ST. LOUIS – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri recently ruled that a bus driver for Missouri Central School Bus failed to prove her claim that she suffered because of a harsh work environment.
In the May 6 ruling, U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel granted a motion for summary judgment filed by North American Central School Bus (NACSB) in the lawsuit filed by Dorise Robinson, who worked as a part-time bus driver at the St. Louis terminal from 2012 to 2016.
The court previously dismissed employment discrimination claims Robinson filed against NACSB (doing business as Missouri Central School Bus) and Albert Carmel, a St. Louis terminal dispatcher. In its latest ruling, the court tossed out Robinson's allegations that she worked in a hostile work environment.
“Because Robinson has failed to provide evidence that the alleged harassment was sufficiently severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of Robinson’s employment and created an abusive working environment, I will grant NACBS’s motion,” Sippel said in the ruling.
Though Robinson detailed a number of allegations of how Carmel discriminated against her, the court said it was not enough to prove that his alleged behavior had an impact on her employment and work environment.
“The three incidents she describes where Carmel referred to her as a b**** were not severe and pervasive. These isolated incidents, although rude and unpleasant, do not rise to the level of creating a work environment so intimidating, offensive, or hostile that it poisoned the work environment,” the court said.
Court filings said Robinson claimed during her time at NACSB, Carmel often used profanity and called women “b**** regularly. She claimed Carmel made her drive a charter bus route despite Robinson’s concern that it wasn’t safe and she accused Carmel of giving away her afternoon bus routes because he thought she was late for work.
After similar incidents, Robinson filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, court filings said. Carmel was ordered to undergo counseling and was written up for using offensive language, especially against women.
The court found that Robinson didn’t have any proof that Carmel still harassed her after he was reprimanded.