The Department of Justice filed a consent decree in the U.S. District Court of Louisiana. The form resolves sexual harassment allegations placed against the LDSPC, or Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

The LDSPC office administrator, Laura Arceneaux, was the victim of a sexually hostile work environment by her supervisor between the dates of May 2002 and December 2008. The harassment came to head with two separate attempts of sexual assault by her supervisor, the District Administrator Ferral Veillion.

The case has some added weight to the situation since four other employees have come forward claiming that they had full knowledge about the sexual harassment against her, but did nothing about it what so ever. The suit is also alleging that the LDSPC has no way of effectively reporting sexual harassment or assault when it needs to be confronted.

If the courts decide to accept the Justice Departments consent decree, the LDSPC will be required to create an effective method of reporting sexual harassment, as well as providing each employee and supervisor sexual harassment training. The certificate of completion from those classes is what will make all difference in any future sexual harassment cases. Finally, the decree would award Arceneaux with $50,000, including some other expenses incurred along the way.

The $50,000 award may seem small to some, especially after considering that she was victimized for 6 straight years. The fact that she didn't come out with the information sooner makes others wonder why she waited so long. In defense of her delayed actions, some would say that fear of losing a job that pays for a good way of life can be very strong. When physical sexual abuse happened, even she couldn't look the other way.

The Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division quoted the federal law that requires every employer to create and maintain a harassment free workplace. The Justice Department did take note of the LDSPC's new efforts to provide effective policies that would prevent harassment and give the proper amount of relief to the victim.

Many think that the filing of this decree shows the Civil Rights Division's ongoing mission to prosecute those who commit sexual harassment. The Civil Rights Division also does their best with the funding they receive to educate and inform the public, in order to prevent as much sexual crimes as possible.

The situation in the LDSPC could have been avoided altogether if the employees and supervisors would have been required to take a sexual harassment class as a part of their employment. It is true that the staff would have to take the class due to the lawsuit, but if the classes would have been taken earlier, then the $50,000 relief payments to the victim could have been avoided. That would have meant saving the money, the lawyer fees, the lost wages, and the lost productivity

It’s still undecided if the courts will accept the decree, but if they do it will be a quick and easy resolution to a complicated situation

Drug Use and Sexual Harassment Involving Foreign Minister at the Star Casino

There have been recent evidence provided by investigative reporters on the local 7News that has suggested that drug use and sexual harassment claims by the staff are largely ignored by the Star Casino. As reported in Yahoo News, One foreign minister in particular was kicked out of the casino for sexually harassing behavior, but was allowed to return thereafter.

Staff employee and Casino Duty Manager, Elizabeth Ward, reported that the minister was sexually harassing the staff by making crude comments about his own genitals. The casino looks at customers as any casino does, with eyes of money. The minister is worth a lot of potential gambling profits and referrals to other high-powered friends. Because of that worth, the casino has been overlooking the unnamed ministers behavior.

There have been five separate internal reports claiming sexual harassment by the same minister, which have been closed up and denied by the casino. The foreign dignitary in question is officially recorded to have sexually harassed a staff member early in the morning on April 16th, 2011. The report involves a foreign politician that later rose to become a deputy prime minister.

The April 16th report claims the male foreign dignitary propositioned a male dealer for sex, then starting threatening the staff member while swearing and cursing. Even after this report was filed, the minister in question was allowed to return to the casino again and again, leading to further sexual harassment of the staff.

Some would say that the casino is looking after its best interest by allowing the famous dignitary to continue to visit the casino. Others, such as the staff, see this as a decline in the casino's practices and standards. The staff truly feels that the responsibilities the casino has towards its employees and other gamblers have been left aside for the good of short-term profit.

The local Casino Liquor and Gaming authority is inquiring about the rest of the reports, wanting the full reports with no details blackened out, which can happen. The interviews given to the local news channel, 7News, has also received requests from the Gaming Commission for copies of the interviews with staff and guests. The news interviews will be included in the official inquiry of the Casino's wrong doing, if any.

