The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request to review a case against Mercy Hospital Independence (
In 2009, Sara Debord, a former Mercy employee, made several Facebook posts claiming her supervisor was sexually harassing her and engaging in other improper behavior. When Mercy's human resources director met with Ms. Debord regarding the posts, Ms. Debord said she did not create the posts and denied any sexual harassment on the part of her supervisor.
Almost five years later, Ms. Debord filed a complaint against Mercy alleging her supervisor at Mercy created a hostile workplace through unwanted touching and offensive sexual remarks. The complaint further alleged Mercy failed to prevent the improper behavior, and when the behavior was reported, Mercy retaliated by terminating her employment.
In her complaint, Ms. Debord claimed Mercy became aware of her supervisor's' improper behavior when she posted about the sexual harassment on her publicly available Facebook page. The district court and appeals court agreed that Ms. Debord's Facebook posts did not put Mercy on notice of the alleged sexual harassment since Ms. Debord lied about creating the posts and failed to follow Mercy's otherwise flexible reporting system for sexual harassment complaints.
The appeals court further held Ms. Debord's Facebook posts were not protected by the federal antiretaliation provision by stating, "it is difficult to see how an employer who does not (or should not) known an employee has made a complaint could discriminate because of that complaint."
The Supreme Court denied Ms. Debord's request to review the case on May 27.
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