Faced with the threat of a First Amendment lawsuit, the Department of Health backed down today and said it won't discipline a new employee for displaying a bumper sticker that some employees found offensive. Jennifer Smith of Woodville reluctantly removed a front-bumper tag with a confederate battle emblem on it, along with a pair of fuzzy dice bearing the stars-and-bars that Southern forces carried into battle in the Civil War. But she balked at taking off a big sticker in the back window of her Ford SUV that said, "If you're riding my ass, you'd better be pullin' my hair." Department of Health officials last week told Smith, a probationary employee who has only worked for the agency about two months, that the sticker was offensive. She was told she would lose her job if she didn't remove it. Smith thought about it over the weekend and decided to fight. If she got fired, she said, she would sue to get her job back. She was even thinking of putting the Rebel flag items back on her vehicle. But today, the department backed down. It issued a statement saying Smith had initially agreed to remove the sticker but that she wouldn't be disciplined for keeping it. "Although management has counseled the employee and suggested it be removed, we do not believe it violates the department's standards of employee conduct and we are not engaged in or contemplating taking disciplinary action," said the department's statement. Smith said she understood that some coworkers might be offended by the confederate symbols, so she removed them from her truck. But she said her bumper sticker was directed at tailgaters and she does not consider it offensive, so she was willing to risk her new job over it. "I stood up for my rights and that's what matters to me," Smith said.
I just love the bumper sticker.... "If you're riding my ass, you'd better be pullin' my hair." that's awesome!
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