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Naval Hospital Jacksonville

Navy hospital employees removed after photo shows staffer giving newborn the finger

Melissa Guz and Shelby Danielsen
WTLV- and WJXX-TV, Jacksonville
Two employees of Naval Hospital Jacksonville have been removed from their posts.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two Navy corps members have been removed from their posts at Naval Hospital Jacksonville after a social media photo showed one of them giving a newborn the middle finger. 

The photo's caption read, "How I currently feel about these mini Satans" and said a "navy nurse" and a friend made a baby dance to rap music. 

The facility, in a Monday Facebook post, issued a statement from its commanding officer, Capt. David Collins.

"We are aware of a video/ photo posted online," the post read. "It's outrageous, unacceptable, incredibly unprofessional, and cannot be tolerated." 

The post added, "They will be handled by the legal system and military justice. We've notified the patient's parents."

The facility said the two people involved weren't nurses, but "junior enlisted corpsmen" who have been removed from patient care. Rodney Foushee, public affairs officer with Naval Hospital Jacksonville, said the hospital won't confirm the names or tenure of the people involved because the incident is under investigation. 

"This type of behavior is incompatible with the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment, as well as medical ethics," Foushee said in a statement. "It also does not reflect the commitment Navy Medicine has to provide the best care our nation can offer to those who serve as well as their families."

The viral Facebook photo came from Snapchat and was shared more than 100,000 times as of Monday evening. 

“I think what’s particularly egregious is the amount of media this is getting,” said Antony Kolenc, a law professor at Florida Coastal School of Law and a former military JAG. “Considering the outcry and the embarrassment to the Navy I’m assuming this qualifies as service disqualifying conduct for these two ladies.”

Kolenc said there are four possible routes of punishment for the employees:

  • Administrative discipline, which means they could get written up, but not fired
  • Administrative Discharge, which means they would get fired, but receive no criminal charges
  • Captain’s Mast, which means harsher discipline like losing rank, a pay dock, being restricted to the base, but receiving no criminal charges
  • Court Martial, which would be the equivalent of a criminal trial, in which they could receive a dishonorable discharge

“The supervisors and the commanders will make the ultimate decision on what punishment these corpsmen will get, even if the parents of the babies were fine with not having charges pressed, the commander might disagree and say I still think it’s serious enough to warrant that,” Kolenc said.

If it becomes serious enough, a warrant could be requested to search their deleted social media platforms to see if any other inappropriate videos were posted in the past. Kolenc said the fact that they recorded such an act and then posted it puts them in even hotter water.

“Shocking and embarrassing for the Navy, I know the commanders are horrified to see this kind of public relations nightmare, this strikes me as stupid, millennial misbehavior,” Kolenc said. “As a defense council, I defended a lot of young and stupid Air Force men too. Young people sometimes make really dumb decisions.”

Kolenc said it could take weeks or months to formulate a punishment as they have to investigate their history with the Navy.

“This could hurt the credibility of the hospital," he said. "They need to see if this has ever happened before.”

He said the newer someone is to the Navy, the easier it is for them to be separated from it following misconduct.

“This may have been a dumb decision that gets them into criminal hot water," he said.
 

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