'Witch' fired after spell accusation
A "witch" has been fired by US air authorities after a co-worker feared she was going to cast a spell on her.
Carole Smith claims she was harassed and terminated from her job as a TSA officer due to her Wicca beliefs.
The problems began for Ms Smith in March 2009, when she was informed there was an investigation into threat of workplace violence, and that her former mentor, Mary Bagnoli, had reported she was afraid of Ms Smith because she practiced witchcraft.
Ms Smith was accused of following Ms Bagnoli down a highway and casting a spell on her heater so it wouldn't work, although she later admitted she had not seen Ms Smith's car.
Miss Smith told MSNBC that the allegation shocked her, and that she said to her boss: "I said, that's not what Wicca is. We don't cast spells. That's not witchcraft. That's black magic or voodoo or something else.
"To put a spell on a heater of a car, if I had that kind of power, I wouldn't be working for TSA. I would go buy lottery tickets and put a spell on the balls," she said.
'My religion is very nature oriented and actually has a lot of similarities with native American culture. You don't try to harm anyone else. It's not spell-casting.
'It's putting something out there in the universe that you desire, and if the time is right, and your heart is pure, and it's right for you, you may get it.'
The assistant director of the Transport Safety Authority at Albany Airport, Matthew W. Lloyd, testified in the investigation he realised there was no real threat being made, and it was likely a personality clash made more difficult by Ms Bagnoli not understanding Ms Smith's religion.
Mr Lloyd admitted he didn't even know Wicca was a recognised belief.
After the complaint, she says she was constantly harassed by co-workers who would ask her where her broom was parked, where her pointy hat was and make claims she had cast spells on them.
While Ms Smith admitted she didn't mind a few jokes about her Wicca beliefs - she pokes fun at herself for owning a black cat and a broom - she felt her treatment was "demeaning".
She said employees would treat her like she wasn't there, and would ignore her when she requested a bag check for weapons or suspicious devices.
"If I called for bag checks on the X-ray, no one would come and do them. I was treated like I was not even there sometimes," she said.
"It was very demeaning. I was constantly walking on eggshells and checking my back.”
After she was eventually fired by the TSA, Ms Smith made a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which was rejected.
An administrative judge ruled she had failed to reveal her spiritual beliefs to management, and upheld the sacking despite TSA officials constantly changing their stories.
Ms Smith appealed the decision, and wants her old job back at a new airport, back pay and bonuses for being good at discovering weapons.
Cheryl Scott-Johnson argued on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA: “There was no discrimination here based on Ms Smith's religion. Ms. Smith was removed during her probationary period because of conduct, behaviour and her performance.
“It's like almost every person, almost all the supervisors, had problems with Ms Smith. She just assumes, or concludes, that it all had to do with her religion. In fact, as brought out in the testimony, she started having problems before anybody even knew she was Wicca.”
