Editorial: #MeToo progress in the House

The #MeToo movement still reverberates at the state Capitol. 

A year ago, longtime Maui legislator and former House Speaker Joe Souki was forced to resign after several women, including former Department of Human Services Director, Rachael Wong, accused him of sexual harassment.

Now the state House, under Speaker Scott Saiki, has taken additional, welcome measures to curb harassment. A proposed revision improves House policy by spelling out in more detail examples of what constitutes sexual harassment. It also explains more clearly requirements for reporting incidents; prohibits retaliation against victims; and requires annual training for House members and staff, among other things. That’s all to the good. The state Senate is reviewing its policies as well, and should emulate the House’s stronger approach to handling sexual harassment complaints.

However, the House’s proposed policy does have a potential weakness. It requires confidentiality “to the greatest extent possible” regarding all aspects of a harassment case. Further, “information regarding any report shall be provided on a need-to-know basis only”; unauthorized disclosure could lead to disciplinary action.

Certainly, there might be sensitive aspects of an investigation that require confidentiality to protect victims. But the new policy should explicitly allow the results of an investigation to be public, especially if a legislator is the accused party. After all, lawmakers are hired by and work for Hawaii’s citizens, who also pay them. If anyone has a “need to know,” it’s the public.

The #MeToo movement rose to prominence by shining a public spotlight on sexual harassment, which long thrived in the shadow of shame and abuse of power. An overly broad confidentiality standard could lessen the effectiveness of the new and improved policy.