Opinion ID: 6323363
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Paschall’s Interactions with Benash

Text: John Benash, a white man who worked as a machine op- erator in the end forming and bending department, began training Paschall within her ﬁrst few days on the job. Shortly after training commenced, Paschall complained to Josh Combs, the ﬁrst shift group leader in the end forming and bending department, that she could not work with Benash because he only wanted to talk about Mario Andretti 2 and cars. 1 End forming is a type of process in which the ends of hollow tubes are shaped. The tubes are bent by machines during a process called bending. 2Mario Andretti is a former racing driver, said to be one of the most successful Americans in the history of motorsports. No. 21-1853 3 Although Paschall found Benash’s comments distracting, Benash continued to train her. But a few days later, Benash’s comments turned obscene. Benash asked Paschall: “Do you get wet when you have sex?” and “How does it look[?]” Paschall took these comments to mean Benash was asking her if “black women get wet just like white women get wet.” Understandably hysterical, Paschall immediately reported Benash’s lewd comments to Combs. Combs assigned Paschall to a diﬀerent job for the rest of the day. The next day, Paschall was again assigned to work near Benash. However, he did not make any inappropriate comments to her on that occasion or any other, and Paschall only took oﬀense to Benash’s comments on one other occasion. One day, after she had quickly completed a job, she overheard Benash telling coworkers “ooh that n[]ga be working fast.” Although Benash was not directly speaking to her, Paschall believed he was speaking about her. She reported the incident to Combs. Paschall eventually spoke about the incidents with Sidney Young, the Assistant Vice President of Human Resources for Tube Processing. Young informed Paschall that Benash was out of work for an injury and that she would “deal with that issue when [Benash] comes back.” On September 20, 2018, Young wrote Benash up for having “altercations or disagreements with co-workers.” He was told to keep his “comments relevant to work and work related topics,” and to not use “profane or provocative language around coworkers.” He was also informed that if he did not change his approach, “further disciplinary actions could result.” 4 No. 21-1853