A former employee of the Lima Public Library is speaking out after she says she was sexually harassed, discriminated against and set up to be fired.
Cheranda Williamson was fired from the library earlier this month after working in the maintenance department for two and a half years. Williamson says she enjoyed working at the facility for the first eight months of her employment. However, things changed in the summer of 2014 when she visited a supervisor's home. During the visit, she says she was shown the supervisor's in-home sex chamber. Williamson says the supervisor's wife then started sending her sexually explicit texts, and the supervisor started making graphic comments to her during work hours.
Williamson told a fellow co-worker and the situation went up the chain of command at the library. She says the supervisor eventually retired. Williamson then claims an administrator began retaliating against her. She says that person was also allowed to retire. Williamson says her ordeal continued, though, because her new supervisor doubled her workload and made tasks impossible to complete. She was fired earlier this month and says the ordeal uprooted her life.
Officials for the library issued this response:
"In 2014, Ms. Williamson brought forth allegations regarding the misconduct of other employees. The allegations were investigated immediately and those employees are no longer employed by Lima Public Library, due to their own misconduct. Ms. Williamson's termination was a result of her own misconduct only. She was not asked to do anything outside of her job description, and her job description did not change during her employment. After an investigation and period of progressive discipline, Ms. Williamson was terminated for cause."
