One thing people that know would say is I will stand with what is right, fair, and equitable regardless of who I am standing with. That is true in all aspects of my personal and professional life. I will absolutely stand next to someone that I can’t stand and fight for them if they are in the right. I don’t even have to agree with their stance.
Earlier this year I had an interview with Mineral County that was like nothing I had ever experienced. It was the only time in my professional career I left feeling ashamed that that I disclosed I was in a same sex marriage. The second that became clear, I had zero chance of getting a job I would’ve otherwise been fully qualified for. The position was instead given to someone with menial, if any qualifications.
I spent about a month really weighing whether I should let illegal discrimination go. The reality is, how happy would’ve I have been if I had accepted a job in a discriminatory department of the county. The conclusion that I came to, was the issue is bigger than just me. If it happened to me, there are probably certainly other people that experienced the same thing, but also kept their mouths shut.
You can’t expect change and lawful compliance if you simply turn a blind eye to illegal behaviors. Doing so actually empowers them to believe their behavior is acceptable. It is also apparent to me that unethical people absolutely won’t change of their own free will. They are perfectly okay being unethical and discriminatory.
Today, I completed an intake for a complaint against the person at Mineral County that behaved in such a deplorable fashion. It was about a 4 month wait, but I found in talking to the State of Nevada, I was just as upset about it today as I was then. My inquiry has moved from an inquiry to a state investigation because I stood up for what is right.
The morale of the story is wrong will always be wrong. Allowing illegal and unethical behavior to stand certainly harms the person more than the wrongdoing. I would imagine the person that behaved so unlawfully never even gave it a second thought because they don’t care in general.
The path to closure sometimes involves doing hard things and asking for state or federal interventions. Even if in the end nothing happens as a result, the aggrieved gets almost immediate closure that they doing whatever they can for justice.
Bullies and unethical people span an entire life, not just an encounter or a specific place. If Mineral County School District was the only place that seems to think they are exempt from accountability, the problem probably wouldn’t be as out of control as it is today.
