I just read the attached article that describes a mean (at best) or racist (at worst) Facebook post from a doctor on staff at Denver Health Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Colorado who is also an Assistant Professor at CU’s School of Medicine.
When pressed for comment, Denver Health Medical Center stated they disagreed with her comment but she expressed that comment as a private individual and they can’t control her opinion.
What would you want CU to do in response to this public comment from one of their professors? Do you feel that her other employer’s should have taken some action against her based upon these comments?
It seems as though more and more people are experiencing “corporate” consequences to what they likely perceive as their right to speak freely and I wonder if people feel this is an appropriate type of consequence.
@Building - not sure I am following you. She really suffered no consequences in terms of her employment with Denver Health Medical Center as there is no indication they terminated her from the statement included in the article.
People have the freedom of punishment by the U.S. government for their political speech. There’s no right to free speech with employers or private schools. If the guy is presenting himself as an employee of the medical center I think they are within their rights to discipline him as they see fit. It looks as though her position was not evident on her Facebook page so that’s why they aren’t disciplining her. I do find her comment racist. I hope her practice suffers.
I read that too fast! I think the Health Center should let the dr go. People need to know that holding an abhorrent opinion and sharing it online are very different. I am glad her comments were printed so prospective patients have the opportunity to stay away from this anesthesiologist. Also, I wonder how Black students are treated in her classes vs. Whites.
This isn’t a freedom of speech issue. The government cannot punish her, but I would hope the hospital would. Racism is rampant in the health care system… and most of that isn’t blatant but rather an under current. Anyone who espouses overtly racist views like that should be removed.
And as a PROFESSOR expressing those views? Nope. Not acceptable at all. Every grade for every student of color would be in doubt.
There are actually 3 different entities involved. Denver Health is the public hospital in the city/county of Denver. Children’s Hospital is a separate hospital. The University of Colorado Medical School is on the campus shared by three hospitals - Children’s, University, and the V.A. The report to the Regent’s would be for her professorship.
I don’t think people often get to pick their anesthesiologists, just get the next one up. That’s been my experience at Children’s anyway. I’ve learned to ask if they are in-network or out, but that’s about it.
It seems that these are all public instutuons ( if someone knows for sure please post). If they are public then there’s nothing to be done. Public institutions are the " government" while they can to some extent control her speech when on the job they can’t in a personal Facebook posting. Expressing disgust is about all they can do.
I feel that her statement was clearly extremely racist–even if politically motivated–and that she cannot be trusted to provide equal care to black patients or equal teaching and evaluation to black students.
If I were a black parent, I would not want the life of my child in her hands. What would we, as parents, be doing right now if we realized that our black child died during surgery under her care?
I think that the potential liability she poses to the institutions in question is significant. What should be done about her? I would hope that she would lose her job(s). If not, she should be required to participate in diversity training, including confronting the parents of black children, and only be allowed to practice under supervision for some period of time.
She is paid large sums of money because she is entrusted with lives, some of which she clearly views as less valuable based only on skin color. If she wishes to continue practicing, and collecting that money, she needs to re-earn that trust.
IMHO, the hospital should terminate her. Racially charged messages like that put the hospital in a predicament as now they cannot reliably count on her to provide fair treatment to all patients.
And why someone would post something like that on Facebook is beyond me… not the brightest lady… smh
Actually, if she was a teacher at a private university she likely would not be fired either, or at least it would be difficult, if she was a full professor with tenure, because of the concept of ‘academic freedom’ that in theory is supposed to be in the areas they study, but often has been extended, for example, to a tenured professor of let’s say physics commenting on intelligence and race and arguing that intelligence is not equal between races or some such…
Even in the public domain freedom of speech only goes so far, if her facebook post could be construed as causing problems with her teaching (for example, she is a teacher, ostensibly with minority students, her writing that could give minority students the impression she won’t be fair with them, or won’t treat them equally), as a physician it could give minority patients the impression she might fully extend herself when treating them, and courts have ruled on this, even in the public sector freedom of speech only goes so far, because when you work for the government you are expected to treat all citizens fairly, and things you say or do could cause problems in performance of your job, Roy Moore the judge in Alabama was a classic example of that.
I think people who post stuff like this on facebook deserve to be fired, not only because it is offensive, but because if they are that dumb would you want them working for you, that you think posting on facebook like that isn’t going to blow back on you?