South Kingstown Employee Alleges She Was Subject to Sexism, Pornography & Sent Sex Videos
GoLocalProv News Team
South Kingstown Employee Alleges She Was Subject to Sexism, Pornography & Sent Sex Videos
The federal complaint filed in United States District Court by plaintiff Emily Spring states she was hired by South Kingstown in 2020 as a Wastewater Operator — and that she was licensed for that position which she obtained through an independent training program
According to the lawsuit, Spring "was the only woman in the position of a wastewater operator among four other wastewater operators. She was also the only woman among the four subsequent wastewater operator hires while she held the position. Indeed, she was the first woman ever hired for this position since the Plant opened on or about 1970.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSpring alleges that she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
She says among other claims in the lawsuit that the department did not provide "adequate facilities for women," and that in February 2021, she "discovered a huge stack of pornographic magazines in a bathroom at the facility."
Employee Sent Her Sex Videos
Spring alleges in the lawsuit that more issues arose when South Kingstown hired additional employees in 2021.
"On or around June of 2021, [South Kingstown] hired two new Wastewater Operator I trainees, neither of whom had operator licenses," according to the lawsuit.
“[New] hire, Seth Vallee (“Mr. Vallee”), asked Ms. Spring for her Snapchat username," states the lawsuit, which continued:
"Ms. Spring found this odd, but because all the wastewater operators communicate with each other using text messages on personal cellphones, she gave it to him, assuming that was the text application he preferred to use. About two weeks after Mr. Vallee was hired and Ms. Spring began training him, he started talking to her about his personal life and asking her personal questions."
“In August of 2021, Mr. Vallee broke up with his then-girlfriend and began making comments about Ms. Spring’s body and asking her when she was going to date him,” states Spring’s lawsuit.
According to Spring, Vallee sent her a video of himself having sex with another woman.
“Ms. Spring told Mr. Vallee that she was not interested and asked him to stop, but he continued to harass her, tell her about people he was having sex with, send her inappropriate [Snapchat] messages, including videos of him having sex with another woman, and eventually began insulting her and her body because she said she was not interested in him. In or about October 2021, Mr. Vallee also brought up the pornography in the bathroom to Ms. Spring,” states the lawsuit.
There are other claims about Vallee in the lawsuit - that were reportedly broached by other employees.
“At that point, on or around January 11, 2022, Ms. Spring, having been subjected to months of sexual harassment, complained to [Wasterwater Superintendent Kathy] Perez about Mr. Vallee sexually harassing her. That same morning, another employee, Andrew Eberly (“Mr. Eberly”), also complained to Ms. Perez about Mr. Vallee’s inappropriate behavior, including inappropriate touching," states the lawsuit.
“Ms. Perez immediately sent an email to Aimee (Campbell) Reiner (“Ms. Reiner”) and Luke Murray (“Mr. Murray”), Defendant’s human resources employees, informing them that Ms. Spring brought a complaint to her about Mr. Vallee and that he 'has been being inappropriate with [Ms. Spring] also,' apparently referring to the former complaint from Mr. Eberly."
"Ms. Perez and Mr. Emery then met with Mr. Vallee and warned him that multiple complaints had been brought to their attention about his inappropriate behavior,” states the lawsuit.
“On January 12, 2022, Ms. Reiner and Mr. Murray interviewed Ms. Spring about her complaint, told her that they would schedule other interviews, and assured her that she would get a formal letter detailing the findings of their investigation and the response. Over the next week, [Reiner] and Mr. Murray conducted interviews with Ms. Spring’s coworkers, including [Supervisor Shaun] Collum. During Ms. Spring’s interview, she specifically told Ms. Reiner and Mr. Murray about Mr. Vallee sleeping at work on multiple occasions,” according to the suit.
Spring says she never received a letter from the town about her complaints about Vallee’s behavior.
Further alleged in the lawsuit, “After Ms. Spring filed the above complaint with Human Resources, her co-workers and supervisors started treating her with noticeable hostility. Mr. [Shaun] Collum began to call Ms. Spring stupid and dumb loudly and publicly again."
"Along with filing the complaint, Ms. Spring asked her supervisor, Mr. Emery, that she not be assigned to work with Mr. Vallee anymore, but Mr. Emery told Ms. Spring that they could not make that work and that she would have to keep working closely with Mr. Vallee. Indeed, at one point in February 2022, Ms. Spring was forced to work a twelve-hour overnight shift with Mr. Vallee," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit by Spring alleges that, Collum, her supervisor, repeatedly ridiculed her and verbally abused her. In the lawsuit, Collum’s behavior is described by Spring as being “sexist, insulting, and belittling.”
Collum’s actions are cited 40 times in the 29-page lawsuit; Spring also repeatedly mentions the actions of Perez.
The lawsuit states, “When Ms. Spring complained about Mr. Collum’s behavior during her training period, instead of investigating and taking remedial action, Ms. Perez warned Ms. Spring that she 'better work it out with him because he’s training you no matter what.' As a result, Ms. Spring decided to wait until after her probationary period was completed and she became a union member to make a complaint with the union about Mr. Collum’s sexist and demeaning treatment of her.
One of the central issues claimed in Spring’s legal actions relates to the town refusing to provide female employees with reasonable facilities, and that the men's facilities contained pornographic materials.
"[In] May of 2021, Ms. Perez approached Ms. Spring again regarding the issue of female shower, bathroom, and locker room facilities and suggested that the solution could be a unisex shower, by which she meant that Ms. Spring could use the male shower with the addition of a separate entrance and a door to one of the showers in the male facilities,” states the lawsuit.
“This was not at all what had been discussed when Ms. Spring applied for and accepted the job, was not at all comparable to the facilities provided for male wastewater operators, did not provide appropriate privacy for a female user, and did not provide any facilities for changing at all. Ms. Spring told both Ms. Perez and Mark Iredale (“Mr. Iredale”), the then Union President, that she did not think this arrangement was reasonable or workable. The union and management began a long back-and-forth about the issue of facilities, with the union bringing up a similar situation that had happened in the West Warwick wastewater treatment facility, where the management was forced to provide full female facilities,” said the suit.
In August, 2022, Spring was fired in part because Human Resources told her she had posted TikTok videos at work.
"At all relevant times, [South Kingstown] had no written policy about recording or posting videos related to work," states the lawsuit. "Ms. Spring never received any warning that recording or posting videos relating to her work was prohibited."
The charges made in the suit include civil rights and fair employment violations as well as violations of the Whistleblowers Act and Freedom of Speech.
GoLocal reached out to Town Manager James Manni and Perez.
Neither responded at time of publication.