Social media posts made by a coworker off-hours and off-site may still support a Title VII claim against an employer, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court has ruled.

Lindsay Okonowsky was a staff psychologist at the Bureau of Prison’s Federal Correctional Complex Lompoc.

She discovered that Steven Hellman, a Corrections Lieutenant who also worked in the Special Housing Unit (SHU)—who was responsible for overseeing the safety of guards, prison staff and inmates in the unit—operated an Instagram account which was followed by more than 100 prison employees.

Many of the posts suggested violence against or sexual contact with women coworkers, or violence against women generally. The posts were graphic, suggestive of rape and physical harassment, and depicted scenes of violence against women in general, and against “the SHU psychologist” in particular.

Posts ridiculed the psychologist in a coarse and degrading manner simply for doing her job. One that particularly disturbed Okonowsky occurred after she had invited coworkers to a party at her home, with a post that the all-male custody officers would “gang bang” her at her home during the party.

Okonowsky forwarded images from the page to her supervisor and messaged the prison’s safety manager, expressing concern that he followed the page and liked the posts. The safety manager told Okonowsky that the posts were “funny” and that he was “sorry, not sorry.”

She also reported the page to the warden, who never responded to her. A special...

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