Former Evergreen State Police Chief Files Suit $625,000 Suit Against College

Former Evergreen State College Police Chief Stacy Brown has filed a $625,000 lawsuit against the college for gender-based discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Former Evergreen State College police chief Stacy Brown is suing the college over its handling of the spring 2017 campus riots. The riots came in the aftermath of protests against former Evergreen Professor Bret Weinstein’s polite disapproval of an activism event that Bari Weiss of the New York Times called “a day of racial segregation.”

Brown’s complaint details some of the harassment she endured at Evergreen State. Brown claims that she was subjected to daily hostility from students, faculty, and staff on the basis of their anti-police beliefs. One faculty member allegedly emailed Brown and called her a “fascist.” Another faculty member allegedly told Brown that her uniform and handgun were a symbol of her “privilege” as a white woman. Additionally, a sexually suggestive drawing circulated around campus of Brown in a KKK hood.

In a column for the Wall Street Journal, this is how Weinstein described the “Day of Absence.”

Day of Absence is a tradition at Evergreen. In previous years students and faculty of color organized a day on which they met off campus—a symbolic act based on the Douglas Turner Ward play in which all the black residents of a Southern town fail to show up one morning. This year, however, the formula was reversed. “White students, staff and faculty will be invited to leave the campus for the day’s activities,” the student newspaper reported, adding that the decision was reached after people of color “voiced concern over feeling as if they are unwelcome on campus, following the 2016 election.”

Amidst the chaos in 2017, Breitbart News reported that Evergreen State officials had disarmed the campus police. In a June 2017 hearing with the Washington State Senate, Brown told the Senate Law & Justice Committee that her department needed rifles to respond to active shooter situations.

Now, Brown is suing Evergreen State College for $625,000 in damages. She alleges that the college failed to protect her from gender-based discrimination and a hostile work environment.

Brown’s attorney, Christopher J. Coker, says that he hopes to settle the matter out of court. “We’re going to hopefully get this resolved short of litigation. That’s our hope,” Coker said in a comment.