Sir

Your News story 'Sex scandal allegations surface at South Dakota school' (Nature 459, 148; 2009) questions how the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology “will handle human-resource issues under its ... subcontract for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory” in the light of alleged issues of sexual harassment. Your implication is unfair.

Although the school and its employees cannot comment upon the reasons for personnel actions, as director of human resources I wish to emphasize that we have no knowledge of any unresolved complaints, nor have we been apprised of any current concerns of the type alleged in the article.