There’s a grey area between what is (should be?) unacceptable in a professional setting, and what constitutes a crime. Even in particularly egregious cases of sexual misconduct, it’s difficult to think of how many victims chose to go to trial. Civil settlements are much more common. Think Roger Ailes at Fox.

The local prosecutor in whatever jurisdiction this incident occurred in is likely to decline prosecuting the case. Prosecuting instances of sexual harassment (assault in this case?) Is not typically a prosecutor’s first choice for how to use their office’s limited time and resources.

Maybe she could’ve filed a claim with the EEOC? But, that’s a long drawn out process as well. Most victims of harassment may just choose to try a company’s internal HR processes, since an EEOC claim may require spending inordinate amounts of time, and maybe money if you hire professional help.

From the dozens of Twitter and personal blog testimonials of DataCamp instructors (contractors), it seems that but for collective pressure and organizing from the instructors, DataCamp would’ve just swept this whole incident under the rug.