Opinion ID: 724396
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Clipboard Incident

Text: 13 Wilson alleged that on June 22, 1992, Wright finished a session of holding up his pants, ... while singing a song about hips and butts and things like that. Then, as Wilson was leaning over an office machine that had jammed, Wright whacked her in the hip with a clipboard. The whack felt like bee stings and Wilson was stunned,  fell into the machine, saw stars, and had tears running from [her] eyes. Other co-workers, mostly female, were present. Wilson alleged that she could hear people laughing. 14 Wilson sought medical treatment about a week later, but did not see a doctor because she did not have a workers' compensation report and did not want to pay the doctor herself. Wilson eventually saw a doctor six or seven weeks after the clipboard incident. 15 When the clipboard incident originally occurred, Wilson did not report it to management because Burch was out of town. Wilson subsequently reported the incident to Burch. Wilson tried three times to relate the incident to Burch's supervisor, Sheila Ezell, but was unable to contact her. At Burch's recommendation, Wilson told Renita Barton, an Affirmative Action Coordinator in the Bank's Personnel Department, that [she] had been hit [and she] had a bruise on [her] hip. Barton asked if Wilson wanted to file a workers' compensation claim, but Wilson declined at that time. Burch called Wright into his office and told him that in no circumstances should [he] ever touch another employee, and that there certainly shouldn't be any hitting of another employee. Burch warned Wright that actions of that sort could lead to Wright losing his job. 16 After the alleged clipboard incident, Wilson felt that a female coworker and Wright were teasing her because she complained to management. In response to Wilson's concerns, Burch transferred Wilson to another department where she worked in a separate room with only one other person. Wilson also received a raise as a result of the transfer. Wilson was overjoyed and really appreciated the transfer. After the transfer, Tish Jones, a female co-worker, would come to the door, shut the door behind her and ask [Wilson] what [she] was doing and why she would not talk to Wright or Jones. Jones would also get closer and closer to Wilson until Wilson would get up, open the door and leave. Wright would do the same thing sometimes and lean over Wilson. Burch told Jones and Wright to leave Wilson alone. Wright then only entered Wilson's office once more for a business purpose. When Jones continued to bother Wilson, Burch instructed her to leave Wilson alone. 17 At some point Burch told Wilson that she was too slow and needed to pick up the pace of her work. Wilson admits that she was not keeping up with her work. Wilson resigned from her position by giving two weeks notice. The first week of her notice she spent on vacation. When she returned for her second and final week, Wilson took a sick day, but ran into another employee of the Defendant when she was out shopping. Wilson was fired, but was paid for the second week.