliberate, repeated humiliation based upon sex;

(e) The effect of the conduct on the alleged victim’s mental or emotional state from the perspective of a reasonable person;

(f) Whether the conduct was directed at more than one person;

(g) Whether the conduct arose in the context of other discriminatory conduct;

(h) Continued or repeated verbal abuse of a sexual nature, such as gratuitous suggestive comments and sexually explicit jokes; and

(i) Whether the speech or conduct deserves constitutional protections.

(ii) Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment exists when individuals in positions of authority over the complainant:

(a) Make unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature; and

(b) Indicate, explicitly or implicitly, that failure to submit to or the rejection of such conduct will result in adverse educational or employment action or where participation in an educational program or institutional activity or benefit is conditioned upon the victim’s submission to such activity.

(B)  For the purpose of this policy, unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment if:

(i) Submission to the conduct is made either an explicit or implicit condition of employment or academic instruction/standing; 

(ii) Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for employment or academic decisions affecting the harassed employee or student;

(iii) The conduct, either by intent or by effect, creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work or learning environment; or 

(iv) Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for providing the College’s services or participation in the College’s programs.

Sexual Harassment Scenarios

(C) Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of scenarios, including but not limited to: 

(i) The individual who is sexually harassed, as well as the harasser, may be female or male and does not have to be of the opposite sex from the harasser; 

(ii) The harasser can be the supervisor or the individual who is sexually harassed, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a coworker, a subordinate, a professor or a non-employee; 

(iii) The individual who is sexually harassed does not have to be the specific person to whom the harasser directs the conduct which constitutes sexual harassment but must be a person who was directly affected by the offensive conduct of the harasser; and 

(iv) Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the individual who is sexually harassed.

(3) Sexual Violence:

(A)  Physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent. A number of acts fall into the category of sexual violence, which includes, but is not limited to: rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual misconduct and sexual coercion.

(i) Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse is defined as any sexual intercourse or penetration of the anal, oral, vaginal or genital opening of the victim, including sexual intercourse or penetration by any part of a person’s body or by the use of an object, however slight, by one person to another without consent or against the victim’s will. This definition includes rape and sexual assault, sexual misconduct and sexual violence.

(ii) Non-Consensual Sexual Contact is any intentional touching, however slight, whether clothed or unclothed, of the victim’s intimate body parts (primarily genital area, groin, inner thigh, buttock or breast) with any object or body part, without consent and/or by force. It also includes the touching of any part of a victim’s body using the perpetrator’s genitalia and/or forcing the victim to touch the intimate areas of the perpetrator or any contact in a sexual manner even if not involving contact of or by breasts, buttocks, groin, genitals, mouth or other orifice. This definition includes sexual battery and sexual misconduct.

(iii) Sexual Coercion is the act of using pressure (including physical pressure, verbal pressure or emotional pressure), alcohol, medications, drugs, or force to have sexual contact against someone’s will or with someone who has already refused. This includes rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and sexual misconduct.

(4) Sexual Exploitation:

(A) Occurs when a person takes non-consensual, unjust or abusive sexual advantage of another for his/her own advantage or benefit, or to benefit or advantage anyone other than the one being exploited, and that behavior may not otherwise constitute one of the other sexual misconduct offenses.

            (i) Examples of sexual exploitation include, but are not limited to:

(a) Non-consensual video or audio-taping of any form of sexual activity;

(b) Going beyond the boundaries of consent (such as letting a person or people hide in the closet to watch an individual have consensual sex without their partner’s knowledge or consent);

(c) Sexually-based stalking or bullying;

(d) Engaging in non-consensual voyeurism, such as observing sexual acts or body parts of another from a secret vantage point;

(e) Knowingly transmitting a sexually transmitted disease or illness to another;

(f) Exposing one’s genitals in a non-consensual circumstance or inducing another to expose his or her genitals;

(g) Prostituting another person; and

(h) Other forms of invasion of sexual privacy. 

(5) Domestic and Dating Violence: 

(A) Dating violence is violence between individuals in the following circumstances:

(i) The party is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and

(ii) The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors:

(a) Length of the relationship;

(b) Type of relationship;

(c) Frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

(B) Domestic Violence under this policy means violence committed by a:

(i) Current or former spouse of the victim;

(ii) A person with whom the victim shares a child in common;

(iii) A person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse;

(iv) A person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under Oklahoma domestic or family violence laws;

(v) Any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under Oklahoma domestic or family violence laws.

(C) Additional information regarding what constitutes a  "prior pattern of physical abuse" can be located at Oklahoma Penal Code, § https://www.oscn.net/v4/. 

(6) Sexual Assault:

(A) Assault as applied to an act when committed in a sexual context, in furtherance of sexual demands or based on sex stereotyping is defined in Oklahoma Penal Code as any willful and unlawful attempt or offer with force or violence to do a corporal hurt to another (Oklahoma Penal Code, § 21-641, www.oscn.net).

