Nursing CE Central
On July 25th of this year, 9 nurses from Florala Health and Rehabilitation Center filed a federal lawsuit against the facility, as well as their parent company NHS Management, for ongoing racial discrimination.
The plaintiffs of this case are Shekeya Thomas CNA, Angelia Williams CNA, Kierra Blue CNA, Keonna Crittenden CNA, Cassandra Westry RN, Chantel Mayes CNA, Melissa Hobdy CNA, Courtney Love CNA, and Michele Carswell CNA.
Some of the nurses, in this case, have been working for the facility since 2005. The complaints in this suit begin in 2022. The complaints leavy consistent and recurring racial discrimination towards Black employees and Black residents from white CNAs, supervisors, and administration.
Florala and NHS Management are accused of causing emotional distress, mental anguish, and humiliation through discrimination with malice or reckless indifference to the nurses’ federally protected rights.
This article will detail the complaints of racial discrimination laid out against the staff, residents, and administration of Florala and NHS management. Please be aware that these complaints contain information that is deeply upsetting and bigoted.
Thomas et al. v. NHS Management d/b/a Florala Health and Rehabilitation includes complaints from each of the 9 nurses impacted by this racial discrimination campaign. In addition to verbal and physical harassment, the case alleges the following six workplace discrimination violations:
These conditions corroborate their claim that Florala Health and Rehabilitation Center was a retaliatory hostile working environment. These conditions also caused multiple nurses, some of which have over ten years of experience in long-term care facilities, to resign from their positions.
Florala Rehabilitation is permeated with racially discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insults that are sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of the Plaintiffs’ employment and to create an abusive working environment.
– Thomas et al. v. NHS Management d/b/a Florala Health and Rehabilitation, pg. 26
Florala Health and Rehabilitation Center is divided into three halls. Annie Long is the supervisor of Hall 1, where residents are primarily self-sufficient. Michael Drew is the supervisor of Hall 2, where residents are typically less self-sufficient. Laura Ferris is the supervisor of Florala’s Memory Hall, which is for residents who suffer from dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other cognitive illnesses that impair residents from caring for themselves.
During the night shifts, Marilyn Fowler, Kim Johnson, and Cassandra Westry each worked as the charge nurse who supervised all units on a rotating basis.
All unit supervisors and charge nurses report to the Director of Nursing (DON), Cecelia Price. Additionally, administrator Christy Bryan has oversight over the entirety of Florala’s nursing personnel and directory reports to DON Price.
Multiple staff members are accused of participating in the ongoing racial harassment campaign at Florala. For example, Tennacee Rapager, a white CNA is said to have grabbed Nursing Assistant Crittenden by the hair and called her a “horsehead.”
Other employees are accused of claiming that it is the “natural order of things that blacks perform the ‘dirty work.’” They are also accused of referring to Black nurses as “slaves.” This led to white nurses with no supervising authority delegating work they wanted to avoid to Black nurses.
Laura Ferris is accused of taking a “more genteel” approach to her discrimination by referring to the Black nurses at Florala as “the little black girls.”
Michael Drew is accused by Nursing Assistant Mayes of openly disdaining his Black employees. He is also accused of frequently referring to Black nurses as the “slave girls” and “these Black girls,” as well as referring to Nursing Assistant Blue’s mother, Nurse Westry, as a “n*****.”
Drew also allegedly instituted unequal working conditions such as yelling at Nursing Assistant Williams for bringing a frozen nutritional drink to the nurse’s workstation while allowing white employees to have beverages. He is accused of berating Blue for taking “excessive breaks” while allowing white employees lax schedules that included permission to leave the facility and run personal errands.
Most notably, Drew alongside another white supervisor Annie Long are accused of confronting Blue for helping a resident (who was a family friend of Blue’s) purchase clothing and food. During this confrontation, Long is said to have brandished a pencil in Blue’s face while Drew physically blocked the door to prevent her from leaving. This confrontation led to Blue being suspended without pay, despite her actions not violating any of Florala’s policies.
