Woman assaulted by boss accused of yearslong sex harassment in Georgia, feds say
A Georgia insulation company is facing a federal lawsuit that accuses its owner of inappropriate sexual behavior toward an office manager that went unchecked for years and escalated into him physically assaulting her more than once.
The woman was forced to resign from Action Insulation Co. after her two complaints about the sexual harassment, including her boss approaching her from behind and “slapping her buttocks,” were not addressed, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency is suing the company on her behalf.
An earlier complaint to her supervisor involved one of many sexual comments the owner is accused of making between 2016 and 2024, EEOC attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and announced in a June 30 news release.
In 2023, the filing says “(Action Insulation’s) owner made a comment about putting his hand on (her) leg while he drove,” leading her to alert the “supervisor, who took no action.”
An attorney representing Action Insulation, Ellen Laurel Schoolar, did not return McClatchy News’ request for comment July 1.
The general contracting business is located in Port Wentworth, part of theSavannah metro area. It was founded by its owner, who is also the company’s chief executive officer, according to the EEOC.
The federal complaint brought by the agency details other sexual comments that the woman endured such as the owner regularly telling her that he would “bend (her) over his knee” and threatening “to smack (her) buttocks, telling her that she would like it.”
He is also accused of lying about her involvement in sexual activities that the lawsuit says never happened.
Before the physical assaults, EEOC attorneys wrote in the complaint that the owner also inappropriately touched her every month, from 2020 to 2024, by placing “his hand on the small of (her) back.”
In addition to this, he showed her photos of naked women online, including from Craigslist, and asked “if she took ‘pictures like that,’” according to the filing.
She resigns over the sexual harassment
In 2024, his sexual harassment became increasingly physical, the lawsuit says.
On one occasion, when the owner grabbed her hand and interlocked his fingers with hers in January 2024, “(she) pulled away,” according to the complaint.
The next month, in February of that year, the owner pulled her in for a hug, saying “he missed her and asked if she missed him,” EEOC attorneys wrote in the filing.
She pushed him away, the complaint says.
In March 2024, the same month the owner is accused of wrongly suggesting the woman was in a sexual relationship with a company supervisor, he is accused of slapping her from behind.
Then he physically assaulted her the next day on March 27, according to the complaint.
She was sitting in her chair at work when he “grabbed (her) ponytail from behind,” the filing says.
The yearslong harassment made the woman’s job unbearable and caused her to seek medical help for anxiety and distress, the complaint says.
A few days after the woman’s hair was pulled by her boss, she sent him an email, in which she wrote in part, according to the lawsuit, that:
“For years you have made me uncomfortable with regularly acting inappropriately in a workplace — from requiring me to look at naked ladies on Craigslist (on company equipment) (which thankfully you stopped doing when I expressed my disgust), to your comments about me having sex, or saying you were going to bend me over your knee.”
“I believe I made it clear from my reaction to those comments and requirements that your actions were not welcome — but as a single mother who otherwise likes and needs this job, I tolerated it,” she added, according to the EEOC.
In the email, she went on to tell her boss that he had “now graduated to touching (her),” that this was unacceptable and that she had “spent much time crying and worrying about being fired” if she complained to him, the lawsuit says.
She quit later in the day on April 1, 2024, according to the EEOC.
Marcus G. Keegan, a regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta office, said in a statement that “federal law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace.”
“The EEOC will take action when a company allows its highest-ranking officials to continuously harass a female employee,” Keegan added.
The agency’s lawsuit accuses Action Insulation of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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