Location: Mississippi. Do I have a case? I work in public education. An employee I supervised for a few years from about 2012-2015 was just non-renewed. I was not involved in recent employment decisions. She has written a lengthy complaint letter mentioning many employees. In this letter she stated that I sexually harassed her with physical touching 10 years ago. There were other statements of how I was a poor manager and such but my question is about the accusation of sexual harassment. She sent this statement to over 50 email addresses. These include Federal Congressmen, the Governor, the entire staff of the three local municipalities, as well as the entire staff of several state agencies none of which have any control or oversight over my institution. It was also sent to several private organizations that have nothing to do with education or justice, the EEOC and the Office of Civil Rights of the Dept of Ed. I assure you there has never been any sexual harassment. She has never made any complaints through HR, Title IX or through any other avenue. I have never had any complaints of any kind made against me. Have I been defamed?
Comments
You are going to need to just let this go. She’s spammed the world with this email, and everyone is going to know that she’s a little bit off her rocker. Plus you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars for a lawsuit, you don’t have anything to sue over. And since you are bringing the lawsuit you would have to prove your case. How do you prove that you didn’t touch her? You are going to want to just let this go.
A key part of defamation is proving that this effected you in a material way. You lose your job. People spit on you on the street. Etc.
If you’re lucky, most people won’t take this seriously as she sounds a bit crazy. It’s normal for some people when let go to do things like this and reasonable people know it. In that case, if it doesn’t affect you, you don’t have much of a case.