Opinion ID: 795392
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Green's Complaints and Franklin National Bank's Responses

Text: 11 At dates that are not specified in the record, Green reported Howard's racial harassment to Kim Reep, her supervisor. Reep is a woman of African-American and Caucasian heritage. Reep told Green that Reep could not do anything for Green and that Green should report the wrongful conduct to Wayne Erdman, a vice president of Franklin National Bank. Green did not make any complaints about Howard's racial comments during the months of May and June. 12 However, when Reep was on vacation in June 2002, Green made non-race-related complaints about her work environment to the President and CEO of Franklin National Bank, Dorothy Bridges. The substance of these complaints concerned the criticism from Markoe and Koop, and not the harassment by Howard. Bridges told Green that the two of them would talk with Reep concerning Green's complaints about Markoe and Koop. No followup meeting between Bridges, Green, and Reep took place. 13 On June 24, 2002, after Reep returned from vacation, Green spoke with her about Green's conflicts with Markoe. Green felt that Markoe was treating her differently than Howard. Reep met with Markoe and Green to discuss the conflict between them. According to Reep, Green attempted to explain her concerns to Markoe, but Markoe did not listen. 14 On July 10, 2002, Green reported the incident with Kray to Reep. Reep spoke with Erdman several times about Kray, but Erdman never told Reep whether he had spoken with Kray. 15 Also on July 10, 2002, Green complained about Howard's racial harassment to Erdmam. She told Erdman that Howard had called her monkey. Erdman said he would speak to Howard about it. 3 However, according to Green, Erdman never spoke with Howard about Green's complaint. 16 On July 31, 2002, Markoe held a meeting with Green and Reep to discuss concerns about Green's work performance. The meeting did not mention any of Green's complaints about her work environment. Markoe cited several incidents where she had requested Green to do things for her, but Green did not do them immediately. 17 According to Markoe, Reep spoke with Howard about the racial slurs for the first time on August 1, 2002. This was Howard's first warning from a supervisor about racially insensitive conduct. Reep also spoke with Vice President Erdman. At that time, Erdman said he had already spoken with Green about the complaints. He did not indicate to Reep what was being done to resolve the problems. 18 On August 6, 2002, the day after the incident at the vault when Howard told Green she was a chimpanzee and a monkey, Green told Reep about what Howard had said. Green also left a voicemail with Bridges about Howard's statements. Green told Reep that Green needed to speak with Bridges, but Reep said that Bridges would not want to hear from her. Reep proposed that Green and Reep try to work out the situation. Green ignored Reep's warnings and went to speak with Bridges. She put her complaints about Howard's August 5 comments in writing. Bridges told Green to take the written complaint to her supervisor and make a formal complaint. Reep gave Howard a second warning about racially insensitive language. 19 According to Bridges, the company's policy on sexual harassment also applied to racial harassment. The policy required that after an employee notified his or her direct supervisor of harassment, a supervisor would investigate the complaint. The supervisor was also responsible for attempting to resolve the complaint. There was no requirement to report harassment to the president of the bank. Franklin National Bank's policy required that the investigation proceed from the perspective of a reasonable victim of harassment and not the viewpoint of an alleged harasser. Upon beginning her employment, Green signed a form acknowledging that she understood Franklin National Bank's harassment policy. Bridges felt that it was not her duty to pursue the complaint. The proper course, in her view, was to wait for Green to make a formal complaint with Reep. 20 Green again met with Reep and gave her two written complaints detailing Howard's August 5 use of the word monkey and his July 30 statements about wanting to eat her liver. Reep told Howard about the complaint and told him that if something like that happened again, he would be fired. 21 When Green received the funny shaped head email, she forwarded it to Reep. Reep brought the email to Markoe and Erdman. After meeting, they decided to terminate Howard. Bridges was not part of the decision-making process to terminate Howard.