This is a series of blogs that I feel need to be "Puble Service" blogs for one reason or another and these blogs would not fall under any of my OTHER blog series, for various reasons. Fair warning, though -- some of the stuff that MIGHT be on this blog chain MIGHT and COULD BE rather disturbing in nature, so consider yourselves warned right now in advance of these "Sensitive Matter(s)."
Suit: Panera in Springdale discriminated against blacks
By Janice Morse • jmorse@enquirer.com •
December 31, 2009
Butler County man alleges Panera Bread fired him from its Tri-County location because he refused to stop hiring African-Americans.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Cincinnati, Robert McFarland of Middletown, who is white, said he was fired in July from his manager's job at the Springdale Panera after he hired qualified African-American applicants for jobs.
McFarland alleges that his boss instructed him in December 2008 to "stop hiring African-Americans" and to "clean up: the restaurant's image by terminating the employment of African-Americans."
McFarland's lawyer, Dana Luther, says she has evidence to support McFarland's allegations.
"He had nothing to lose by doing what they said. He would have kept his job. But he refused to abide by what they were telling him to do," Luther said. "He's white and he wasn't going to stand for discrimination. I find that very commendable. That took a lot of courage, and it cost him his job."
Parties named in the Panera suit either declined to comment or couldn't be reached Thursday.
Luther said several black employees of Panera "stepped down" rather than face firing in light of the alleged discriminatory policy.
McFarland has also filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and she believes at least one other person may have done so.
In the suit, McFarland seeks a permanent injunction forbidding Panera from engaging in retaliation. He wants Panera to put new policies into place that "eradicate the effects of its past and present unlawful employment practices," the suit says. McFarland also wants Panera to pay his back pay with interest, compensation for his losses, punitive damages and lawyer's fees.
McFarland had been general manager of the Panera located at 405 E. Kemper Road.
Luther said McFarland's firing from Panera has made it difficult for him to find other employment, but she wasn't sure Thursday whether he remained unemployed.
No dates have been set for the case in U.S. District Court, Cincinnati.
I wanted to share the below link from Cincinnati's own Channels 9, 12 and 19 television stations' web pages that have a whole lot of information about Marcus Fiesel. I mentioned Marcus below in the first blog here about child abuse here.
Here is the link for Channel 19's web page information on Marcus Fisel's mom and what happened with Marcus' "Estate" as it was, (which probably wasn't much, considering that he was just a kid when Marcus tragically died): http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=5355243 .
Any way, I hope that you all continue to read this blog here as time passes, because as I think of more "Public service" announcements, I will post them here in this blog. I hope that you all have a safe and happy Halloween on Saturday, (October 31, 2009!!)
I am writing this blog tonight, because I really had something that I wanted to share with all of you this evening. I have an account over on www.facebook.com and I saw something on there last night, (on October 22, 2009) that I found rather disturbing and quite sad. One of my friends on my face book sent me a video that talks about something that happened in England recently that bothers me and is really disturbing to know that something like what is described in the video could actually happen in a country that is supposed to have “Good Health Insurance” in it as a general policy.
I have to say that because of this afore mentioned video, I have decided to write this blog and bring it to everybody’s attention, not only amongst my contacts in my space, (which are numerous here), but on my www.blogger.com page as well. This blog will have some videos at the bottom here that I want to warn all of you right now are quite graphic in nature. These afore mentioned videos have some disturbing images and commentary in them, so don’t say that you weren’t warned in advance about the nature of the videos at the bottom of this blog.
I am a firm believer in a person who has children should properly take care of them, not abuse them!! I also feel that if a person who has a child cannot properly take care of the child, because of financial, mental or other reasons, should do the child a favor and adopt the child out to a family of loving people who would properly take care of that child.
There was an incident about 2 years ago over in Cincinnati, Ohio; where a pair of foster parents left a mentally challenged boy locked up in a closet then the foster parents went on vacation to a family reunion, somewhere in Kentucky. The boy subsequently died and the poor child’s name was Marcus Fisel. I am fairly sure that most of the people who live locally to me, (in the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati area) remember what a big stink that the whole “Marcus Fisel” case made in the area here, especially when the boy’s foster parents were put on trial for starving, then subsequently burning Marcus’ poor remains somewhere in Kentucky afterwards. I remember how upset Marcus’ biological mother was when the woman found out that her baby had been murdered by the people who were charged to take care of the little guy. Marcus’ biological mom also mentioned that the mom had been working on turning her life around, so Marcus’ mom could one day; hopefully have Marcus back to properly take care of him, like Marcus’ mom wanted to do.
The below videos have nothing to do with Marcus Fisel, although I did want to start off by saying that there has been a flurry of video commentary about the little boy, who died over in England, named “Baby P” by the court system. The little boy’s first name was Peter. I cannot offhand remember the little guy’s last name or even if I saw what the little guy’s last name even was here, but let’s just say that the below videos of him are heart breaking.
I just wanted to share these videos with you all, because I feel that there needs to be something done about parents who would, could and do this kind of horrible stuff to little kids, like Marcus Fisel and “Baby P.” I firmly believe that kids like Marcus Fisel and “Baby P” need to be loved not murdered by heartless bastards, like Marcus’ foster parents and “Baby P’s” mom and mom’s boyfriend.
I hope that the judge who is sitting on the “Baby P” case over in England really throws the book at “Baby P’s” biological mom and the mom’s stupid boyfriend. As a side note as well, folks – “Baby P’s” mom and mom’s boyfriend are being charged with murder in relation to what happened to “Baby P.” All that I can say beyond the fact that I am glad that the mom and the boyfriend are being put on trial is I hope that “Baby P’s” biological father knows that justice will hopefully be done here in this case.
(Now for the video that I saw on www.facebook.com below – this will break your heart to see this video. It took me a while to find this below video here on www.youtube.com, but here it is below.)
All I can say in closing, folks is that I hope that both Marcus Fisel and “Baby P” are in a better place and I hope that the monsters that hurt both boys suffer for what they did to those two innocent souls, who never harmed anybody in their short, little lives. I also have something that I wanted to share with you all now, in relation to “Baby P” – I found the video from www.youtube.com that shows how the situation with “Baby P” ended. I figure that you all would be interested in seeing this below video as well.