Another employee, Marilyn Fowler one of the charge nurses listed above, is reported to have avoided calling any Black nursing staff by name, instead labeling them collectively as the “n******.” She at one point exclaimed to her supervisor, “You’ve got to be kidding me. I have to work short every night and those motherf*cking n****** have three down here!”
In response to two white CNAs accusing Nursing Assistants Williams and Critteden of failing to perform assigned tasks during their shift, Fowler demanded Williams work extra hours with no investigation into the claims.
Fowler continued to be openly hostile to Williams, slamming doors in her face and ordering her to work during lunch breaks to cover for other white nurses. In the fall of 2022, Fowler began overloading Williams with extra assignments without assistance including showering 13 residents alone, in a single shift.
Nursing Assistant Williams alleges to have personally heard Fowler say the word “n*****” at least 20 times. Other remarks from Fowler include:
Williams complained to DON Price regarding Fowler’s racial discrimination on December 9, 2022. The next day, Williams was falsely accused of keying a white nursing assistant’s car.
In early 2023, Fowler is accused of actively seeking to reassign Nursing Assistant Mayes from her position in Hall 1 to create a slot for a white employee. This reassignment is part of a larger segregation pattern alleged to keep black nurses from working in Hall 1.
Hall 1 is considered the least physically and mentally demanding unit at Florala, while in Hall 2 the staffing ratios are typically 20 to 1 while the Florala’s policy issues no more than 4 to 1.
White supervisors are alleged to “openly remark that they don’t want to see black personnel on Hall 1.” For example, Williams claims she was specifically told she could not work on Hall 1 because she is black.
Nursing Assistant Crittenden was also transferred away from the Memory Hall where she had worked for two consecutive years after being told by Tammy Fisher, a white CNA, that “Black girls don’t need to work back there because the residents are scared of you.”
In April of this year, Fisher was also accused of stating that “These black girls need to service their people like the slaves they are.” This led to another white CNA taunting Nursing Assistant Love, asking her “I’m wondering when you’re going to come and give me some service.” When Love demanded an explanation, she was asked “don’t you understand English?”
The racial discrimination alleged in this suit not only impacts the black nursing staff at Florala but also the Black residents at the facility. There are reports of white staff members leaving Black residents “neglected, unbathed or cleaned, without clothing, and in some circumstances, without proper medication or healthcare.” Earlier this year, one nurse learned that white staff members left a 105-pound Black resident naked on the floor for hours.
Black staff members also alleged that they were not properly protected from racial discrimination from residents. Nursing Assistant Williams describes an increasingly belligerent resident who routinely called her a “n*****” and a “black b****.”
This behavior was reported to DON Price, who decided that Williams should no longer be assigned to this resident due to their racist behavior. However, April Watson a white RN at the facility, continued to instruct Williams to assist this patient’s care despite knowledge of their discrimination towards her.
Multiple nurses including Marilyn Fowler and Hailey Sutton are alleged to engage in racist banter with white residents, as well as laughing and repeating racist remarks made by residents such as:
The most disturbing allegation involving a resident comes from Nursing Assistant Hobdy, who was assigned to the same patient that verbally berated and threatened Williams. On April 14th of this year, the patient physically assaulted Hobdy with a handmade shank while multiple white staff members observed and chose not to intervene.
Despite reporting this traumatic incident to her supervisors, Hobdy was required to continue caring for her attacker.
According to this case, the administration did nothing to stop the rampant harassment despite multiple formal complaints. In fact, white administrators are accused of being in a well-known, private group chat about the facility that included racist commentary about Black employees. Members of this group chat are said to include Cecelia Price, Annie Long, Laura Farris, and Michael Drew along with other select white staff members.
It should be noted that only 5 of the over 100 supervisory roles at Florala are filled by black employees.
Administration is also accused of racial discrimination in their scheduling, with Black nurses being allowed less overtime and fewer hours than their white counterparts. It is also alleged that white employees are afforded more flexibility to modify their hours and avoid undesirable shifts.
Nursing Assistant Crittenden issued complaints of racial discrimination to Aisha Patrick (a Black HR employee at Florala), DON Price, and the NHS Management LLC’s corporate level in January 2023. These complaints were ignored and Crittenden alleged that she suffered retaliation including a reduction in her hours and periodic false write-ups.
