While speaking at the Florida Educational Negotiators General Meeting on February 23, Leonard Dietzen offered these guidelines to school districts to protect employees and the employer from harassment issues:

• Harassment is in the news and impacts every employer at every level in the entity. There are higher expectations by employees to punish the harasser even if he/she is at the top of the entity.

• Before the next complaint arrives at your doorstep, audit your organization’s policies and procedures and revamp your training.

• Hire outside independent auditor to review policies, training and if necessary to handle high profile investigations of sexual harassment. Skill and expertise is needed to give the impression that the employer cares.