Explosion of sexual harassment allegations around the country

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Any time you complete a harassment training in California, former Assembly Member Sarah Reyes from Fresno is the reason behind it.

Reyes was inspired to make a change after women came forward accusing former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 2000s of inappropriately touching them.

She sponsored a bill that would require companies with over 50 employees to have all workers complete harassment training every other year, eventually, it became state law.

"In California, people are to be trained regarding sexual harassment and that means everybody nobody gets a pass, not CEOs like Harvey Weinstein, and not an employee at the lowest level of the company," said Reyes.

Evolving sexual harassment claims against people in power are probing the question-what else can be done to stop it?

Reyes says one problem may be HR managers unable to force people higher than them to complete the training.

"My suspect is that the CEOs and the board members and the people at the higher parts of the companies like Weinstein, Lazada at Pixar were not taking that training," said Reyes.

The issue is not only seen in the entertainment business. One attorney says he sees the problem in startups.

"The Start-Up environment as we've seen at Uber, is sort of the Wild West and people there feel empowered to do whatever they want because of the informality of that kind of a business," said Christopher Dolan.

While the law is a step in the right direction by helping people identify what harassment is. Reyes says there is, unfortunately, no penalty if you do not complete it, but the practice could be enough to save your company.

"The good thing is we have some very brave men and women who are stepping forward and saying yes I have been sexually harassed by a person in power this is what happened they're telling their story, that raises awareness to everybody else," said Reyes.