BART investigating racist vandalism directed at employees

BART investigating racist vandalism directed at employees
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/bart-investigating-racist-vandalism-...
Posted: 8:56 p.m. Thursday, July 31, 2014
BART investigating racist vandalism directed at employees
lif. — BART officials responded Thursday to allegations by several African-American employees who say they found messages with racial slurs and death threats scrawled on their lockers.
BART officials say there is zero tolerance for racism on the job.
Two BART workers say the work culture allows discrimination. They told KTVU Thursday that they have experienced racism at their BART workplace for years. Now they are adding new charges to a discrimination lawsuit.
Rudolph Johnson, a track maintenance worker who's been with BART for four years, said he came to work one day and found graffiti on his locker, with the f-word and n-word.
"It told me I was going to die and I immediately was threatened and didn't feel safe at work," Johnson said.
Johnson said his supervisors seemed unconcerned.
"As soon as I reported it to my supervisor he said he was too busy and told me to report it to the next supervisor," Johnson told KTVU.
The graffiti incident happened June 27th.
Thursday BART issued a statement saying in part: "BART is taking extremely seriously a report of racist and threatening graffiti...BART Police were notified within an hour of the time the incident was reported and began an internal investigation."
Johnson says it's just the latest in a string of racial incidents that is detailed in a lawsuit brought by seven BART workers, filed last December. The complaint alleges another graffiti incidence in March 2013 involving racial slurs, an assault, and discrimination in promotion decisions.
Johnson says he had been assaulted by two Latino co-workers last year.
"They picked me up, tried to dump me in a trash can and put me on a table and tried to do sexual acts toward me," Johnson said. He told KTVU he reported the attack and simulated sex acts to a supervisor, but says the supervisor was unsympathetic and reprimanded Johnson along with the two co-workers for "horseplay".
Another African-American employee, foreworker Joseph Montgomery said one manager had a whip in his office.
"He used to display a white whip in his office, hanging, which was reported to the Office of Civil Rights at BART," Montgomery said.
KTVU contacted BART's Civil Rights Program Manager Sharon Moore. She says her office handles complaints from all BART departments regarding civil rights or discrimination cases.
She says her office was aware of the March 2013 racial graffiti complaint. At the time, she says the supervisors were instructed to investigate. When the supervisors said they couldn't identify the perpetrator, they were instructed to remove the graffiti and send a memo to all employees saying such acts were not to be tolerated.
Moore says her office was not aware of the assaults on Johnson until they were contacted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee regarding a complaint that included those incidents.
"That was the first time our office became aware of the incidents," Moore told KTVU Thursday.
The worker's attorney says BART's top official have not responded quickly or forcefully enough.
"When you're giving people a slap on the wrist instead of serious punishment, you're allowing a culture to fester that's discriminatory and harassing," said Jody LeWitter, the BART workers' attorney.
BART officials say they have hired two independent investigators.
The next court date for the discrimination lawsuit is September 17th.
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