Some may say that sexual harassment has been blown out of proportion, while others say there is a larger call for education than ever before. In this case, if the dealers, and other staff, were to under go sexual harassment training, the continued harassment may not have gone on past the first couple of incidents. The staff would know what is sexual harassment and what isn't. The certificate of completion that each employee would receive upon completion of a harassment class would give the current harassment reports even firmer ground to stand on in a courtroom.

The staff, of course, isn't to blame for being sexually harassed; it's the manager’s responsibility to keep their employees safe from this type of behavior. When this does occur, it's the managers and Casino's job to ensure it never happens again, which the Star Casino have clearly failed to do.

In Anniston City, Alabama the Councilman David Dawson is being charged with sexual harassment from last year’s incident while he was working for a pathology company. Council Dawson is named in the suit along with the Regional Medicine Center and Tim Jones – a RMC employee.

The Anniston Star reports David Dawson is the only one being accused of committing sexual harassment, but the suit names the other two entities as being negligent in their work and duties to prevent sexual harassment on the job. Last week an Ashville resident, Kay Dodd, filed the lawsuit in the Calhoun County District Court.

Kay Dodd alleges that Dawson was the reason for a hostile work environment while he was employed at Anniston Pathology. She claims the hostile environment came to a climax when Dawson's sexual harassment turned into sexual assault last August.

Gregory Harp, Dodd's attorney, claims that Dodd did everything in her power to make the harassment stop. She made several attempts to get the situation reconciled by going to the principals. The result of her efforts, she claims, ended in even more harassment from Dawson.

Shortly after her complaints, Dawson actually resigned from his position, citing a disagreement between him and his employer of 30 years. When Dawson was contacted last Monday concerning the lawsuit, he claimed no knowledge of the suit.

Councilman Dawson did admit to knowing Ms. Dodd, but commented that he didn't threaten anyone's job, let alone Ms. Dodd's. Dawson refused to answer any other question about the pending lawsuit. He claims to never have been contacted about any sexual harassment claims and then pulled away to consult with his lawyer.

The partial owner of Anniston Pathology, Dr. Talbot, as well as the Chairman of RMC, Anthony Humphries, both declined to make a comment regarding the lawsuit. Humphries would only admit that he knew there was an ongoing lawsuit, but refused to comment further.

The lawsuit claims that Dawson was routinely making sexually charged jokes, discusses his sexual abilities in the bedroom, and to even hand out Christmas and holiday cards depicting sexual acts to Ms. Dodd and several other employees. The lawsuit goes on to claim that Dawson would threaten her job and express his abilities to control her job duties. One threat toward her job came during a company Christmas party. Dodd wanted to leave the Christmas function, but was forced to stay to protect her job.

In a more sexually charged incident on August 5, 2011, Dawson is accused of straddling Dodd’s chair and began licking and kissing her face. He then rubbed the crotch area of his pants against Ms. Dodd. The court filings are saying that Dawson has an ongoing reputation of harassing the females that worked for him and around him. The lawsuit goes onto claim that the RMC employee Tim Jones helped retaliate and intimidate Ms. Dodd.

The lawsuit claims that Tim Jones would harass Ms. Dodd about the sexual assault that was ongoing by David Dawson. Dodd is demanding compensation and punitive damages for the assault she suffered. She's not asking for a specific dollar amount and leaves that up to the juror’s best judgment during the trial.

It's no secret that sexual harassment has been a growing problem at offices and other places of employment across the Untied States. Is there the same issue in public, such as Metro in D.C? The most common reason for sexual harassment in public places can be the misplaced compliment being termed as sexual harassment. It's public exposure to sexual harassment that is being addressed by a group called Collective Action.

wusa9.com reports that Collective Action is going before the Washington D.C. City Council in the coming week to request that the city start a public broadcast awareness system on Metro. They plan on discussing the evidence of hundreds of letters from concerned citizens that have been sexually harassed while riding on the Metro system. Nearly 1/3 of those letters have been from incidences aboard the Metro busses and trains.

