Court Says Racial Slurs Against Black Health Aide Did Not Create Hostile Work Environment
“An objectively reasonable caretaker would not have been detrimentally affected” by patient’s use of N-word “all the time”
A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has dismissed a hostile work environment claim brought against a behavioral health facility by a black woman aide because “an objectively reasonable caretaker would not have been detrimentally affected” by her patient’s regular race-based harassment. Tondalaya Davis took a job at Elwyn Institute in 2018 to help patients in its New Beginnings Program. The Institute provides long-term residential care for severely impaired patients in a “step-down” program transitioning patients from a state mental hospital to a return to the community. She took the job from a similar position at another organization. She was assigned to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m...
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