|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A judge has ordered Stanford University and Stanford Health Care to pay $10 million in damages in connection with an employee’s racial harassment case that included allegations of a staffer dressing as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In March, an Alameda County Superior Court jury found that the two organizations had defamed patient testing technician Qiqiuia Young after she had sued the health care provider for racial harassment.
Young’s lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleges that coworkers used the N-word and mistreated Black patients. One image included in the lawsuit pictures someone, whom the lawsuit says is a Stanford Health staffer, dressing as a member of the KKK in what appears to be a patient examination room.
“I couldn’t turn a blind eye to what people were doing,” said Young, who is Black. “I had to speak out. And when I did, they tried to silence me.”
The day after Young filed her lawsuit, Stanford dean Lloyd Minor and Stanford Health Care CEO David Entwistle sent an email to 22,000 recipients implying that Young had been dishonest in her reports of racism and misconduct, according to a press release last week from her attorneys. The Alameda County jury found in March that the email, which was sent to all Stanford-ValleyCare employees, had defamed Young.
“Racist actions, including the incident that took place almost 10 years ago, have no place at Stanford Health Care,” the health care organization said in a statement June 20. “Those actions in no way reflect the organization and community we are today. We respectfully disagree with the jury’s verdict and continue to pursue all post-judgment remedies.”
The jury initially awarded Young $20 million in damages, but Alameda County Superior Court Judge Karin Schwartz reduced Young’s award to $10 million on June 13.
“My client is a hero,” said Lara Villarreal Hutner, Young’s attorney, in the press release on June 19.
“She’s a current employee at Stanford Health Care who’s had the courage to shine a light on the racism and patient safety issues she’s alleged and reported and to stand up against oppression for daring to speak truth to power. Ms. Young is grateful to all the Stanford faculty who have supported her and to the hardworking jurors who saw the truth,” the attorney added. “It’s been a nearly decade-long battle of David versus Goliath. And she’s won.”
Editor’s note: Story by Cole Reynolds of Bay City News Service. Embarcadero Media Foundation East Bay editorial director Jeremy Walsh contributed Tri-Valley localization details.