Sexual Harassment Training
In our Sexual Harassment Awareness
training seminars your employees will learn and apply
the important skills of handling sexual harassment issues
and complaints. This hands on workshop thoroughly addresses
the elements of how to
prevent unacceptable
behavior. The class includes a detailed
overview of what sexual
harassment is, explains legal definitions, discusses sexual
harassment prevention, and shows how to handle sexual
harassment complaints and maintain a positive work
environment.
For more information about individual sexual harassment
training courses please complete
this form. Once the form is received one of our
consultants will provide you with a confidential proposal
that will include a detailed description of the training
seminar and the costs for conducting it.
Sexual Harassment Training:
Sexual Harassment was Just the Beginning of Their Ordeal:
Their Boss Calls them a "Liar" on TV
What do you do when you report sexual
harassment, your employer does an investigation, the
evidence clearly shows that you were sexually harassed,
and then you employer issues a report stating your
allegations were "not sustained." And commences to
retaliate against you. And gets on TV and calls you a
liar.
This is exactly what happened to Sergeant Schmidt and
Corporal Guenther of the Washington County Sheriff's
Office, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After Sergeant
Schmidt's complaint the Sheriff's office interviewed
numerous witnesses. The interviews were recorded and
transcripts were provided to the plaintiffs. These
excerpts from the witness transcripts are typical:
Witness 1: [Captain Osburn] started talking about
how...umm...people he had hooked up I think is what it got
started from and uh...he brought up [deputy]'s name and,
of course, I heard that story years ago, . . .I reached
over and got my MP3 player IPOD and put it in my ear
because I knew it was coming...well, it was fixing too,
and I was like I know you're not going to go
there...that's disgusting...I know you're not going to do
that. . . . out the door I went and so, it's been an
ongoing joke, since then they'll say stuff about chocolate
milk and peanut butter and I'm like...ughh...ughh...
because that's really gross. And I remember hearing that
from years ago . . . you have to understand...the
four men and me. They like to gross me out. . .
Another issue was their Captain's embarrassing
commentaries on breast augmentations surgeries:
Interviewer: Captain Osburn started discussing the number
of cc's that [female officers] were getting
in each breast.
Witness 2: Yeah, I remember that.
Interviewer: [she] was like 720 maybe slightly more in the
other... about 760. So Captain then asked [female officer]
how many cc's she had put in hers when she had hers done.
Do you remember him asking her that?
Witness 2: Uh huh.
Interviewer: Ok. Then did he call you in and ask you how
many cc's you had?
Witness 2: Yeah.
Captain Osburn himself made it clear there were graphic
discussions in the office concerning the details of six
breast augmentation surgeries in the presence of
supervisors, some of which got out of hand:
Osburn: It's just that you'll walk into a situation where
there's...it's being discussed between two people who...I
mean we've had about six people? But it's back in the
administration offices and the only really people back
there are supervisors. . . . because of the way the
offices are set up, they're talking all the way across one
end to the other and it's normally, it might get out of
hand sometimes
During his interview of Captain Osburn Major Hoyt took
note of the fact that Captain Osburn's behavior plainly
constituted sexual harassment. He asked Captain Osburn:
"Do you think it's a prudent idea for supervisors, male
and female, and the other people around the office to be
even talking about these
things in retrospect?"
Incredibly, in his Investigation Major Hoyt stated "Many
of Schmidt's allegations were unable to be substantiated
and others, when looked into, showed some things were
taken out of context and some were unfounded." He went on
to conclude that all of her sexual harassment allegations
were "Not Sustained,"
including the allegations that Osburn discussed breast
surgery in the office in a sexual and offensive way and
the allegation that he had told a disgusting sexual story.
Following her complaint Sergeant Schmidt was moved to the
night shift, although she had seniority to keep her day
shift.
Sergeant Schmidt had two options: go through an appeal of
the "not sustained" finding--but the appeal would be to
the same people who ignored the evidence--or obtain her
own attorney and prove in federal court that she was the
victim of sexual harassment and retaliation. She chose the
only reasonable option.
After Sheriff Helder learned he was being sued she was
moved to any even worse shift where she almost never gets
to see her children. Helder made very hostile remarks
about Sergeant Schmidt and Corporal Guenther during troop
meetings which made them outcasts.
When the lawsuit was filed he called plaintiffs "liars" on
TV over their claim that Captain Osburn and a Lieutenant
had female prisoners strip searched in a hall with
cameras, rather than the women's showers, so they could
watch on monitors located in Captain Osburn's cubical.
However, Sheriff Helder was quoted in a newspaper story a
day later backing off of that claim. In the article,
reporter Scott F. Davis wrote: "Helder said an
investigation confirmed a strip search had taken place in
the hall, but it was never confirmed anyone watched it on
video."
It is difficult to fathom why the Sheriff is calling these
women liars when witnesses corroborated all of their
sexual harassment claims, or how the County intends to
defend this case against such evidence. For more details,
read the complaint filed in federal court.
Source: Joshua Friedman
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