Page:Veronica Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School District (September 19, 2014) US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.djvu/38

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OLLIER V. SWEETWATER UNION HIGH SCH. DIST.

participating in a Las Vegas tournament attended by college recruiters. The district court found these injuries, among others, sufficient to confer standing on Plaintiffs. We agree.


Plaintiffs have alleged judicially cognizable injuries flowing from Sweetwater’s retaliatory responses to Title IX complaints made by their parents and Coach Martinez. The district court’s ruling that Plaintiffs have Article III standing to bring their Title IX retaliation claim and its decision to deny Sweetwater’s motion to strike that claim were not error.


V


We review a district court’s decision to grant a permanent injunction for an abuse of discretion, but we review for clear error the factual findings underpinning the award of injunctive relief, see Momot v. Mastro, 652 F.3d 982, 986 (9th Cir. 2011), just as we review for clear error a district court’s findings of fact after bench trial. See Spokane Arcade, Inc. v. City of Spokane, 75 F.3d 663, 665 (9th Cir. 1996). However, we review de novo “the rulings of law relied upon by the district court in awarding injunctive relief.” Sierra Forest Legacy v. Sherman, 646 F.3d 1161, 1177 (9th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted).


We come to the substance of Plaintiffs’ retaliation claim, an important part of this case. “Title IX’s private right of action encompasses suits for retaliation, because retaliation falls within the statute’s prohibition of intentional discrimination on the basis of sex. … Indeed, if retaliation were not prohibited, Title IX’s enforcement scheme would unravel.” Jackson, 544 U.S. at 178, 180. The Supreme Court “has often looked to its Title VII interpretations … in illuminating Title IX,” so we apply to Title IX retaliation