The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today that public schools may be held responsible if they permit sexual harassment of students by other students to go on over time without taking any steps to remedy the problem. According to the Associated Press, the court ruled unanimously that the state’s antidiscrimination law applies to the homophobic harassment suffered over a period of years by a student in a coastal school district. The court said the law required schools to take action when student-on-student harassment takes place.

The litigation concerned a state law, but the ruling paralleled a U.S. Supreme Court decision seven years ago. In that case, which concerned the sexual harassment of a fifth grader by a classmate in Georgia, the court ruled that school officials who are “deliberately indifferent” to a student’s harassment of a peer may be held financially responsible for violating federal laws prohibiting gender bias.

The implication of both cases for colleges is that they may not stand idly by when presented with evidence of sexual harassment of students by their classmates.