Jury orders Stanford to pay millions to employee in harassment case

A jury has discovered Stanford College and Stanford Well being Care answerable for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in damages to a longtime worker who sued the establishment over its dealing with of racial harassment and discrimination towards her a decade in the past.

After a seven-week trial, the jury ordered the award to be $20 million, however the Alameda County Superior Courtroom concluded final week the award ought to be lowered to $10 million. Half could be for defamation and previous and future damages to the plaintiff, and the remaining $5 million could be in punitive damages. If the plaintiff agrees to the discount, the court docket will order Stanford College and Stanford Well being Care to pay out the sum.

The worker, affected person testing technician Qiqiuia Younger, alleged in a 100-page lawsuit filed in 2017 that issues started when her co-workers at Stanford Most cancers Middle dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan round Halloween. Photographs of at the very least one individual — who was sporting a pillowcase as a hood and was pretending to be a KKK member — have been later proven to Younger.