01.25.10
Getting Steamed over Starbucks’ Sexual Harassment Case
I was appalled over a broadcast I saw last week on ABC’s 20/20. They reported on the case of Kati Moore of Orange County, California, a 16 year old barista who was allegedly sexually harassed by her supervisor.
Miss Moore claims that her supervisor, Tim Horton, sent her numerous illicit and in many cases sexually explicit text messages indicating times and places where she was instructed to meet him to provide sexual favors. Mr. Horton plead guilty to criminal charges of having illegal sex with a minor and served 4 months in prison, but both he and Starbucks are now awaiting the outcome of the pending lawsuit.
I don’t know any of the parties to this lawsuit, nor do I know what really transpired between the under age employee and her supervisor. However, what disturbs me the most about this case is two fold: one, the supervisor already plead guilty to having sex with a minor. Starbucks should have a clear management training policy that includes sexual harassment training (Mr. Horton claimed in his deposition that he was only shown a manual on sexual harassment, but was not offered actual training). Starbucks had an obligation to protect their employees and provide managers with not only sexual harassment but with education on how to work with minors. Secondly, the Vice-President of Human Resources for Starbucks made an outrageous claim on 20/20, citing that Miss Moore’s parents did a poor job of raising her with proper values.
I’ve been a Human Resources Vice-President myself for 20 years, and I’ve never accused a family member of poor values training when my company was faced with potential litigation. The legal approach Starbucks is taking to defend its actions in the face of their own supervisor having sex with a minor, and destroying her credibility by basically interviewing all previous boyfriends (to make her look like a whore) is disappointing.
This case makes me want to reconsider where I buy my latte’s in the morning. I will try to follow the trial when it begins and provide updates to this website.
