ST. LOUIS (Legal Newsline) – Six Flags has defeated a St. Louis lawsuit from a teenage girl who alleged sexual harassment from co-workers who pulled down their pants and showed her a sexually explicit video.
The Missouri Court of Appeals ruled for the amusement park July 21, finding plaintiff M.W. could not establish that the conduct affected a term, condition or privilege of her employment and that Six Flags knew or should have known of the conduct and failed to take proper remedial action.
The decision affirms a 2019 trial court grant of summary judgment to Six Flags.
“M.W. admitted in her deposition that, from the conclusion of the investigation, she did not experience any other harassing conduct… for the duration of her time at Six Flags,” Judge Robin Ransom wrote.
“Six Flags took prompt and effective remedial action upon learning of the harassing conduct, and therefore they cannot be liable for M.W.’s co-workers’ actions as a matter of law.”
In 2016, M.W. and a female co-worker, N.G., were cleaning 3-D glasses used on the Justice League ride when two male co-workers entered the room and locked the door.
The boys, J.B. and T.W., noted that there were two girls and two boys in the room and suggested they should “get it on.”
The boys pulled down their pants, but not their underwear. M.W. told them to pull their pants up, which they did, but they grabbed her by the arms and legs at some point. She kicked one of them.
Later that night, employees stayed after hours for a designated ride night. The next day, J.B. showed M.W. a video of N.G. and himself engaged in oral sex during the ride night. M.W. pushed the phone away after five seconds, but J.B. struck her in the head and told her not to tell anyone about the video.
M.W. complained to her supervisors, who got human relations involved. An investigation quickly followed in which the parties were interviewed. H.R. supervisor JoAnn Hamilton allegedly told M.W. that “boys are going to be boys, and it’s going to happen at workplaces.”
Six Flags fired the boys on July 9 of that year and reported the cell phone video to the police.
“The glasses room and video incidents, in addition to Hamilton’s comments during the ensuing investigation, were undeniably inappropriate and should not be tolerated in the workplace – especially a workplace that employs minors,” the decision says.
“However, this conduct was limited to three brief instances of no more than a few minutes each, occurred over the span of four consecutive days during the first season of M.W>’s employment, and was largely on the part of one co-worker.
“There is no evidence that M.W. experienced any other harassing conduct over the course of her nearly eight months of employment at Six Flags. (The conduct is) not so severe and pervasive such that a reasonable person would objectively find M.W.’s workplace poisoned or hostile.”