No interns have come forward with complaints of harassment in 30 years, according to Burdett Loomis, political science professor and internship coordinator at the university. Tom Day, director of legislative administrative services in Kansas, said the same.

Recent news reports, though, revealed that interns there have faced pervasive harassment in the Capitol. And Loomis said he would be naïve to think that interns haven’t been harassed. “It’s a pretty sexist place, and it has been historically and it still is now.”

Loomis said he has always talked to his students about harassment, but this year he is trying to be more vigilant.

“I think I’ll check back with my students in the first week in March,” he said. “I’ll say, ‘Without naming names, tell me how you sense this is all going. If you have specific issues, come and see me.’ ”

Statue of Queen Isabella I of Spain and Christopher Columbus at the California State Capitol, Sacramento, California; Wikipedia

He said his program has high enrollment this year, despite allegations in statehouses, because students see the value in the program.

“They are doing real work,” Loomis said. “They are tallying surveys for legislatures. They are researching policy.”

Across the state line in Missouri, the Legislature made changes to try to prevent harassment two years ago. But Democratic state Rep. Courtney Allen Curtis is not happy with the progress. There have been six harassment complaints since then, he said.

In December, he proposed suspending the Legislature’s internship program, which he thought might “reset the culture.”

Interns’ yearning for status, he said, along with the power dynamics in the Legislature, creates an environment ripe for exploitation. While halting the program would decrease opportunities for aspiring politicos in the state, Curtis said it would be better than the alternative.

“If we could prevent other future leaders from being harassed — I felt it was our duty to do that,” he said.

Protecting Interns

Some states, such as New York and Washington, limit interactions between state lawmakers and interns, according to a recent review of legislative intern policies by the National Conference of State Legislatures. New York’s policy does not allow “fraternization.”

Other legislatures are reviewing their internship or page programs in response to ongoing allegations. In Rhode Island, the Senate chief legal counsel is conducting an immediate review of the page program after Republican state Sen. Nicholas Kettle was charged Monday with extorting sex from a teenage legislative page in 2011, according to the Providence Journal.

In Colorado, Robert Duffy, a political science professor at Colorado State University and the college’s legislative internship coordinator, said his students are shuttled to and from the state Capitol, which helps to keep them from attending after-hours events. He also is present in the Capitol when the students are there, which he said may make it less likely that lawmakers will misbehave.

But several lawmakers have been accused of harassment there in recent months. A letter addressed to the legislative council’s executive committee and signed by more than 40 interns and aides said that “aides and interns are often subject to abuses of power, sexual harassment being one.”

The aides and interns requested more security in the Capitol, especially around the offices of the accused lawmakers, and the installation of panic buttons in the Capitol and other legislative buildings.

“Please understand: we cannot work from home, we cannot avoid sitting in on a member’s committee or walking past a member’s office on our floor if that is what we have been asked to do,” they wrote.

Interns there were required to attend an anti-harassment training for the first time this year. The Legislature also hired a human resources director, hoping that a nonpolitical appointee would help women feel more comfortable and prevent retaliation.

Duffy said that while he has always talked to his interns about what appropriate behavior should look like, he has expanded on that discussion this year.

“I’ve told them we have a zero tolerance policy,” he said. “So if there is something going on with one of your colleagues or something that makes you uncomfortable, then bring it to me and we will take care of it.”

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