The sixth-grade transition from cubby to locker is an American rite of passage. With the locker comes four minutes of freedom between classes for students to get books from their lockers, and to chat with friends. Teachers also prize those four minutes as valuable for class preparation or decompression, but the time is often drained away by the flood of students choking the halls.
In my first days of teaching, I learned how much could be done in a mere four minutes, if only I could avoid the inevitable bottleneck of students congregating in the halls. Various methods were employed, but in nearly ten years of teaching only one worked every time - barreling through while shouting "Teacher coming through!!"
My school had opened in the late 70's and some of its original teachers were still teaching into the 2000's. One of these "originals" - "Mrs. Rogers" - began using a motorized wheelchair to get around during passing periods. Lacking a car horn or similar device for her scooter, she often found herself drowning in a sea of oblivious adolescents. Mrs. Rogers adopted the barrel-through method, quickly learning that stopping was never, ever an option.
To assist Mrs. Rogers and minimize the number of crushed toes and banged up knees, other teachers started warning of her impending approach. Students would part like the Red Sea upon hearing cries of "Granny coming through" or "Make way for Grandma!"
Now, was that really so bad? After all, it was in the interest of student safety. Based upon the Fifth Circuit's recent Dediol v. Best Chevrolet, Inc. opinion, some might call it a little too hostile.
In Dediol, the Fifth Circuit confirmed a cause of action for hostile work environment based on age. Such a claim requires a plaintiff over the age of 40 who was subjected to harassment, either through words or actions, based on age, to establish that the harassment created an objectively intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. The environment must appear hostile or abusive to a reasonable person, which depends upon the totality of the circumstances, including (1) the frequency of the discriminatory conduct; (2) its severity; (3) whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or merely an offensive utterance; and (4) whether it interferes with an employee's work performance.
The Dediol plaintiff complained of derogatory age-related slurs such as "old mother******," "old man," and "pops" as well as incidents of physical intimidation and/or violence. The Court examined the relationship between the frequency and level of severity of the comments, noting that the required level of severity or seriousness varies inversely with the pervasiveness or frequency of the conduct. The Court reaffirmed that a continuous pattern of much less severe incidents can create an actionable claim. The Court found that the record supported Dediol's assertion that he endured a pattern of name-calling that may have interfered with his pecuniary interest. This, coupled with the physical intimidation and/or violence to which he was allegedly subjected to, sufficed to establish a genuine issue of material fact existed with regard to Dediol's age-based hostile work environment claim.
Luckily for my former co-workers, Mrs. Rogers never perceived their good-natured ribbing as hostile. However, an argument can be made that the age related comments Mrs. Rogers was subjected to numerous times throughout the day are sufficient to establish a hostile work environment based on her age especially since such comments were not quietly made, but rather shouted out loud enough to be heard over the din of hundreds of adolescents.
While "Mrs. Rogers coming through" does not necessarily have the same ring to it, in light of this recent decision, the best advice I could give to my former co-workers is to abstain from making any age-related remarks, regardless of their endearing nature. Even though less severe than the phrase "old mother******," if done on a frequent basis, one may find sweet little old "Granny" slapping them with a lawsuit.
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