07-02-2024
Qiqiuia Young filed a 125-page lawsuit against Stanford Health Care (SHC) for race discrimination in 2017. A Black woman, she was “singled out and harassed based on her race.” Her work issues began after seeing a colleague pretending to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan for Halloween. In addition, her co-workers used the N-word in her presence, and her manager sent two racist videos to her—both of which repeated the "N" word and one "joked" about the racist stereotype about black women loving fried chicken. She heard a co-worker tell a female patient that an anal catheter was accidentally inserted into her vagina because the patient's skin was too "dark down there." (KTVU.com) Young said she complained about these incidents, but management responded by blaming and bullying her. Stanford retaliated against her by excluding her from meetings, making false accusations against her, isolating her, and drastically reducing her work hours.
Stanford acknowledged the KKK incident and fired all of the employees involved. The organization asserted Young's lawsuit contained "many untruths and exaggerations…SHC has zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, retaliation or disrespectful conduct." (KTVU.com)
The day after Young filed her lawsuit, the Stanford dean and the SHC CEO sent an email to 22,000 people implying that Young had been dishonest in her reports of racism and misconduct. In March, the jury found Stanford's email had defamed Young after she sued it for racial harassment. The jury awarded Young $20 million in damages, but the Superior Court judge reduced it to $10 million. Stanford stated that it disagrees with the verdict and will continue to pursue post-judgment remedies.