Harassment

The Naval Academy is investigating allegations that uniformed midshipmen on a spring break cruise in the Caribbean drunkenly groped women and offered alcohol to teenagers. In an e-mailed complaint that prompted the investigation, a female passenger on the Carnival ship Glory two weeks ago, said the group of eight to 10 male midshipmen also displayed "lewd" behavior in bikini swim trunks and cowboy boots and hats - earning them the nickname "the Speedo Boys." "I was `felt up' by one of the very drunk men and I was given the misfortune of watching them grab and disrespect every woman they could get close to as well as seeing them offer the underage (15 and 17 year old)

IF THEY haven't already, school systems now must take sexual harassment seriously.The Supreme Court last week made school districts liable for damages if they ignore complaints of severe, pervasive sexual harassment by students.Last year, the high court ruled that schools could be liable if teachers harassed students. Now schools must also be prepared to discipline students for harassment and develop programs that promote appropriate behavior.Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the court's majority, asserted that a federal law, which bars sexual discrimination in schools and colleges receiving federal money, also covers sexual discrimination when it creates a hostile learning environment.

BOSTON -- For a few minutes, the justices seemed to be going down memory lane. Bad memory lane. The word bandied about the Supreme Court chambers Tuesday was "teasing.""I'm sure schoolchildren nationwide tease each other," said Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."Boys tease girls because they are girls, and vice versa," Justice David H. Souter agreed.You might have thought that the classmate known as G.F. was just a Georgie Porgie who kissed the girls and made them cry.Indeed, Davis vs. Monroe County Board of Education began with two 10-year-olds, G.F. and LaShonda Davis, who sat side by side in a fifth-grade Georgia classroom.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court justices, worried about creation of a national code of conduct for schoolchildren, openly resisted yesterday the idea that federal law against sexual harassment should apply when one student taunts or molests another.Justice Anthony M. Kennedy summed up the reaction of the doubting members of the court, saying the "necessary consequence" of extending "Title IX" to student misbehavior "will be a federal code of conduct in every classroom in the country."His reaction seemed to be shared by, among others, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen G. Breyer.

Lawyers for the public relations firm that is suing Black & Decker Corp. filed a motion yesterday to lift the protective order that bars outside parties from reviewing court documents and prevents either side from discussing the case.The move followed a motion filed by The Sun Monday to open the records."That Black & Decker may be embarrassed by the disclosure of certain information provides an insufficient basis to deny public access to hearings or to the Court's files," Image Dynamics Inc. lawyer Alan M. Rifkin said in a separate letter to Baltimore Circuit Judge Thomas E. Noel.

The state school board began wrangling yesterday over whether to explicitly protect students from harassment because of sexual orientation, the latest contentious battle over gay rights in Maryland.At one point, the bitter, two-hour hearing before the board became so sexually explicit that four board members temporarily walked out. The board is to vote on the issue today.State educators are proposing to add a new, broadly stated regulation calling for "all students in Maryland's public schools" to be safe and free from any form of harassment.

CHICAGO -- Ford Motor Co., the world's No. 2 carmaker, must face a class action lawsuit brought by female auto workers who contend that they were targets of discrimination and sexual harassment on the job, a federal judge has ruled.Ford recently reached an agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to establish a $7.5 million fund to pay workers hired since 1996 at its Chicago stamping and assembly plants who can prove that they were sexually harassed. The automaker claimed that agreement settled suits brought by several women employees and precluded further class actions.

WASHINGTON -- Creating a new but limited legal shield for students who are sexually harassed by their classmates, a divided Supreme Court yesterday outlawed severe and continuing sexual taunts or touching in classrooms and on school grounds.The 5-4 decision marked a breakthrough in the law of sexual harassment and drew praise from advocacy groups for the rights of women and gays.The court had never ruled on whether student-on-student harassment was ever illegal under federal civil rights law.Before yesterday, victims of peer harassment and their parents could sue only for damages in the limited circumstances allowed under state law. If the assaults were serious enough, the harassers could be prosecuted criminally.

In 2nd Star's production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," lots of funny things happen.We laugh at our human foibles dating back at least to 250 B.C., when Titus Maccius Plautus first revealed them to Roman theater-goers.In 1962, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart brought Plautus' characters to Broadway with their puns, mistaken identities, mime and cross-dressing.Stephen Sondheim gave each of these ribald characters songs. Courtesan trader Lycus expresses his cupidity in "House of Marcus Lycus" (dwelling of concubines, eunuchs and a virgin)

W. R. Grace & Co. said yesterday that it would recover $3.7 million from an insurance company for excess payments and benefits that were paid to two former chief executives, who themselves disagreed over the disclosure of such payments.Charles P. Valdes, chairman of the investment committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, said the recovery was a victory for Grace shareholders like Calpers, which owned 1.4 percent of Grace and joined in lawsuits over the payments in 1996.

