Labor/Employment
Aug. 15, 2002
Employee, 85, Loses Her Harassment Suit
LOS ANGELES - An employee of CalArts who sued the school for sexual harassment after it displayed a sexually graphic drawing of her in a school gallery has lost an appeal of her suit.
Mary Herberg, an 85-year-old former CalArts cashier, sued the Valencia-based art college for sexual harassment under the Fair Employment and Housing Act in January of 2000, contending that the college had created a hostile work environment by displaying the picture.
The drawing, created by two CalArts students, went on display for about 24 hours in May of 1999, according to the opinion. Rendered in pencil and entitled "The Last Art Piece," it featured Herberg and other CalArts employees engaged in sexual acts. Herberg was shown in the center of the drawing, bare-breasted, straddling a nude male faculty member.
Herberg never returned to her job as a cashier in the CalArts accounting office after she saw the drawing, according to the opinion.
Herberg and her daughter and granddaughter, all CalArts employees, sued the school, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John P. Farrell dismissed their case. In a published opinion, the 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed.
"Although Herberg and her relatives were understandably embarrassed and upset about the drawing, it is undisputed that the drawing was not intended to harass plaintiffs, but rather to make a point about representational art," Justice Dennis M. Perluss wrote.
Justices Earl Johnson Jr. and Norvell F. Woods Jr joined Perluss.
Katherine Gaidos
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