Cite as: 524 U. S. 274 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
can claim immunity from damages liability.11 Indeed, the rule that the Court adopts would preclude a damages remedy even if every teacher at the school knew about the harassment but did not have "authority to institute corrective measures on the district's behalf." Ante, at 277. It is not my function to determine whether this newly fashioned rule is wiser than the established common-law rule. It is proper, however, to suggest that the Court bears the burden of justifying its rather dramatic departure from settled law, and to explain why its opinion fails to shoulder that burden.
III
The Court advances several reasons why it would "frustrate the purposes" of Title IX to allow recovery against a school district that does not have actual notice of a teacher's sexual harassment of a student. Ante, at 285 (internal quotation marks omitted). As the Court acknowledges, however, the two principal purposes that motivated the enactment of Title IX were: (1) " 'to avoid the use of federal resources to support discriminatory practices' "; and (2) " 'to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices.' " Ante, at 286 (quoting Cannon, 441 U. S., at 704). It seems quite obvious that both of those purposes would be served—not frustrated—by providing a damages remedy in a case of this kind. To the extent that the Court's reasons for its policy choice have any merit, they suggest that no damages should ever be awarded in a Title IX case— in other words, that our unanimous holding in Franklin should be repudiated.
11 The Court concludes that its holding "does not affect any right of recovery that an individual may have against a school district as a matter of state law or against the teacher in his individual capacity under state law or under 42 U. S. C. § 1983." Ante, at 292. In this case, of course, the District Court denied petitioners' § 1983 claim on summary judgment, and it is undisputed that the Texas Tort Claims Act, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 101.051 (1997), immunizes school districts from tort liability in cases like this one.
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