In Edmund, Oklahoma Dr. Medhat Michael was arrested after turning himself in on several counts of sexual harassment charges. Warrants were released in his name after multiple charges were filed by two of his current employees on October 20, 2011. They work for his private practice at Best Care Medical Center. One of the women claiming sexual harassment reported that the sexual harassment began the day of the interview and has continued every day since.
Many of the things that the two women, and later a third, claimed to be experiencing was everything from sexually rude comments, to actually touching and kissing their neck and breasts. Many of the cases that are being claimed against Dr. Michael are text book situations, such as walking behind his female employees and making comments that she's "making him excited." These situations, and many others, are discussed in nearly every sexual harassment training course ever designed.
The same woman that claimed that the harassment had begun the day of the interview went on to say that the doctor would try to kiss her and force hugs upon her. She later told Dr. Michael that his behavior was inappropriate and he should stop. His response was, reportedly, laughter. This is turning out to be a case of non-belief or even full denial on the part of Dr. Michaels. Some simple and short sexual harassment classes may have turned this behavior around in a few sessions. Instead, over time, it was left to build and continue until it eventually exploded into a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Unfortunately, those three women working at his practice were not the only women that he is now charged with harassing. When charges of sexual harassment are made public, it often gives other victims the strength to come forward as well. This is exactly what happened in the case for Dr. Michael. Two days after the original charges were filed, two more women came forward claiming the very same types of sexual harassment were made against them. One woman who came forward is a current employee at Dr. Michaels practice and the other quit six months earlier.
In 2008, further Edmund city records were discovered showing that Dr. Michael has been charged with sexual harassing his employees. If the Oklahoma state courts would have insisted that he enrolled in sexual harassment training earlier, the chances that he would have committed the same crime again would have dropped by nearly 80%. Every woman he sexually offended was in the same manner as before, making what he does not just illegal but habitual. These habitual cases are exactly what sexual harassment training was made to fix. By ignoring the problem with Dr. Michael, the state is nearly as responsible as the doctor himself.
The Oklahoma state laws don't require sexual harassment training for small businesses, but it definitely should have taken a closer look at forcing the classes on current offenders. By making individuals that have a problem take sexual harassment training, it can help prevent them from falling back into the same problematic behavior.