(B) Information regarding additional issues regarding battery and aggravated assault and battery, can be located at Oklahoma Penal Code, https://www.oscn.net/v4/. 

(7) Stalking: 

(A) Any person who willfully, maliciously and repeatedly follows or harasses another person in a manner that: 

(i) Would cause a reasonable person or a member of the immediate family of that person as defined in subsection D of this section to feel frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested; and 

(ii) Actually causes the person being followed or harassed to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested.

(B) Any person who violates the provisions of subsection A of this section when:

(i) There is a permanent or temporary restraining order, a protective order, an emergency ex parte protective order or an injunction in effect prohibiting the behavior described in subsection A of this section against the same party, when the person violating the provisions of subsection A of this section has actual notice of the issuance of such order or injunction; or 

(ii) Said person is on probation or parole, a condition of which prohibits the behavior described in subsection A of this section against the same party or under the conditions of a community or alternative punishment; or 

(iii) Said person, within ten (10) years preceding the violation of subsection A of this section, completed the execution of sentence for a conviction of a crime involving the use or threat of violence against the same party, or against any member of the immediate family of such party. 

(C) Evidence that the individual continued to engage in a course of conduct involving repeated unconsented contact, as defined in subsection D of this section, with the victim after having been requested by the victim to discontinue the same or any other form of unconsented contact, and to refrain from any further unconsented contact with the victim, shall give rise to a rebuttable presumption that the continuation of the course of conduct caused the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested. 

(D) For purposes of this section: 

(i) "Harasses" means a pattern or course of conduct directed toward another individual that includes, but is not limited to, repeated or continuing unconsented contact, that would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress and that actually causes emotional distress to the victim. Harassment shall include harassing or obscene phone calls as prohibited by Section 1172 of Title 21 (Oklahoma Penal Code, https://www.oscn.net/v4/) and conduct prohibited by Section 850 of Title 21 (Oklahoma Penal Code,  https://www.oscn.net/v4/). Harassment does not include constitutionally protected activity or conduct that serves a legitimate purpose; 

(ii) "Course of conduct" means a pattern of conduct composed of a series of two (2) or more separate acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose. Constitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of "course of conduct"; 

(iii) "Emotional distress" means significant mental suffering or distress that may, but does not necessarily require, medical or other professional treatment or counseling; 

(iv) "Unconsented contact" means any contact with another individual that is initiated or continued without the consent of the individual, or in disregard of that individual's expressed desire that the contact be avoided or discontinued. Constitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of “unconsented contact.” Unconsented contact includes, but is not limited to: 

(a) Following or appearing within the sight of that individual;  (b) Approaching or confronting that individual in a public place or on private property; 

(c) Appearing at the workplace or residence of that individual;  (d) Entering onto or remaining on property owned, leased or occupied by that individual; 

(e) Contacting that individual by telephone; 

(f) Sending mail or electronic communications to that individual; and 

(g) Placing an object on, or delivering an object to, property owned, leased or occupied by that individual. 

(v) "Member of the immediate family,” for the purposes of this section, means any spouse, parent, child, person related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity or any other person who regularly resides in the household or who regularly resided in the household within the prior six (6) months (Oklahoma Penal Code, § 21-1173, www.oscn.net).

(8) Other Misconduct:

(A) Other forms of misconduct based on one’s gender also constitute violations of this policy including, but not limited to: threatening or causing physical harm, extreme verbal abuse or other conduct which threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person;

(i) Gender-based intimidation, defined as implied threats or acts that cause an unreasonable fear of harm in another;

(ii) Gender-based hazing, defined as acts likely to cause physical or psychological harm or social ostracism to any person within the Campus community, when related to the admission, initiation, pledging, joining or other group-affiliation activity;

(iii) Gender-based bullying, defined as repeated and/or severe aggressive behavior likely to intimidate or intentionally hurt, control or diminish another person, physically or mentally (that is not speech or conduct otherwise protected by the First Amendment);

(9) Consent:

(A) Consent is the act of willingly agreeing to engage in sexual contact or conduct. Individuals who consent to sex must be able to understand what behavior they are providing consent. Under this policy, “No” always means “No,” and the absence of “No” may not mean “Yes.”

(i) Consent is informed, knowing and voluntary. Consent is active, not passive. Silence, in and of itself, cannot be interpreted as consent. Consent can be given by words or actions, as long as those words or actions create mutually understandable permission regarding the conditions of sexual activity.

(ii) Consent to one form of sexual activity cannot imply consent to other forms of sexual activity.

