Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Recently my wife was accused of being racist to Hispanic students at the California public school that she works at. The accusation came from a mentally unstable teacher who has been moved to four different schools in five years. Previous to this accusation the accusing teacher has had several explosive confrontations with my wife and at least four other staff members. He has also had outbursts and loud confrontations with other teachers at his previous school, which human resources was aware of yet did nothing. Because of his latest accusation my wife feels unsafe at work. His hostile, erratic and uncontrolable behavior makes her workplace feel unsafe. The following day after human resources began their investigation my wife spent the majority of the day crying in her classroom. She has since taken a leave of absence as recommended by her doctor. She has also recently learned from her union president that human resources is going to do nothing to stop this teacher's bullying behavior because they are afraid he will pursue his accusations further and that he now has special protection as a "whistleblower". Other staff members have even be told to be nicer to him. Despite all this my wife would love nothing better than to return to her classroom and her beloved students. My wife also happens to be Hispanic herself and previously to working for this particular school district worked in Lenox and Hawthorne, both predominantly Hispanic communities. She also has 23 years of near perfect performance reviews and is dearly loved by all her students who wish for her to return to school. My wife's colleagues and the teachers at the accusers previous school are all more than willing to help her in any way they can. Many parents have also come forward to offer their assistance too. If human resources is unwilling to do anything to this teacher and will continue to let him bully and scream at my wife and other teachers then my wife is willing to seek justice to the fullest extent possible.
2 Answers from Attorneys
I am not sure what your question is. My recommendation is to see an employment/labor law attorney. Whistleblowers are not granted unfettered bullying because they make an unsubstantiated complaint. HR has an obligation to prevent the workplace from being hostile.
Sounds like they are allowing discrimination in the workplace since she is Hispanic and female.... A good attorney could make a big difference here in negotiating one thing reasonable.
Welcome to the wonderful PC world of government worker union protection [for the teacher] that many in society are complaining about.
Your wife is also theoretically protected by her government worker union. Let them duel it out. This is a grievance problem, or in an extreme case of 'stress', a WCAB problem.
IF, and only IF, your wife is provably subjected to conduct that violates the Discrimination [race, sex, age, ethnic, etc.] or the criminal laws, would she have other than a union grievance. You've said nothing that would so indicate.
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