The termination of the head athletic trainer for the Chicago Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate program has made big news in the sports world in Rhode Island and elsewhere. The head trainer of the Rockford IceHogs, who had been in the leadership role for well over a decade, has been scrubbed from the organization’s history in what feels like the blink of an eye.
This is after sexual harassment allegations against the trainer led to an investigation; he was let go in November 2021. The allegations were brought by an individual who was part of the IceHogs crew, and the incident in question reportedly happened some years previously.
A change in leadership
Thankfully, the case has sparked a new direction in the organization’s leadership
with a greater focus on employees’ and players’ well-being and safety. With a sexual harassment policy that allows for zero tolerance, the Blackhawks are doing everything they can to show that they’re doing what’s best for every team.
There is still much work to be done, and the organization isn’t trying to pretend that they’ve fixed the problem in their response to this one incident. Most experts would say that this case is indicative of a larger problem, and you would be hard-pressed to find a professional team out there that wouldn’t benefit from the same kind of measures that the Blackhawks are putting forward.
No tolerance for sexual harassment
With the new policies around sexual harassment implemented by the team’s organization, it doesn’t matter when an individual’s misconduct happened. For the sake of the safety and security of all players and employees, wrongdoings at any point in a person’s life are grounds for firing.
Once the allegations first came out in October 2021 regarding an incident from 2014, he was suspended immediately. This was in accordance with the new policies that the team had adopted. It wasn’t until the investigation fully proved his misconduct that the team officially let him go and removed the employee of 16 years completely from the company website.