HB4049 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB101 16078 LNS 65441 b

101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
HB4049

Introduced 1/13/2020, by Rep. Jonathan Carroll and David McSweeney

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

775 ILCS 5/5A-101	from Ch. 68, par. 5A-101
775 ILCS 5/5A-102	from Ch. 68, par. 5A-102
775 ILCS 5/5A-103 new

Amends the Elementary, Secondary, and Higher Education Article of the Illinois Human Rights Act. Defines "anti-Semitism". Provides that an institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education commits a civil rights violation if it fails to treat anti-Semitism in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race. Describes anti-Semitism. Provides that nothing in the new provisions infringes on the constitutional protections for free speech or may be construed to conflict with federal or State discrimination laws.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning human rights.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Human Rights Act is amended by changing Sections 5A-101 and 5A-102 and by adding Section 5A-103 as follows:

(775 ILCS 5/5A-101) (from Ch. 68, par. 5A-101)

Sec. 5A-101. Definitions. The following definitions are applicable strictly in the content of this Article, except that the term "sexual harassment in elementary, secondary, and higher education" as defined herein has the meaning herein ascribed to it whenever that term is used anywhere in this Act.

(A) Institution of Elementary, Secondary, or Higher Education. "Institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education" means: (1) a publicly or privately operated university, college, community college, junior college, business or vocational school, or other educational institution offering degrees and instruction beyond the secondary school level; or (2) a publicly or privately operated elementary school or secondary school.

(B) Degree. "Degree" means: (1) a designation, appellation, series of letters or words or other symbols which signifies or purports to signify that the recipient thereof has satisfactorily completed an organized academic, business or vocational program of study offered beyond the secondary school level; or (2) a designation signifying that the recipient has graduated from an elementary school or secondary school.

(C) Student. "Student" means any individual admitted to or applying for admission to an institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education, or enrolled on a full or part time basis in a course or program of academic, business or vocational instruction offered by or through an institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education.

(D) Elementary, Secondary, or Higher Education Representative. "Elementary, secondary, or higher education representative" means and includes the president, chancellor or other holder of any executive office on the administrative staff of an institution of higher education, an administrator of an elementary school or secondary school, a member of the faculty of an institution of higher education, including but not limited to a dean or associate or assistant dean, a professor or associate or assistant professor, and a full or part time instructor or visiting professor, including a graduate assistant or other student who is employed on a temporary basis of less than full time as a teacher or instructor of any course or program of academic, business or vocational instruction offered by or through an institution of higher education, and any teacher, instructor, or other employee of an elementary school or secondary school.

(E) Sexual Harassment in Elementary, Secondary, and Higher Education. "Sexual harassment in elementary, secondary, and higher education" means any unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors made by an elementary, secondary, or higher education representative to a student, or any conduct of a sexual nature exhibited by an elementary, secondary, or higher education representative toward a student, when such conduct has the purpose of substantially interfering with the student's educational performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive educational environment; or when the elementary, secondary, or higher education representative either explicitly or implicitly makes the student's submission to such conduct a term or condition of, or uses the student's submission to or rejection of such conduct as a basis for determining:

(1) Whether the student will be admitted to an institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education;

(2) The educational performance required or expected of the student;

(3) The attendance or assignment requirements applicable to the student;

(4) To what courses, fields of study or programs, including honors and graduate programs, the student will be admitted;

(5) What placement or course proficiency requirements are applicable to the student;

(6) The quality of instruction the student will receive;

(7) What tuition or fee requirements are applicable to the student;

(8) What scholarship opportunities are available to the student;

(9) What extracurricular teams the student will be a member of or in what extracurricular competitions the student will participate;

(10) Any grade the student will receive in any examination or in any course or program of instruction in which the student is enrolled;

(11) The progress of the student toward successful completion of or graduation from any course or program of instruction in which the student is enrolled; or

(12) What degree, if any, the student will receive.

(F) Anti-Semitism. "Anti-Semitism" means a certain perception of the Jewish people, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people or rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism directed toward a person, his or her property, or Jewish community institutions or religions facilities.

(Source: P.A. 96-1319, eff. 7-27-10.)

(775 ILCS 5/5A-102) (from Ch. 68, par. 5A-102)

Sec. 5A-102. Civil Rights Violations-Elementary, Secondary, and Higher Education. It is a civil rights violation:

(A) Elementary, Secondary, or Higher Education Representative. For any elementary, secondary, or higher education representative to commit or engage in sexual harassment in elementary, secondary, or higher education.

(B) Institution of Elementary, Secondary, or Higher Education. For any institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education to fail to take remedial action, or to fail to take appropriate disciplinary action against an elementary, secondary, or higher education representative employed by such institution, when such institution knows that such elementary, secondary, or higher education representative was committing or engaging in or committed or engaged in sexual harassment in elementary, secondary, or higher education.

(C) Anti-Semitism. For any institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education to fail to comply with Section 5A-103.

(Source: P.A. 96-574, eff. 8-18-09; 96-1319, eff. 7-27-10.)

(775 ILCS 5/5A-103 new)

Sec. 5A-103. Discrimination motivated by anti-Semitism. An institution of elementary, secondary, or higher education shall treat discrimination by students or employees or resulting from institutional policies motivated by anti-Semitism in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race. Discrimination motivated by anti-Semitism includes:

(1) Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews, often in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.

(2) Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective, including, but not limited to, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government, or other societal institutions.

(3) Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoings committed by a single Jewish person or group, the State of Israel, or for acts committed by non-Jews.

(4) Accusing Jews as a people or the State of Israel of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

(5) Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to the State of Israel, or the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nation.

(6) Anti-Semitism related to the State of Israel, including, but not limited to:

(i) Demonizing the State of Israel by using the symbols and images associated with classic anti-Semitism to characterize the State of Israel or Israelis, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of Nazis, or blaming the State of Israel for all interreligious or political tensions.

(ii) Applying a double standard to the State of Israel by requiring behavior of the State of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, or focusing peace or human rights investigations only on the State of Israel.

(iii) Delegitimizing the State of Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying the State of Israel the right to exist.

However, criticism of the State of Israel that is similar to criticism toward any other country may not be regarded as anti-Semitic.

Nothing in this Section shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 4 of Article I of the Illinois State Constitution. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to conflict with federal or State discrimination laws.