Yale and Workplace Violence

I did an earlier post wondering if the murdered Yale graduate student, Annie Le, had been subjected to harassment by her alleged killer. My query resulted from early reports that a technician, the alleged killer, in the lab where Le worked had expressed romantic feelings for Le, which she had rebuffed.

Authorities are now calling Le’s murder an incident of workplace violence. They seemed to say that if the lab technician is the killer, his action had nothing to do with unrequited love or an attempted romantic relationship. Maybe the technician was a control freak. Maybe Le was intruding too much on his territory in the lab.

Of course, that raises new questions. Did Le report any threats made by the lab technician? Did she report being afraid of the technician? To whom did she report these things?

Just as an employer has an obligation to investigate and take appropriate action when an employee reports she is being harassed, an employer also has an obligation to investigate and take appropriate action when an employee reports she is being threatened by a supervisor or co-worker, particularly if the threats relate to physical harm. As new revelations are made about this incident, at least some of the outstanding questions will be answered, and employers may be taught some serious, even tragic, lessons.