STATEMENT: Women’s Group Calls on MLB to Institute League-Wide Sexual Harassment Policy After Leaked Emails Show Former Dodgers Player Dismissed for Sexual Assault Was Allowed to Play for Minor Leagues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 11th, 2018
CONTACT: Yasmina Dardari | yasmina@unbendablemedia.com
STATEMENT: Women’s Group Calls on MLB to Institute League-Wide Sexual Harassment Policy After Leaked Emails Show Former Dodgers Player Dismissed for Sexual Assault Was Allowed to Play for Minor Leagues
Today, the Daily Beast broke the story that a former Dodgers player dismissed for sexual harassment and assault returned to baseball with a minor league contract for a different team.
In response, Shaunna Thomas, Executive Director and Co-founder of UltraViolet, a leading national women’s group, issued the following statement, calling on the MLB to institute a league-wide sexual harassment policy:
“Major League Baseball’s workplace sexual harassment policy is meaningless if it welcomes a sexual abuser back to the job. The Dodgers’ and MLB’s failure to communicate across teams that a player was dismissed for sexual harassment and assault amounts to serious incompetence and negligence—and puts women’s lives at risk.
“If the MLB is truly committed to stamping out sexual abuse within its organization, then it must implement a league-wide sexual harassment policy that covers both major and minor league players—so that not one more perpetrator slips through the cracks.”
For more information, or for interview with an UltraViolet spokesperson, please contact Yasmina Dardari at yasmina@unbendablemedia.com.
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UltraViolet is an online community of over 1,000,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media. Find out more at WeAreUltraViolet.org.