Nursing Assistant Thomas met with Aisha Patrick in February 2023 regarding patient mistreatment and other discrimination, she also requested a meeting with DON Price who allegedly refused to meet with her. After this meeting with HR, Thomas saw her schedule was changed to interfere with getting her children to school.
In response, Thomas traded shifts with a co-worker which is a common and accepted practice among CNAs at Florala. However, she was admonished by DON Price for changing her hours without permission from a supervisor.
With no indication that her complaints were being investigated onsite, Thomas reported the incident to the NHS Management on April 20, 2023. To her knowledge, NHS took no steps to investigate her complaints.
On May 9, 2023, Thomas resigned citing unrelenting discrimination and retaliation.
Nursing Assistant Williams made multiple formal complaints to DON Price, the most recent being on April 21st. She was told that no action could be taken as “it’s all hearsay.” She then escalated these complaints to the NHS Management, which also resulted in no investigation.
Nursing Assistant Blue filed a discrimination complaint with Aisha Patrick and Don Price in February 2023, in response to her confrontation with Drew and Long. Florala took no steps to investigate this complaint.
The next month, Blue requested she be transitioned from a full-time to a PRN (floating part-time nurse) schedule. Her request was granted but Florala stopped scheduling her to work, effectively terminating her employment.
Nursing Assistant Carswell filed a complaint in April of 2023. A month later she was fired for a “no-call-no-show” despite reporting her projected absence to Florala.
As the only Black RN at Florala, Nurse Westry attempted to work with senior leadership to address the racialized treatment she observed and learned of from other Black employees. After months of repeated indifference towards discrimination, Nurse Westry resigned in April of 2023, stating that “our voices, our complaints, and our treatment as a race [are] being ignored . . .and being swept under the rug.”
Nursing Assistant Love also resigned in May 2023, citing that Florala was a “racially toxic environment that supervisory personnel either condoned or encouraged.” Of the nine nurses in this case, five have either resigned or been terminated from Florala.
These nurses are asking the court to mandate policies that promote equal opportunities and treatment for all employees. They are also asking for compensation of damages as the court deems necessary.
This case provides multiple examples of practices meant to curb abuse including “on-site therapists, prompt correction of patient misconduct, and sustained positive reinforcement for employees facing the brunt of the threat” that Florala failed to institute at this facility.
The allegations against this facility and parent company are incredibly concerning as they speak to discrimination, or at the very least gross negligence, at every level of the organization. This is a stark contrast to the “caring, home-like environment” they claim to promote.
A spokesperson for NHS Management stated that “neither the values nor the policies of our company would allow or tolerate the conduct that is alleged in this lawsuit,” he also claimed that the company had no knowledge of the staff’s accusations prior to this lawsuit.
Artur Davis, the attorney representing the nurses in this case points out that Alabama is one of five states that does not have a state civil rights law, lacking protections for employees in the workplace. He stated that due to living and working in Alabama, the nurses “don’t have access to remedies that their peers do in other states.”
The behavior alleged in this case speaks to a pattern of racial disparity in nursing facilities. In September 2022, Justice in Aging produced a review of the current research on racial disparities in nursing facilities and how to address them. One measure they recommend is Implicit Bias Training for nursing home staff.
Alabama is often in the news for its polarizing racial politics. In May of this year, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. was asked if he believed white nationalists should be allowed in the military. He responded “well, they call them that[white nationalists]. I call them Americans.”
This diminishment of white nationalism as an ideology rooted in racial discrimination contributes to a larger apathy and indifference towards racial discrimination, which is still prevalent today as shown in this case. These nurses should have never been made to face such harassment in the workplace. Their very first complaint should have been the end but instead, their statements were ignored and allowed to fester into the current wave of discrimination allegations.
The examples provided in this article may feel overwhelming, but compared to the lived experience that these nurses claimed to have faced at Florala, it seems only right to lay out the entirety of their complaints.
Nurses, regardless of race, provide an essential service to our communities. They deserve to be heard, to be acknowledged, and to be protected from discrimination from within and outside of their workplace.
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