Inappropriate Comments To Female Reporter Prompts Investigation
Yesterday news broke, and garnered national attention, about Sen. Peter Lucido making an inappropriate comment to Michigan Advance reporter, Allison Donahue, and now Michigan legislative leaders are looking to investigate.
After saying "they could have a lot of fun with you" about a group of high school boys to the 22-year-old reporter, Donahue felt uncomfortable but left her recorder going and called him on it.
“I thought the comment that you made was unprofessional in front of the group of boys, saying that I would have fun with them," Donahue said. "I don’t know what you were insinuating, but— ” he then cut her off to defend his comment with his alum status at the school.
Donahue then wrote about the interaction and has since elaborated on her feelings and is using it as a way to speak about the "big picture" of women often trying to brush off things like this.
"It's so normalized. You hear something and you don't take the time to say something," she said. "But this time, it stopped me from doing my job, from doing the job I wanted to do, and that was significant to me."
Now, according to MLive, Michigan legislative leaders are looking further into Lucido's behavior.
In a letter to the Senate Business Office, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clark Lake) and Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint) requested investigation.
“Sexual harassment has no place in the Michigan Senate," they say in the letter. "We take this allegation very seriously and trust that you will take appropriate action to solve this matter.”
Lucido has since issued a "statement" on the matter, “I apologize for the misunderstanding yesterday and for offending Allison Donahue" which Shirkey and Ananich have denounced.