Lee, who was hired by the department in September 2005, has been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 10, with orders to stay off campus. He filed his claim last month with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
Lee said the racial discrimination began in 2006. He said a fellow officer who since has been promoted to sergeant loudly referred to Chinese people by a common derogatory slang term, knowing Lee could hear him but then feigning surprise that he was there.Sounds like this isn't the kind of situation where "cultural awareness treatment" is going to do a damn thing. The guy has been in a hostile workplace environment, and professionally persecuted when he tried to speak out.
From there, Lee alleged, other officers joined the harassment. A female officer would repeatedly say "ching-chong" to him and make stereotypically Asian faces at him, he said. A male officer would call him "Fukudome Lee," a reference to Cubs player Kosuke Fukudome, who is Japanese.
Lee also alleged that a lieutenant made racially charged comments during shift changes.
Lee filed a complaint with the university's human resources department in April 2008, he said. Before his meeting with the department, he sent an e-mail listing his complaints. The session failed to help, he said.
The department scheduled cultural-awareness treatment for officers and supervisors, he said. But Lee said that since he filed the human resources complaint, other officers have ignored him, in what he perceived to be retaliation.
The university, however, denies the allegations: "There's absolutely no merit to the claims, and beyond that the university won't comment because it's a personnel matter." Come on, NU. No merit, whatsoever? Why am I not surprised that this is the university's official comment?
