Black woman alleges racial harassment in lawsuit against new State College area hospital

A Black woman alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday that she couldn’t make it through her first day at Penn Highlands State College without being subjected to what she described as racially derogatory statements.

On her first day at work, Gloria Gaskin alleged a member of the new hospital’s management team said in front of her and two white co-workers that his niece was married to a “colored man.”

He then pointed to the legs of a black chair and said “He’s as black as this,” the lawsuit alleged. Gaskin claimed the man, who was only identified in the lawsuit by his first name, subsequently used two racially derogatory phrases.

The State College woman also claimed her lunch was ransacked and her personal items were tampered with in retaliation for reporting the incident. Penn Highlands, she alleged, did not respond to her reports.

Instead, Gaskin said she was terminated without explanation in July after working as a housekeeping aide for about six weeks. Her attorney, Thomas B. Anderson, is seeking front pay, back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and more.

A message was left Tuesday with the health system, which opened its $90 million hospital in June.

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