It's understandable to have some sexual harassment or random crime, but a full 1/3 of the complaints being centered on a single location is something the CA feels needs immediate attention. The CA has even named the platforms themselves as being a busy location for sexual harassment.

Holly Kearl is the CA spokeswoman, she claims that the group is aiming its guns towards real sexual harassment, not serious compliments. The sexual harassment acts they named include public masturbation, groping on packed busses and trains, as well as getting rubbed against on nearly empty trains. Sexually harassing comments still haven't escaped their crosshairs. They also feel that badgering people for dates and "sexual favors" is wrong all the same as a physical act of abuse or harassment.

The official city records shows that the Metro officers arrested 22 individuals for sexual harassment sexual crimes, including rape. The official records also document that there were another 41 sexually related assaults and over 40 cases of flashing and other non-violent acts.

Even though these numbers may seem large, the Metro claims the issue isn’t really an issue at all. There are over 340 million Metro trips every year and for less than a hundred sexual crimes a year, that makes the averages very low. The numbers do suggest this low average, but the Collective Action group argues that the incidents that don't get recorded are the ones they are worried about most.

There is some truth to what they worry about, such as the fact that Metro doesn't record verbal harassment on their official records. The CA also argues that the numbers are so low because the vast number of sexual harassment victims never reports the incident(s) they are involved in.

It's because of all this that the CA will show specific letters that they plan on showing to the Council. The CA is going to try to encourage the City Council to start a PSA campaign to rid Metro of the high number of sexual harassment crimes.  The other big question for City Council is the request for better sexual harassment training for Metro workers. Being able to identify a sex crime is just as important as preventing the sex crime itself. 

Source:  

Carl R. Greene was accused of sexual harassment in the past year and is using threats of legal action to try and keep a victim from testifying in a current defamation case. Greene’s sexual harassment case was settled and since then he has been in a character defamation lawsuit with the Philadelphia Housing Authority in Pennsylvania.

A U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter determined that the accusations of sexual harassment were allowable in the defamation case. The judge’s declaration allows the testimony of one of the women Greene was accused of sexually harassing, Carolyn Griffith. Greene was fired from being the PHA's executive director after 13 years due to the sexual harassment case that ensued.

Greene was also fired for arranging secret and huge payments to three different women whom he was accused of sexually harassing. One of those women was, of course, Carolyn Griffith, who was working as the Manager of Finance for the Philadelphia's Housing Authority. Many have wondered if she helped Greene cover up any company money, in order to make those secret payments possible.

The sexual harassment case Greene was involved in settled out of court for another $1.1 million, paid by the PHA and to be split between the women evenly. Greene's attorney, Clifford Haines, tried to keep Griffith's testimony from being covered by the public press but met opposition from the judge himself. Judge Buckwalter would not allow a secret testimony, making her coming testimony totally public and fully admissible.

Haines has been doing his best to keep this defamation case from reaching the public news, he wants only court witnesses to know what is being said outside of written and filed documents. Even Haines himself is being tight-lipped about the court proceedings. When Haines was asked about the Judge's ruling to allow Griffith's testimony, he refused comment and said he wouldn't discuss anything about the judge's ruling. The PHA defending lawyers in the defamation case has also refused to comment on the defamation suit.

Greene has even gone as far as to make threats take legal actions against Griffith if she testifies during the defamation case, but the Judge's order has made that threat nonexistent. None-the-less, Griffith didn't show up at her scheduled deposition time. Her lawyer advised her to testify, but Greene's threats seem to have worked to his advantage, at least for the time being.

Haines, Greene's attorney, has claimed that the PHA only wants to use her testimony to vilify and incriminate his client with unfairly biased information. Skewing the case that he’s building against the PHA. Judge Buckwalter denied the claim and is allowing her testimony, if she decides to give it.

Greene is currently living in Decatur, GA. and the old board of directors for the PHA has dissolved. The U.S. government now controls the company and all they do. Since the government does control the company now, if Greene were to win the defamation case, some are wondering where the government will come up with awarded monies, from private or public pockets. 

