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| OCTOBER 19, 1998
2:02 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: American Civil Liberties Union |
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| Mass. Court Rules in Favor of Social Worker Fired for Telling Racist Joke | ||||
| BOSTON - October
19 - A judge has ruled that the Massachusetts Department of Social Services violated the
first amendment free speech rights of social worker, Linda Pereira, a former Fall River
City Counselor, who was fired after telling a racist joke at her table at a private
dinner. In a ruling made public last Friday, Judge Herman Smith of the Suffolk Superior Court ordered Pereira reinstated to her position with back pay and found DSS Commissioner Linda Carlisle individually liable to Pereira for monetary damages for making the decision to fire Pereira. The amount of damages will have to be established at a later trial, said Eric Maxwell, a cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts who represented Pereira. Pereira had been employed by DSS for more than 12 years, during which time she had an unblemished work record. She had never displayed racist sentiments or acted in a racist manner. On February 5, 1996, Pereira attended the private party, during which a city official told her a grossly sexist joke. In response, she told him the racist joke. The joke was overheard and reported in the press, inaccurately, as being included in her speech condemning voting irregularities. Carlisle immediately placed Pereira on administrative leave and fired her on April 10, 1996. Although Judge Smith described Pereira's joke as "racist and utterly detestable," he said his decision was based on the basic First Amendment principle that public employees' free speech rights are determined by balancing the interests of the employee as a citizen against the interests of the employer. In this case, he ruled that DSS had made no showing that Pereira's comment impaired the effective functioning of DSS. Although 25 people called DSS to complain about Pereira's statements, this did not show any interference with the regular operation of the agency. Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, Judge Smith noted "that a purely private statement on a matter of public concern will rarely, if ever, justify discharge of a public employee." Judge Smith also ruled that Commissioner Carlisle was personally liable to Pereira because "a reasonable official would have understood that firing plaintiff for making a racist comment at an event not open to the public violated her right to free speech." Maxwell said that Pereira was a good social worker who made a stupid statement. "The judge's decision properly protects public employees from being fired for their private comments." ### |
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