A year-end report from the Human Rights Commission says Vermont’s sexual harassment statutes don’t do enough to protect victims and need to be revised.
The report, published in late December, takes issue with language in Vermont’s statutes that defines sexual harassment and the burden of proof needed to pursue civil cases.
The report’s first recommendation says that the “severe or pervasive” standard of proof currently required by statute to prosecute sexual harassment is not nuanced enough for this specific crime. This standard is an “insurmountable barrier” in court, according to the report.
“The State of Vermont should adopt a standard that is less than ‘severe or pervasive,’ that takes into consideration the impact of discrimination on victims and does not punish the victim for failing to follow the protocols of the entity,” the report states.
Its second recommendation takes issue with the word “unwelcome” in the state’s definition of sexual harassment. In situations where there’s a power imbalance in an instance of sexual harassment, an “unwelcome” advance may come across as voluntary and create legal contradictions for victims, the report explains.
“Victims of sexual harassment in employment, housing and places of public accommodations face a significant barrier in proving their claims if they ‘voluntarily’ engaged in any sexual act,” the report states. “Our current sexual harassment laws do not reflect existing power dynamics between parties and the pressures upon a person whose housing, employment or benefits is conditioned on their decision to acquiesce to the advances of those in positions of power.”
In reference to this recommendation, the HRC pointed to continually emerging stories of pervasive sexual misconduct in Vermont’s Chittenden Regional Corrections Facility, the state’s only women’s prison.
While Karen Tronsgard-Scott, executive director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said she supports HRC’s mission to better protect victims of sexual violence, she thinks Vermont’s current laws are strong. In reference to the allegations of sexual abuse at the women’s prison in Chittenden county, she said her primary concern is that people are not being held accountable to these laws.
“I believe we already have the laws and policies that we need to effectively keep people safe,” Tronsgard-Scott said. “We just need to enforce those laws.”
The state has made recent strides to better protect victims of sexual misconduct in the wake of the #MeToo movement. In 2018, Gov. Phil Scott signed a new law into effect that gave workers more protections when reporting sexual misconduct in the workplace. In May, the statute of limitations was removed for reporting child sexual abuse charges in the state.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wouldn’t endorse the HRC’s recommendations until he’s heard testimony from various perspectives on the proposed changes. He said he supports more protections for sexual misconduct victims, but wants to leave an open mind.
“As time moves on, we need to be more aware of … new problems that arise,” Sears said. “I look forward to hearing from the HRC.”
Clarification: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the revised statutes would apply to criminal cases, instead of civil cases. It has been updated to clarify that these revisions would apply to civil cases.