(iii) Previous relationships or consent does not imply future consent

(iv) Consent cannot be procured by use of physical force, compelling threats, intimidating behavior or coercion. (v) In order to give effective consent, one must be of legal age and have the capacity to consent. Incapacity may result from mental disability, intellectual disability, unconsciousness/sleep, age or use of alcohol, drugs, medication and/or other substances. Consent given by someone who one should know to be, or based on the circumstances, reasonably should have known to be, mentally or physically incapacitated, is a policy violation. Incapacitation is a state where someone cannot make rational, reasonable decisions because he or she lacks capacity to give knowing consent (e.g. to understand the “who, what, when, where, why or how” of their sexual interaction). Incapacity may result from a level of alcohol ingestion that is more severe than impairment, being under the influence, drunkenness or intoxication. It is less severe than alcohol poisoning or overdose. Whether a person is incapacitated is a subjective determination that will be made after the incident and in light of all facts available. Individuals reach incapacitation at different points and as a result of different stimuli [and] exhibit incapacity in different ways.

Note: Indications of consent are irrelevant if the initiator knows or should reasonably have known of the incapacity of the other person.

(B) Use of alcohol, medications, or other drugs will not excuse behavior that violates this policy.

OKLAHOMA STATE LAW DEFINITIONS:

In accordance with the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA), please be advised that the following definitions are applicable should an individual wish to pursue Oklahoma state criminal or civil actions. These definitions may differ from the College’s administrative policy definitions noted above. The College’s administrative system and disciplinary procedures are separate and distinct from those available to someone in a state civil or criminal action. Individuals may seek administrative remedies in accordance with this policy and also may seek state or federal civil or criminal remedies for the same incident through the applicable systems. The definitions set forth below are reviewed and verified annually; for a more frequently updated resource, please consult Oklahoma’s State Court Network site (https://www.oscn.net/v4/).

(1) Oklahoma Criminal Law Definition of Rape Oklahoma Penal Code, §21-1111:

(A) Rape is an act of sexual intercourse involving vaginal or anal penetration accomplished with a male or female who is not the spouse of the perpetrator and who may be of the same or the opposite sex as the perpetrator under any of the following circumstances:

(i) Where the victim is under sixteen (16) years of age;

(ii) Where the victim is incapable through mental illness or any other unsoundness of mind, whether temporary or permanent, of giving legal consent;

(iii) Where force or violence is used or threatened, accompanied by apparent power of execution to the victim or to another person;

(iv) Where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent, administered by or with the privity of the accused as a means of forcing the victim to submit;

(v) Where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused;

(vi) Where the victim submits to sexual intercourse under the belief that the person committing the act is a spouse, and this belief is induced by artifice, pretense or concealment practiced by the accused or by the accused in collusion with the spouse with intent to induce that belief. In all cases of collusion between the accused and the spouse to accomplish such act, both the spouse and the accused, upon conviction, shall be deemed guilty of rape; (vii) Where the victim is under the legal custody or supervision of a state agency, a federal agency, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision and engages in sexual intercourse with a state, federal, county, municipal or political subdivision employee or an employee of a contractor of the state, the federal government, a county, a municipality or a political subdivision that exercises authority over the victim; or

(viii) Where the victim is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is less than twenty (20) years of age and is a student or under the legal custody or supervision of any public or private elementary or secondary school, junior high or high school or public vocational school and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and is an employee of the same school system.

(B) Rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a male or female who is the spouse of the perpetrator if force or violence is used or threatened, accompanied by apparent power of execution to the victim or to another person.

(2) Definition of Consent under Oklahoma Criminal Law Oklahoma Penal Code,  §21-1114A, provides lack of consent in rape cases where:

(A) Rape committed by a person over eighteen (18) years of age upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age; 

(B) Rape committed upon a person incapable through mental illness or any unsoundness of mind of giving legal consent regardless of the age of the person committing the crime;

(C) Rape accomplished where the victim is intoxicated by a narcotic or anesthetic agent, administered by or with the privity of the accused as a means of forcing the victim to submit;

(D) Rape accomplished where the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused; 

(E)  Rape accomplished with any person by means of force, violence or threats of force or violence accompanied by apparent power of execution regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; 

(F) Rape by instrumentation resulting in bodily harm is rape by instrumentation in the first degree regardless of the age of the person committing the crime; or

(G) Rape by instrumentation committed upon a person under fourteen (14) years of age.

(3) Definition of Domestic/Dating Violence under Oklahoma Criminal Law Oklahoma Penal Code, §21-644

Domestic and dating violence as any person who commits any assault and battery against a current or former spouse, a present spouse of a former spouse, a former spouse of a present spouse, parents, a foster parent, a child, a person otherwise related by blood or marriage, a person with whom the defendant is or was in a dating relationship as defined by Section 60.1 of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes, an individual with whom the defendant has had a child, a person who formerly lived in the same household as the defendant or a person living in the same household as the defendant shall be guilty of domestic abuse.

(4) Definition of Stalking under Oklahoma Criminal Law Oklahoma Penal Code,  §21-1173, defines stalking as:

(A) Any person who willfully, maliciously and repeatedly follows or harasses another person in a manner that:

(i) Would cause a reasonable person or a member of the immediate family of that person to feel frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested; and

(ii) Actually causes the person being followed or harassed to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested. 

FEDERAL LAW DEFINITION:

(5) Rape as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) updated definition in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Summary Reporting System is the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.