The battle for public records relating to sexual harassment investigations at WKU continues:
"Heavily redacted records documenting sexual harassment committed by Western Kentucky University employees reveal numerous instances of misconduct that resulted in faculty and staff being allowed to quietly leave their jobs or retire. And in some cases, those who knew about the transgressions failed to report them â even when students came forward to complain.
"The newly released â though heavily blacked out â employee sexual misconduct and harassment records are the result of an Open Records Act request that a student journalist with WKU's College Heights Herald placed in November 2016."
Five years, and a Kentucky Supreme Court opinion directly on point, later:
"WKU provided 17 case files to the College Heights Herald, spanning 1,896 pages of internal memos and emails, investigation notes and administrator interviews with the accused, witnesses and complainants.
Some records are so heavily redacted that the exact nature of the complaint â including the alleged misconduct â is obscured. In many cases, the personal notes investigators took are rendered unreadable, the contents of entire pages withheld.
College Heights Herald attorney, Michael Abate, "anticipated that the matter would wind up back in court. 'We're prepared to continue asserting the public's right to know what happened,' Abate said."
