A newly hired correctional officer was fired by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) after wearing a “Black Lives Matter” shirt to work in response to several other officers wearing “Police Lives Matter” shirts, according to a federal lawsuit.
Enow-Tambong Agbor-Baiyee sued the DOC in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on Nov. 28, alleging his firing constitutes racial discrimination and retaliation.
Agbor-Baiyee, who is Black, was hired in May as an on-call correctional officer at Airway Heights Corrections Center in Spokane County, and started a six-week training program along with dozens of other new hires.
During the first week, a DOC instructor wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Police Lives Matter.” In a written evaluation of the training, Agbor-Baiyee objected to the shirt as inappropriate, according to the lawsuit.
