Michele Sommer, a Senior HR business partner in the New York area, responded to a critique of a previous post of ours, written by Anthony Vieira, Esq., which we reprinted at Reader Takes Issue With Our Post About Harassment In The Military.  

Among other things, Mr. Viera said that “there are more than 2.2 million personnel serving in our US armed forces. That today we have "Another" sexual assault is an issue for the people and the command involved. Your trying to go further and loop it into some embedded pattern of conduct is lawyer talk and nothing more.”

Ms. Sommer comments about our first (purportedly controversial) post:

“I didn’t read your first post as indicating that everyone in the military harasses or that all leadership in the military needed to go. However, there are many occupations where men and women work closely together that don’t appear to have the same level of sexual assault.

Therefore, it is right to question whether the numbers in the military have to do with the culture or not. There are many who will say it absolutely does; there are others who will likely say it doesn’t. To say that there needs to be change is accurate and is what many in the military and the US government are also saying.

To me what is most troubling is that the two most recent allegations that have gone public are against leaders within the divisions that were set up to prevent harassment and abuse and to support the victims. That is why this is news and being talked about. The same would be true if the head of a Rape Crisis Center was arrested for rape. People in such roles are held to a higher standard and their behavior greater fodder for the news.”

Read a similar, more recent post of ours:

https://employmentdiscrimination.foxrothschild.com/2013/05/articles/another-category/harassment/another-day-another-military-sexual-assault-scandal/https://employmentdiscrimination.foxrothschild.com/2013/05/articles/another-category/harassment/another-day-another-military-sexual-assault-scandal/