BARTOW, Fla, (AP) - After two sexual harassment scandals in five years, one Florida county’s school board has voted to prohibit supervisors and employees from having any kind of romantic relationship.
The Lakeland Ledger reports the Polk County School District this past week instituted the new policy. It comes comes after two scandals. One resulted in a firing and the other in a resignation.
The new policy, which passed by unanimous vote, says that to promote a professional work environment free from harassment, hostility, and/or discrimination, “administrators shall refrain from dating or engaging in a consensual sexual relationship with employees whose work they direct.”
The School Board had previous sexual harassment and nepotism policies, but no written policy prohibiting employees in romantic relationships from supervising one another.
“This would be something that is new,” Polk Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd told board members. “We currently have nothing, and we can add to it as we go along.”
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