Source: philly.com

Even though there has been very little news coverage on Rep. Hastings sexual harassment case, the suit is moving forward due to the D.C. courts ruling the case under Bivens. Bivens is a route for citizens to seek monetary damages for Constitutional civil rights violations by the government or it’s representatives. This ruling will make the only defendants of the case the U.S. Commission on Security in Europe.

Winsome Packer filed the sexual harassment complaint, claiming that Rep. Hastings gave her unwanted sexual touching, and other advances. She is also claiming that Hastings retaliated against her once the complaint was made. The D.C. courts instituted the Bivens act on February 14, Valentines Day.

A powerful and feared public interest group has stepped in on behalf of Winsome Packer, responded to the courts Bivens movement by saying that the congressman is no less guilty of the crime even though his name his no longer on the defendant nameplate. The group went on to say that they are sure this is just a procedure to see in which direction their case will be heard. They are positive that when the evidence is released, Rep. Hastings will be served with the full strength of the justice system.

Ms. Packer is claiming that over a two-year period, Rep. Hastings sexually harassed her with unwelcome advances and sexually touches. She is also claiming in the lawsuit that the Helsinki Commission Director helped Hastings retaliate against her when she rejected the Congressman's advances.

The Congressional ethics committee gives this some credibility by admitting that there is good reason to believe Rep. Hastings was committing a crime and violating Mrs. Packer’s civil rights. Hastings has grown accustomed to scandal in his office, so this may not be something that worries him too much.

President Carter appointed Hastings as Florida's first black American Judge. He served that position until 1989, when a flurry of allegations involving a judge's two cardinal sins, perjury and bribery. President Carter, and the rest of the Democrat controlled Congress, agreed to evict Hastings from his seat as judge.

Hastings said the proceedings against him were bound with racism, but another black American, Rep. John Conyers-D, and a founding member of the CBC, disagreed with the racism comment. He said he couldn't see nor find any a of racism in the Congressionally charged allegations against him.

The US Congress claimed Hastings accepted a $150,000 bribe to give a lenient sentence and then lied about it the incident when asked. This led to the eventual impeachment of Hastings as a Judge of any kind. The Congress had the option right there to rule that he never serves in a public office again, but they didn't.

Hastings ran for Congress and won, leading the government to the situation he is in now. The Judicial Watch has agreed that, given his past and current evidence against him, he has committed conduct unbecoming of a Congressman, violating house rules and Constitutional laws that he swore to honor and protect. 

Source: www.examiner.com

Imagine your younger sister of age 10 returns from school with a squeezed face! On trying to interrogate her, you found out that she was sexually harassed by her class mate! How would you have felt? You would go wild? However, this is the piteous situation many teenagers, nay, minors find themselves today. The frequent reports of sexual harassment among the minors are now alarming especially among elementary students.  Recently, there was a report of a boy harassing two girls below 14 years of age in the Skyline Elementary School busin Oregon. This incidence happened in Portland, although the Portland Police Bureau has started investigation on it. Reacting to this, District spokesperson Matt Shelby said that a 7th grade male student inappropriately handled two 7th grade female students inside the school bus.

Many more of such ugly occurrences are being reported daily according to kgw.com. Sexual harassment comes in different forms among the pupils, it ranges from spanking, touching, pinching, to pressure for sex, asking for dates, and many more. Although girls are the most frequent victims of harassment, little of such case have been reported against boys also. This has been noticed to have adverse effect on these girls especially at school. They are usually haunted by the fear of the ugly incidence they have passed through. In a well study case, lack of commitment to school work has been noticed from some of the female victims; they find it difficult to perform their school works.

This unacceptable behaviour should be condemned in all ramifications. The evil effect should be conveyed to the students especially to the bulling boys. This is majorly the work of the school administrators; they should call for a sexual harassment policy which will see to this undisciplined attitude. Copies of the policy should be posted in schools and shared among both parents and student.  And clear distinction should be made and spelt out about the acceptable code of conduct among pupils. It is very important to be stated that it is the right of every students to learn in a harassment-free environment.

