A former Department of Education worker says she was let go for doing what she was told to do on the job.
At a rally outside the Office of Personnel Management Tuesday, Qua Crowner said she was laid off for participating in a diversity, equity and inclusion training course she was instructed to take under the previous administration.
"We followed the mission, we followed the leadership and now we're being punished for it," she said.
DEI is one of the many targets of the Trump administration, but the American Federation of Government Employees labor union says the administration isn't only targeting DEI advocates and practitioners, but also people who happened to learn about DEI in a training the government offered them.
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"These workers merely attended a DEI training years ago because their management encouraged it, and that was enough for them to get targeted by this administration, and that ain't right," AFGE National Vice President for Women and Fair Practices Kendrick Roberson said.
During his first two days back in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders mandating the Office of Personnel Management terminate all activities related to DEI.
AFGE says the administration falsely claims DEI resulted in unqualified hires.
“Federal jobs are not given as handouts to the underserved, and the best candidates are not overlooked because they are not brown enough or because they are not man enough,” Roberson said. “That is literally federal law. Let's stop it with the lies."
In March, a group of federal employees took legal action, alleging the administration sought to punish employees for what the administration perceived as their political views, which the complaint says violates the First Amendment. The legal action was filed with the Merit Systems Protection Board, which has yet to act.
"I come from a family of military veterans and civil servants,” Crowner said. “We were taught to leave our politics at the door. We serve everyone with no exceptions."