Baltimore County school officials are preparing a new anti-bullying plan to present to the Board of Education this week, seeking to fulfill a state law requiring all districts to develop a policy by the summer. "What we're trying to get to here is everybody taking the bullying, harassment and intimidation as a very serious thing," said Dale Rauenzahn, executive director of student support services for county schools. All school boards must submit their plans to the state Department of Education by July 1. Baltimore County's proposal follows a model policy - called for by the General Assembly - that the state Board of Education released this year.

Increase human services staff now The staffing crisis at human services offices is urgent. Food stamps and other benefits that people need for survival are being delayed weeks and weeks, or are being erroneously denied. Applicants are required to produce the same documentation over and over because it gets lost. Economists say it will be at least a year before employment levels recover; we need to provide these benefits in a timely and dignified manner. Governor O'Malley should demand that DHR staff up to meet the increased volume of work.

Between the two complaints made against Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold by female employees and the bizarre incident in which a 911 caller reported illicit activity in the back of his car in a mall parking lot, enough questions are swirling around the first-term Republican to demand some sort of public accounting. The problem, so far, is that the citizens of Anne Arundel County have no way of knowing whether that's taking place. According to reporting in The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post, state employee Marvinese Harris claims that Mr. Leopold made aggressive, unwelcome advances to her while in line in the cafeteria of the Arundel Center late last month.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, battling accusations of sexual harassment, said Friday that he was the target of a smear campaign as members of his Republican Party pondered whether recent alleged indiscretions would jeopardize his political future. The harassment charges that surfaced this week come a little more than three months after police responded to a report of sexual activity in a mall parking lot inside a vehicle with the county executive's plates. Leopold denies improper conduct during any of the incidents, and said on Friday that opponents are "attempting to gain political points."

BDC drafting city slots bill The Baltimore Development Corp. is drafting legislation that would allow slots to go forward in the city as it continues negotiations with the Baltimore City Entertainment Group, the sole bidder for gambling licenses in the city, according to a letter from the BDC. City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake had urged the Dixon administration to draft the needed zoning changes that would allow a gambling parlor to...

Usually, the victims just walk away. The damage is done, they figure, and any further action only calls more attention to it and makes it worse. "They feel like, if they just go offline, it goes away," says Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland law professor and expert on cyber-harassment. "But it's all Google-able. Even if it's taken down, it could be linked elsewhere." But growing numbers of states, including Maryland, are hoping to give victims of online threateners, harassers and stalkers more legal muscle when it comes to fighting back.

An Anne Arundel County mother tearfully asked state legislators yesterday to outlaw "cyberbullying," testifying that her daughter was harassed and demeaned by classmates through the popular social networking site MySpace. The woman, who did not want her name used for fear of additional harassment, said the classmates set up a public online profile that used "very sexually explicit and vulgar language" to describe her daughter. She said the offenders "got away with a slap on the wrist and were told, 'Don't do it again.

The Anne Arundel County police officer called in sick to work so she could follow a colleague in her car as he responded to service calls, according to court documents. She allegedly loitered around his home and told his wife they were having an affair. Officer Michael T. Morningstar, a four-time Eastern District Officer of the Year, said that he complained to his superiors that Officer Kathleen P. Sauerhoff was harassing him and was answered with poor evaluations, a demotion and ridicule from his boss and co-workers, who called her his "stalker."

Maryland : Environment Tougher standards for ozone alerts Stricter ozone standards likely will mean twice as many code red and orange "alert days" in Maryland this summer, even if the air isn't any more polluted, state officials said yesterday. "We want people to understand that the air quality has improved, but now we will be calling alert days at a lower level," said Tad Aburn, director of the air division at the Maryland Department of the Environment. The new standard is an average of 75 parts per billion over an eight-hour period.

Carroll County school officials told a grandmother to stop coming to her grandchild's class after she spent two weeks studying the teacher. A Baltimore County teacher recalls being threatened physically by a parent who happened to be a boxer. And in Howard County, overbearing parents are becoming such a concern that more than half the teachers surveyed say they have experienced "harassing behavior." For the past two years, 60 percent of the teachers responding to a job satisfaction survey conducted by the Howard County Education Association reported that they have been subjected to harassment.