No. 04-3991 LAURA PHELAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COOK COUNTY, et al., Defendants-Appellees. ____________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 01 C 3638—George M. Marovich, Judge. ____________ ARGUED SEPTEMBER 21, 2005—DECIDED SEPTEMBER 18, 2006 ____________

Before COFFEY, EVANS, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge. This case examines whether a Title VII plaintiff who is wrongly terminated should be foreclosed from pursuing her claims where her employer eventually reinstates her with back pay. Plaintiff Laura Phelan brought this suit against her employer and eight co- workers and supervisors under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination, race discrimination, and retaliation. Phelan also brought state law claims of assault, battery and intentional inflic- tion of emotional distress against three of her co-workers. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all of the federal claims, and then 2 No. 04-3991 declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state claims. Primarily because the district court erroneously found that Phelan was not subject to an adverse employ- ment action, we reverse the grant of summary judgment with regard to all but one of Phelan’s Title VII claims and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on Phelan’s Section 1983 Claims.

I. BACKGROUND Laura Phelan began working as a mechanical assistant in the boiler room (also known as the “Powerhouse”) of Cook County Hospital on March 1, 1999. The boiler room is part of Cook County’s Buildings and Grounds Department. Cook County did not provide Phelan, a Caucasian woman, with either an orientation packet or a copy of the hospital’s sexual harassment policy at the start of her employment. Phelan’s co-workers in the boiler room began subjecting her to various abusive behaviors immediately after she began working there. She was the target of sexually offensive comments and solicitations, sexually offensive touching and displays of pornography. On multiple occa- sions, Phelan’s co-workers told her that, in order to sur- vive in the department, she would need to perform sexual acts. On April 15, 1999, after Phelan complained to her supervisor, Jack Callaghan, about this behavior, Callaghan contacted Lucia Kelly-Freeman in Cook County’s Depart- ment of Human Resources. Kelly-Freeman was respon- sible for investigating complaints of sexual harassment. On April 20, 1999, Phelan and Kelly-Freeman met to discuss Phelan’s complaints. Phelan informed Kelly-Freeman that she had been the target of sexually abusive actions. Kelly- Freeman instructed Phelan to create a log of the incidents and to report back to her. However, Phelan did not immedi- No. 04-3991 3 ately do so because Callaghan told her that she should not have further contact with Kelly-Freeman. On July 14, 1999, Phelan again met with Kelly-Freeman to discuss the harassment. Kelly-Freeman had taken no action with regard to Phelan’s case since the first meet- ing, stating that she had been waiting for Phelan to report back to her with further details. At this second meeting, Phelan showed Kelly-Freeman a bruise on her thigh, which she said was the result of a July 9, 1999 incident in which two of her co-workers physically assaulted her. Kelly- Freeman notified her supervisor of the incident and directed Phelan to file an incident report and receive medical treat