No Black Nurses Lawsuit: Tonya Battles Lawyer Discusses The Case
The “no black nurses lawsuit” was filed by a nurse after her hospital honored a patient’s request. The father of a newborn asked that black nurses not be allowed to give care to his baby. Nurse Tonya Battle chose to file the lawsuit after a note with distinct racial implication was posted in the nursery.
A note which allegedly reads “No African Americans to take care of baby” was attached the assignment clipboard. Battle works for the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, according to Examiner. The hospital’s attorney reportedly told officials they could not honor the racially infused request, Eclectic Blog notes.
The veteran black nurse works in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Michigan hospital. Tonya Battle maintains after the request about black nurses was passed by the supervisor to the boss, she was reassigned to a different unit. The lawsuit maintains that Battles’ 14th Amendment rights were violated by the Flint hospital
Although the no African American nurses sign was ultimately removed, Battle claims that she and other African American staffers were prevented from caring for the child for about a month. Statements in the lawsuit maintain that the baby’s dad rolled up his sleeve and revealed a tattoo. The dad’s tattoo alleged appeared to be a “swastika of some kind.”
Battle’s attorney, Julie Gafkay, had this to say about the no black nurses lawsuit:
“I don’t doubt that people have made requests like this in the past. You’re not going to control the prejudices and biases of people. That’s not my client’s issue. The problem se has is that her employer of 25 years granted the request.”
Hurley Medical Center opened in Flint in 1908. The facility is a 443-bed teaching hospital, according to USA Today. Tonya Battle maintains that when she introduced herself to the baby’s father after entering the room, he asked to first see her identification and then her supervisor. Read the entire complain against Hurley Medical Center by clicking here.
What do you think about the no black nurses lawsuit?
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