A judge is upholding Baltimore County?s punishment of an employee who referred to a song by rock band Journey as “jungle bunny music”in the office.
Baltimore County Circuit Judge Dana Levitz said at a hearing Wednesday that he didn?t have the authority to tell the county when or how to punish its employees ? unless the county broke the law.
“I?m not concerned about being politically correct,” Levitz told Graceann Shipe, 42, who asked him to overturn a decision rendered by the county?s Personnel and Salary Review Advisory Board upholding a one-day suspension, a transfer and a $1-an-hour pay cut because the comment was considered “offensive.”
Shipe, who is white, was supervising clerical staff in the county?s code enforcement office last March when she asked a white co-worker to turn down a Journey song on the radio because she didn?t want to listen to their “jungle-bunny music,” gesturing toward the empty desks of two black co-workers, the county alleged.
Shipe?s attorney, Stephen Basinger, said his client admits making the comment, but made no gesture.
“She was naive about the utterance,” Basinger said in court. “It was not racially motivated. She truly did not understand it.”
Shipe said she used the term because it reminds her of “the Energizer bunny, loud and obnoxious with noisy, banging cymbals,” according to the board?s opinion.
Baltimore County attorney James Nolan said the board found Shipe?s comment “racially offensive and inappropriate.”
“These are offenses that according to the county code could have justified removal,” he said.
Outside the courtroom, Shipe said she was glad the ordeal was over.
“I don?t like it,” she said of Levitz? ruling, “but what can I do?”
She said she didn?t know the name of the Journey song that caused the fuss.
“I don?t listen to that band.”
Examiner Staff Writer Jaime Malarkey contributed to this story.
