Sexual Harassment

The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District has begun discussing a policy to officially prohibit sexual harassment of students. The policy is needed because of a recent court decision that students could sue a school district over sexual harassment, Superintendent George H. Slick explained after the school board's regular meeting on Monday. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in February that students can recover damages from schools and school officials for sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools receiving federal money.

Two weeks ago, 6-year-old Jonathan Prevette responded to a classmate's request for a kiss by pecking her cheek - a gesture that made him an instant celebrity. Fame came knocking, thanks to the unfathomable thickheadedness of adults who run public schools in Lexington, N.C. They deemed the first-grader's kiss to be "unwelcome touching" in violation of the district's sexual harassment policy. Jonathan was suspended for a day and missed an ice cream party with his class. Then the fun began: TV interviews.

A Royersford woman has filed suit against her former employer, seeking in excess of $20,000 in damages for what she alleges were various forms of sexual harassment over a half-year period. Hope Lindauer and her husband, C. Michael Lindauer, filed suit Oct. 14 against Berwyn-based Dickson Gabbay Young Inc. and partner James Young, and James A. Donegan and his Wayne security firm, Donegan Security Associates. Lindauer worked at Dickson Gabbay Young Inc. as an administrative assistant.

Taking a page from Mayor Nutter, who established similar policies last year for city agencies he controls, City Commissioners Anthony Clark, Al Schmidt, and Stephanie Singer approved executive orders last week to prohibit sexual harassment and nepotism in their office. Arguably, state laws already restrict sexual harassment and the hiring of family members by public officials or employees. But that didn't stop the commissioners' former chair, Marge Tartaglione, from hiring her daughter Rene as her top deputy, until Rene was bounced from the job by the city Ethics Board for continuing to engage in ward-level politics, in violation of the City Charter.

The Hatboro-Horsham school board has unanimously approved a district-wide sexual-harassment policy for its employees and job applicants. By so doing, the district, which adopted the policy at its regular board meeting Monday night, joins a growing list of area school boards that have implemented or considered such policies in the last year. "We wanted to communicate clearly to all employees that we wouldn't tolerate such behavior," said Superintendent Gerald Strock. "A formal policy ensures that every employee understands this.

Johnna Crawford came to Voorhees Township recently to warn South Jersey businesses about sexual harassment. "Businesses can stop many sexual-harassment lawsuits before they become a problem," Crawford said. She should know. In April 1990, Crawford filed a civil lawsuit against Stockton State College, charging that a fellow athletics department employee sexually harassed her at meetings in Hammonton and Boston. In October, Crawford received $501,000 to settle her lawsuit against the school, although school and state officials denied her allegations of harassment.

Lawyers for the Philadelphia Housing Authority accused former executive director Carl R. Greene on Monday of being "evasive and nonresponsive" during a seven-hour deposition last month in a lawsuit he filed following his firing over sexual harassment complaints. The lawyers filed the motion to compel more testimony, saying they wanted to question Greene for an additional four hours. Greene is suing the authority and its former board in federal court on the ground that they violated his civil rights by not giving him a chance to defend himself before his ouster on Sept.

The 19-page letter from the U.S. Department of Education to colleges and universities across the nation last April made already-busy Philadelphia lawyer Gina Maisto Smith even busier. The letter emphasized that colleges had to respond to any complaint of sexual misconduct, even if the victim didn't want to press charges or otherwise pursue it. Some colleges hadn't been investigating such complaints even though a 2001 Education Department document recommended it, said Smith, a former sex-crimes prosecutor who now specializes in law involving sexual misconduct on college campuses and other institutions.

Taking a page from Mayor Nutter, who established similar policies last year for city agencies he controls, City Commissioners Anthony Clark, Al Schmidt, and Stephanie Singer approved executive orders last week to prohibit sexual harassment and nepotism in their office. Arguably, state laws already restrict sexual harassment and the hiring of family members by public officials or employees. But that didn't stop the commissioners' former chair, Marge Tartaglione, from hiring her daughter Rene as her top deputy, until Rene was bounced from the job by the city Ethics Board for continuing to engage in ward-level politics, in violation of the City Charter.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced the unwelcome possibility of a coalition crisis on Wednesday after Israel's Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, overturned a law that has helped ultra-Orthodox Jewish men avoid military service. The ruling addresses an issue that is at the center of a simmering cultural war between religious and secular Jews, and adds to Netanyahu's headaches as he prepares to travel to the White House for critical talks about Iran's nuclear program.

A federal judge has made it clear that testimony by women who said they were harassed by Carl R. Greene will play a key part in his long-running defamation lawsuit against the Philadelphia Housing Authority and its former board members. "Sexual harassment allegations are relevant," U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter wrote in an order Thursday, allowing one of the women, Carolyn Griffith, to testify against Greene, who was fired in September 2010 as the agency's executive director after 13 years.

A federal judge has made it clear that testimony by women who said they were harassed by Carl R. Greene will play a key part in his long-running defamation lawsuit against the Philadelphia Housing Authority and its former board members. "Sexual harassment allegations are relevant," U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter wrote in an order Thursday, allowing one of the women, Carolyn Griffith, to testify against Greene, who was fired in September 2010 as the agency's executive director after 13 years.

Guantanamo rules stir legal backlash SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The new commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison wants a team of government and law enforcement officials to be allowed to review all communications between lawyers and inmates accused of helping organize the 9/11 attacks, the Associated Press has learned. The proposed changes, contained in a 27-page draft order, have sparked a backlash from the Pentagon-appointed attorneys for the five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the attacks.

DESPITE efforts to define sexual harassment legally, it still means different things to different people. Some conduct now seen as sexual harassment was once accepted, at best, or considered boorish, at worst. Plenty of men over a certain age were guilty of it years ago. Unwelcome advances . . . talking trash . . . questionable banter. This was routine. Some women believed that they had no choice - accepting it as a nuisance that they had to tolerate. Many (perhaps most)

Hear the name Anita Hill and you think of a young law professor telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her at work. Twenty years later, Hill has shifted her focus away from the office in a new book that looks at the connection between home and equality. "Home is not just a place, it's also a state of being," Hill explains. In Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home (Beacon Press, $25.95)

ATLANTA - Herman Cain is still campaigning for president. But by most measures, his White House bid is all but over. His standing in polls is cratering. Supporters are wavering if not fleeing. Fundraising is suffering. And, these days, the former pizza company executive is less a serious candidate than the butt of late-night comedy jokes after a string of accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and, now, an allegation of a 13-year-long extramarital affair. "His chance at winning the presidency are effectively zero," said Dave Welch, a Republican strategist who worked on both of John McCain's presidential bids.