It is important to also state that the parents and guidance have their roles to playing in enmeshing these unpleasant attitudes to their children and wards. Good parental care is an effective measure to curb this especially parental care that deals with electronic gadgets. Often, these harassers learn most of their method from these modern technological advancement tools. They learn new technics of harassing every day especially on the internet; hence they would want to practise that on these innocent little damsels at school. At a glimpse of any such act, parents should make urgent report to the security agent to protect their daughters just as the parents of the harassed pupils of Skyline Elementary School did.

Also, towards an effective way of arresting this bane of the society, online class would go a long way. Solution often lies in the causative agent of a problem. if these kids learn bad attitudes from the internet, the girls could as well learn preventive measures against falling prey to the hands of this morally-decayed boys.

In recent times, sexual misconduct has been a great menace to the society. Hardly could you point to any quarter of the society but you will find various scenes of sexual harassment. It happens among the minors, teenagers, university students and full-fledged adult. Although, there is increase in reported cases of sexual abuse among the young; a reliable study on various sexual misconducts shows that incidents of sexual assault are more rampant among college and university students than any other group.

In recent university surveys according to Yale Daily News, one out of every four female students has reported that they had experienced incidents of sexual assault. Earlier this year in Yale University in New Haven Connecticut, various reports of such dastard acts were addressed by the school's police department and other committees were set up to such effect. However, this blog entry is to enlighten you on the topic and the possible ways to escape being a victim.

Firstly, sexual assault among college students generally occurs in two forms; rape and indecent assault and battery. Usually, the aim for sexual misconduct is to have canal knowledge of the victim, which in case of rape, the sexual intercourse is under compulsion. And when that could not be accomplished, it results in indecent assault and battery. Seldom it maybe, however, battery may not be accomplished with the intention of sex, but rather, an embarrassment to and molestation of the victim. Despite that rape and attempted rape are both punishable under the law, the occurrences are still alarming.

The leading causes of sexual assault are influence of drugs and alcohol and pornography sensations. Many of the reported sexual misconduct cases in which the victims know their assailants were said to be under the influence of drug or alcohol. Among other factors contributing to this is excessive exposure of sensational parts of the ladies' body which in turn leads to temptation for the males. Reacting to what they see, many men result to sexual assault.

When a problem and its source are identified, then it becomes easier to propose solution to it. Taking to this effect, many universities have set up various security committees saddled with cases relating to sexual misconduct among the students. Several cases have been reported and attended to, although various reviews are still underway. To ease the job of these committees, strict policies could be made against sexual abuses and copies of it shared among the students and posted around the campuses.

 However, the first and most effective way to arrest further occurrences, or at least to keep it to the minimal, is a general awareness campaign among the students against the act. The vulnerable students should be made familiar with various ways and tricks which the culprits use to get them trapped. When the students know the various ways that lead to assault, the problem becomes easier to be managed. And importantly, with the present advancement in technology especially in cyber-world, the awareness program could be effectively done online. Online awareness classes about ways of escaping sexual harassment are on-going and have been efficacious so far.

Whenever you hear the word ‘modelling’ what comes to your mind? A dirty industry full of sexual harassment and immoralities?  If this is your opinion about the industry, well, you are partially right. This is also the stand of Sara Ziff, a model in US. There is generally a prevalent doubt among aspiring young models and many people if many young models are victims of sexual harassment or not. More often than not, those who fall victims of this sexual harassment are innocent children who thought of catching fun in modelling. Cases of such ugly incidence are now on the increase as Ziff said, recounting his experience in the industry. Imagine a 16-year-old girl on her first modelling shoot in Paris being harassed! Sara Ziff herself also gave her ugly experience where she was made to snap naked on her first day of modelling in an interview with Jessica Bennett a senior writer and editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

The The Global Post reports the modelling industry should be meant for artistic purposes in view to advertising a product. The industry could have been morally and economically propitious had certain measures been put in order. The essence of modelling should not be for sexual harassment as we witness today, however the intrusion of women hawkers have left a blemish on the industry.  Modelling industry should be a glamour and fashion field completely free of this menace. And in reality, the industry should be an open ground for both males and females in which each gender models for each other and not customised by females only which has greatly culminated into the increase in the immoralities. Funny enough, females now model virtually for everything, even things that deal exclusively with male.

