What Is Sexual Misconduct?

Sexual Misconduct is conduct of a sexual nature or conduct based on sex or gender that is nonconsensual or has the effect of threatening, intimidating, or coercing a person. The College prohibits the following specific conduct (defined below): 

1. Sexual Harassment;
2. Sexual Assault;
3. Dating Violence;
4. Domestic Violence; 
5. Stalking;
6. Retaliation

Other conduct that is not specifically listed but has the essential elements of being based on sex or gender; is nonconsensual, or has the effect of threatening, intimidating, or coercing a person will be treated as Prohibited Conduct. 

1. Sexual Harassment

“Sexual harassment” is an umbrella term which encompasses any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or acts, or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, whether verbal, physical, graphic, or otherwise. 

Sexual Harassment is conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following:

1. Quid Pro Quo Harassment. An employee of the College conditioning the provision of an aid, benefit, or service of the College on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct.
2. Hostile Environment. Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the College’s education program or activity.
3. Incidents of Sexual Assault; Dating Violence; Domestic Violence; or Stalking (all further defined in the following points).  

Covenant College strictly prohibits its faculty members, supervisors, and other employees from implying or suggesting that a student's submission to, or refusal to submit to, sexual advances or participation in sexual conduct is a condition of a grade, admission to a program, favorable recommendation, promotion, continued employment, or other educational decision.    

2. Sexual Assault 

“Sexual Assault” means an offense classified as a forcible or nonforcible sex offense under the uniform crime reporting system of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as defined in 20 U.S.C. 1092(f)(6)(A)(v).

1. Fondling - The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
2. Incest - Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
3. Rape - 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, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
4. Statutory Rape - Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

Further explanations of force, consent, and incapacitation are under the sections entitled “What is Consent?”

3. Dating Violence 

Dating Violence means violence committed by a person—

1. who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and
2. where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: 

• • The length of the relationship, 
  • The type of relationship, 
  • The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

Dating violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse.

4. Domestic Violence 

Domestic Violence includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by: 

• a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim,  
• a person with whom the victim shares a child in common,  
• a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner,  
• a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of Georgia, or  
• any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of Georgia.

5. Stalking 

Stalking means engaging in a Course of Conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a Reasonable Person to— 

• fear for his or her safety or the safety of others; or  
• suffer Substantial Emotional Distress.