Keep your head low, don't whistle-blow - or feel the Burn

As I promised earlier, I am publishing some documents from a civil rights case filed by 4 female corrections officers from Ulster County in 2009.

The officers alleged sexual harassment and whistle-blower retaliation called "the burn" when no matter what the "guilty" officer does, she cannot escape petty picking that inevitably results in discipline.

See the full text of the lawsuit here.

In 2013, Northern District of New York rejected some of the claims, but allowed several claims to proceed to trial.

Three officers prevailed at the jury trial as to hostile work environment claims and were given a verdict in their favor, and the pregnancy discrimination claim of the fourth officer (refusing to give her lighter duties and making her work, with a high-risk pregnancy, with inmates and having to break up inmate fights) was rejected by the lower district court, see the jury verdict sheet here.

Recently, the federal appellate court reversed the dismissal of the pregnancy discrimination claim and sent it back to the district court for trial.

I encourage my readers to read the text of the initial lawsuit.

The callousness.

The cruelty.

The vulgarity.

Putting a "urinal tablet" on the "heating coil" in order to make a woman with a long-awaited high-risk pregnancy feel sicker than she was.

Those are all public officials.

They have their own wives, daughters, mothers and sisters.

I am sure most of them are church-going men claiming they are God-fearing and pious.

How could they?

Obviously, they could.

And you know why?

Because they thought they are untouchable.

And they are.

Because, out of all claims that these women brought, only "hostile environment" survived.

Not the 1st Amendment retaliation.

Not the sexual harassment.

Only the amorphous "hostile employment environment".

Don't look that the jury rejected some claims.  That happened because of how instructions as to the law were given, how the previous motions were decided.

We don't know the gender composition of that jury either.

As it is now, as a result of this lawsuit, sexual harassment in Ulster County jail and in other jails across the State of New York, against female CORRECTIONS OFFICERS may continue.

If female corrections officers are not safe from sexual harassment by their male colleagues and supervisors, inmates are simply doomed.

And the same can be said about the fate of whistle-blowers, especially female whistle-blowers.

A great message was sent by how courts decided this lawsuit as to the whistle-blower retaliation claims, to all whistle-blowers in New York, and especially to female whistle-blowers. 

Keep your head low, don't whistle-blow.

Or feel the burn.