Analyzing harm, power, and the possibilities for redress for harassment: An intersectional analysis of civil rights complaints

Abstract

Although education is often framed as a neutral system in which students are granted equitable access and opportunities, schools are situated within charged sociopolitical contexts, replicating many macrolevel inequities within their structures. Positioned externally to school districts, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has historically served as a policy lever, occupying a critical role for potentially identifying, investigating, and addressing individual and system level harms through its oversight responsibilities. Conceptualized by Black Feminists/Womanists of Color, intersectionality is a phenomenon which may be experienced by students, fueled by multiple confluential ideologies such as racism, ableism, and gender discrimination. Under the Biden administration, OCR’s gestures toward addressing intersectionality invited a retrospective analysis of complaints involving multiple forms of discrimination. This article presents an in-depth review of publicly accessible civil rights complaint and resolution documents spanning 2013-2025, with a specific focus on racial and disability harassment and discrimination. Our qualitative inquiry examined how these phenomena were enacted through systems, district personnel, and peer interactions, and acknowledged by OCR. Our themes reflect the varied degrees of responsiveness to these concerns, with few remedies reflecting robust individual and systems level remedies. This review underscores the need for explicit, intersectionality-informed guidance from the macro policy level to the micro district and community level. Implications for policy, research, and practice emphasize incorporating a proactive intersectional framework for OCR and school districts, enhancing and sustaining protections for disabled Students of Color.