Why Is Tennessee's Government Refusing to Release Sexual Harassment Data on Its Members?

In September, the Tennessee legislature voted to oust Jeremy Durham, a GOP state representative who has been accused of sexual misconduct with at least 22 women, yet the state won't release sexual harassment data on any other Tennessee lawmakers.

The vote was historic, the first time a lawmaker has been expelled from the state's government over sexual harassment charges and only the second Tennessee expulsion since the Civil War. The 70-2 vote came months after The Tennessean launched an investigation into Durham's conduct, including late-night illicit text messages. The paper's coverage of the story prompted an investigation from the state's attorney general that unearthed allegations from 22 different women. The most shocking charge involves Durham having sex with a 20-year-old "college student/political worker" in his office and home.

Legislators have declared that Durham's behavior is not in sync with the state government's behavior, but when The Tennessean requested sexual harassment data from 45 Tennessee agencies and departments, the General Assembly was the only one that refused to readily hand over the information.

The statehouse's refusal to provide the paper with this data is striking for two reasons. First, the newspaper's reporting already suggests an epidemic. The Tennessean discovered that 460 sexual harassment complaints have been filed against state workers and state contractors since 2010. That's more than one sexual harassment complaint a week for six years.

Second, this data is public record. The AP reports that a new policy on this issue was adopted in July:

As part of a new policy adopted in July, if an employee or lawmaker sexually harasses someone, a public record of their punishment will be included in their personnel file. Personnel files for lawmakers and legislative employees are public records. But there is no notice of when that investigation is completed or when any findings are made public.

Since the new policy was enacted, Connie Ridley, the director of legislative administration, has continually ignored requests for information from the paper or rejected the requests for being too broad. 

The Tennessean's piece on the finding's cite the Tennessee General Assembly as "the most secretive state agency when it comes to providing information about sexual harassment in state government."