Last summer, six students claimed that David Hammond sexually harassedthem. Yesterday, the university said it found no proof to back-up thecomplaints. Despite the ruling, Hammond says his reputation has suffered.
Hammond is back to teaching now. He was supposed to be off lastsemester, working on a book. Instead, he was working on a defense.He was cleared of the accusations, but that doesn't change the way thephrase "sexual harassment" sounds.
And Hammond found out that for a lot of people, a person charged, is aperson guilty.
That's probably to be expected. What Hammond didn't expect, was that itdidn't just come from strangers.
The charges against Hammond were that he used inappropriate language, andthat he took part in kissing scenes during rehearsal. Now that he'sbeen cleared, is there anything he wishes he'd done differently? No, hesays.
Hammond is glad the situation is behind him, but says it's still difficultto walk the same hallways with the students who filed the complaint.They all have one semester of graduate school remaining.
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