[ad_1]
The Chicago Blackhawks fired the longtime head athletic trainer of their AHL affiliate following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, the team said in a statement to ESPN.
When reached by ESPN on Sunday, the Blackhawks confirmed that Rockford IceHogs head athletic trainer D.J. Jones’ employment had been terminated in November. According to sources, the person was a member of the team’s ice crew, and the allegations were from an incident that happened years ago.
“Under our new leadership, we have made it crystal clear that nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our players and employees, and there is a zero-tolerance policy for any violation of our standards of conduct in our organization,” the team said in the statement. “We have done a lot of work to ensure an environment where employees are encouraged to feel safe coming forward, even if it is about wrongdoing that occurred in the past.
“Recently, when allegations of sexual harassment in 2014 by D.J. Jones, the head athletic trainer for the Rockford IceHogs, were reported to the Blackhawks on October 27, 2021, we adhered to our new protocols and procedures, suspended Mr. Jones, conducted an in depth investigation over 5 days and, following the conclusive results, terminated Mr. Jones on November 3, 2021.”
Jones was in his 16th year with the IceHogs organization. His name has been scrubbed from the team’s website, and his information is no longer available on an internal database for athletic trainers. The IceHogs have promoted their assistant athletic trainer, John Walter, to the head trainer position.
Jones could not be immediately reached for comment. The person came forward with the allegations a day after the law firm Jenner & Block’s report on the Blackhawks was released. In that report were the findings from a lawsuit against Chicago alleging prolonged sexual assault by the team’s former video coach, Brad Aldrich, in 2010 involving Kyle Beach, a 2008 first-round pick by…
[ad_2]
Source : espn
