A judge has awarded $10 million in damages to Qiqiuia Young, a patient testing technician at Stanford University and Stanford Health Care, in connection with her racial harassment case. In March, an Alameda County Superior Court jury found that the two organizations had defamed Young after she sued them for racial harassment. Young’s lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleged that coworkers used the N-word and mistreated Black patients. One image included in the lawsuit depicted someone dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan in what appeared to be a patient examination room.
Young spoke out about what she witnessed, despite facing backlash from her employers. The day after she filed her lawsuit, Stanford dean Lloyd Minor and Stanford Health Care CEO David Entwistle sent an email to 22,000 recipients implying that Young had been dishonest in her reports of racism and misconduct. This email was found to have defamed Young by an Alameda County Superior Court jury in March.
The jury initially awarded Young $20 million in damages but was reduced to $10 million on June 13 by Judge Karin Schwartz. Lara Villarreal Hutner, Young’s attorney, praised her client’s bravery and determination in a press release: “My client is a hero. It’s been a nearly decade-long battle of David versus Goliath. And she’s won.”