The current trend in the industry indeed calls for urgent control measures. Public awareness on this evil menace will be helpful in this; an identified problem is a problem half-solved. It is to this effect that Sara Ziff, a model in US, from the various scenes she has witnessed in the industry, launched her non- profit group, Model Alliance. According to the model, this group is meant to propagate the need for security and protection for the models within the industry especially to the children. Also, in an interview with BBC NEWS, Ziff disclosed that she saw how the modelling industry breaks child labour law, lacks financial transparency and permits sexual misconduct among people within the industry.

In another development to protect the innocent models, a legal expert Susan Scafidi in an interview with the BBC NEWS, said that the workplace needs a strong backstage privacy policy which will arrest various reported cases in which models found their half-naked photos on different website on the internet. With all these outcries, there is still all hope that the industry may soon be sanctified and free from the hands of sex hawkers.

However, while these experts are busy with the legal way to restore morality and dignity back to the industry, there should exist an online avenue for awareness of the public especially the teenagers who are the most users of the internet. Children should be careful when thinking of being models especially not now that the coast is dark. Lastly, Sara Ziff was asked in an exclusive interview if she could allow her daughter to go into the industry, she said: “No! Especially with what is going on now”

Sexual harassment in colleges is reaching an all time high. What many people don't realize is that the majority of the cases take place within the schools infrastructure, not with the students. Sexual harassment against faculty members is all too common in today's college news, such as the case at SHSU. A federal sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit has been filed against Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas in the name of two art faculty members.

The individual charged with sexual harassment, specifically, is the Art Department Chair of 2008, Tony Shipp. Shipp hired two additional faculty members in 2008; they were a married couple by the name of Garry and Jasmyne Graybill.

After a short while, the married couple felt that the situation had gotten beyond being able to ignore, so they went to the Dean of Arts, Jaime Hebert. When Shipp found out about this, the married couple claims, Shipp refused to give them the promised merits raises and even posted their jobs as open.

Ever since its start, this case has had its ups and downs. On January 9th, the defense made a motion to have the case dismissed. On the same day, a U.S. Magistrate recommended the same thing, but in the same swift act, denied it outright.

The sexual harassment suit was also eventually dropped. That's not because the Graybills feel differently, they just couldn’t prove that it created a hostile work environment. The couple also couldn’t show that the University was infringing on their Civil Rights.

The Graybills insist that Shipp constantly asked the couple out on dates as a 3-way group. The school fights the allegations with the fact that it didn’t create a hostile work environment. The school instigates that the claims only “suggest” that there was any type of sexual harassment or that he was threatening with their continued employment.

SHSU holds firm to their claims that the allegations cannot be proven to be threatening to their safety, humiliating to their reputations, or have long-term effects on their feelings of personal worth. The school is also adamant that Shipp did not make the sexual harassment or invitations as a part of their continued employment, or pay, in any way. A trial date has been set for late 2012,  that should give both sides plenty of time to get their stories together. With the Magistrate looking down on the case and the failing of the sexual harassment suit, a retaliation suit looks dim on the horizon.

In the meantime, these problems facing colleges seem to continue to sprout up all over the country. The best we can do, as parents, teachers, and friends, is to make sure we are educated and prepared for the situation if it should ever occur. The best way to do that is by taking a class. Sexual harassment classes online can inform and prevent better than any another tool that can be utilized.

Sexual harassment does not have to be part of our schools, our jobs, or our lives. By taking sexual harassment education classes, our generations to come can avoid these problems and prevent them when they do happen.

Souce: www.houstonianonline.com