Seth Boone has battled multiple disabilities his entire life. When the 22-year-old was hired part-time at the Daviess County Public Library, he thought he landed his dream job. He and his father Jason say that dream was shattered this week when Seth was suddenly fired. They have filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing disability discrimination and retaliation.
Jason shared many of the details in a Facebook post on Wednesday, and he spoke to Owensboro Times on Friday morning.
Jason said Seth was hired in March, at which time he disclosed his disabilities — which include juvenile diabetes, autism, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, OCD, and other mental health ailments.
“He battles a lot,” Jason said. “It’s always been tough for Seth to find a position, so when he got that position he was extremely excited. It was something that (we thought would) work out well for him.”
In the Facebook post, Jason said that on Tuesday Seth “was terminated by his manager … citing that Seth’s diabetic episodes were interfering with his job performance.”
(Editor’s note: OT is not including the manager’s name at this time due to the complaint still being investigated by the EEOC.)
According to Jason, Seth was written up on Monday evening for the first time since his employment for “not filling an apparent weekly quota of shelving 10 carts a week, 2 carts a day.”
With Seth being part-time and averaging 4 days per week, Jason said that was an “impractical quota. Also being autistic, there is a more refined process that takes place for Seth — more detailed than an average individual.”
Jason said the write-up was given to Seth before he left work Monday night.
“Then he got the call to terminate him Tuesday before he was supposed to go in for his shift. So, less than 12 hours after his first write-up they called,” Jason said.
In the Facebook post, Jason claimed the manager “also retaliated against Seth for not complying with the standard quota by raising his personal quota to 12 carts/week. He then told Seth since his disability would obviously prevent him from achieving that expectation, he would be terminating him.”
Jason did note in his post that their family trusted “that between the DCPL Board and/or (Executive Director) Erin Waller the right thing will be done.”
Speaking to OT, he said there’s already been a “very positive reaction from the board of directors” and he’d been contacted by two of the five board members.
He most notably said that board member Harry Pedigo has been “amazing.” Pedigo, in his position as the director of both St. Benedict’s and Daniel Pitino Shelter, works at times with Jason’s wife Lisa, who is a probation and parole officer for the state Department of Corrections.
“He’s been kind of devastated and really on our side and working well to help,” Jason said of Pedigo. “He notified other board members.”
Pedigo acknowledged he’s been in contact with the Boones but couldn’t say much about the situation at this time.
“I’m relatively new as a board member, so I don’t know any of the staff there,” he said. “I personally reached out (to the Boone family) just to let them know that I do care and that I’m willing to hear them. Other than that, there’s not much I can comment on.”
Jason said that DCPL Board of Directors Chair Michelle Drake sent him a message to let the family know the board has scheduled a closed session “to address the issue.”
OT sent Drake an email with several questions, but she did not respond by the time of publication. Pedigo acknowledged a portion of the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on July 19 will include a closed session, but he could not give any details on what would be discussed.
OT also sent an email with several questions to DCPL Executive Director Erin Waller, who only said “This is an open EEOC investigation and I am unable to comment on it.” Jason said he received a similar response when he reached out to Waller.
Daviess County Commissioner Janie Marksberry serves as Fiscal Court’s liaison to the library. She told OT that she is “not involved with anything to do with employment or their staff. As liaison for Fiscal Court, that is for public matters only.”
When OT asked Daviess County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen about the issue at approximately 5 p.m. Friday, he said it was the first he had heard about it so he had no comment.
According to the EEOC website, a “charge of discrimination” is a signed statement asserting that an employer engaged in employment discrimination. It requests EEOC to take remedial action. While they use the term “charge,” the statement is essentially a complaint that must be filed before a potential lawsuit can be filed.
In his Facebook post, Jason said the statement from the formal charge they filed with the EEOC reads as follows:
Seth was called at home on his cell phone by [the manager] on 07/11/2023.
[The manager] had called to reiterate his responses on a write up that Seth disagreed with my from the night before. This was Seth’s very first write up of any kind stating there was any issue with performance. Seth disagreed with the write up that indicated he was unable to shelve the weekly requirement of 10 carts a week. He informed [the manager] that he would like to continue working and would not be able fix any issues indicated as medical emergencies are not planned events. He asked why I was not going to fix any issues and I responded that he is unable to magically cure his diabetes/autism or change the temperature, so there was nothing to fix. He claimed he gave Seth many “accommodations” to treat his lows; but then listed examples that either aren’t accommodations, like being allowed to drink water, (that does not treat a low) or were not actually given to him, like extended breaks (Seth was never given extended breaks). He then retaliated against him for falling behind by raising his cart/week expectation from 10 carts/week, which is what everybody else has, to 12 carts/ week, then said since my disability would not allow me to achieve those expectations, [the manager] stated since he considered that is disability would not allow to perform his job to their standards – he terminated him orally via cell phone.
This was a blatant act of disability discrimination as well as retaliation.
“Once we filed the charge, we spoke with the EEOC,” Jason told OT. “They validated that it was basically a valid complaint. They said there had been existing EEOC complaints as well for the same establishment, so they put a ‘rush’ on it.”
OT reached out to the EEOC asking if there was a “rush” on this complaint and if others had been filed against DCPL.
Victor Chen, Director of Communications in the Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs for EOCC, sent the following response:
“Unfortunately we cannot provide comment here. Under federal law, possible charges (complaints) made to the EEOC are strictly confidential, and we are prohibited from releasing any information, or confirming or denying their existence. Charge information can become public, typically if and when the EEOC files suit; at that point, it becomes a public court record, and we will issue a press release.”
Chen directed OT to a website that shows lawsuits the EEOC has filed; there were none listed against DCPL.
Jason said the next step will be Seth completing an interview in Louisville in October. He said they can take their ADA attorney if we want, but the family hopes it doesn’t come to that.
“At this point, we don’t really see the need yet to seek any legal repercussions, because we really don’t want to get involved in something like that. We really have faith at this point in the board — especially with their positions in the community — that they see the relevance in this and see the need to resolve this and take care of the issues,” Jason said.
Asked what they hope comes out of this situation, Jason said Seth wants his job back — under different management.
But Jason also said there’s a bigger issue at stake, one that requires individuals not just to be more accepting of everyone regardless of differences, but to fight for those who may not have a voice or are afraid to speak out.
“My son, his whole life, has faced adversity. Everything in his world is a challenge. We spend our whole life fighting for him and his rights. That’s all we ever do. … And I guess this was just the last straw for us, especially with the most recent thing in the news for the library [when they stood firm in offering LGBT programming despite protests to stop doing so]. We really thought that was a safe place for him.”
Jason added, “I guess I’m tired of seeing children and young adults being judged for who they love, who they are, what their beliefs are, what their political beliefs are. Enough is enough. We just need to be better as a community and better individually as a person. I’ve got to protect my child, and I wish other parents would step up for their children and for our youth as well, because we’re just not doing everything we can to protect them. We see other people in these organizations that are lackadaisical about their actions. They abuse community funds, and they just think that they can bully others that are different from them and go about their day. It’s time for this to stop, and we need to send a message that it’s time to accept these people for who they are.”
