Problems at East Oak Grove Cemetery go beyond the resting place’s dilapidated appearance, according to one employee.
Once his co-workers learned Joshua Kyle was Jewish, they began giving him the Nazi salute, he said. At first he thought it might be a joke but it continued behind his back and even in front of his family one day when they dropped him off.
Kyle said he brought his concerns about the racism as well as his co-workers’ drinking on the job to the cemetery’s president, Karl Yagle. Then he was demoted from undertaker to groundskeeper and the person who Nazi-saluted him was given his job.
On Wednesday, Yagle told The Dominion Post he asked the other employees about the racist acts and they denied it.
In order to take action on the racism, someone other than Kyle would need to report it to him but no one has, Yagle said.
Kyle said a woman confronted him after she saw someone riding a mower perform a Nazi salute the day before.
She even thought it was him since he was riding a mower that day. He said it wasn’t him, showed her his Star of David tattoo and asked her to report it to the office.
In a recorded phone conversation between Yagle and Kyle following The Dominion Post’s interview with Yagle, Kyle references that woman. Yagle said she did not leave a phone number when she came into the office.
As for the accusations of drinking on the job, Yagle said hasn’t caught anyone drinking on the job.
The cemetery’s secretary, Tammy Spring, said the matter is being handled in-house and she and Yagle refused to comment further on Kyle’s allegations.
Kyle recorded a conversation with Spring and Yagle following his demotion in which he brings up the behavior of his co-workers. The recording was provided to The Dominion Post. The conversation was apparently prompted after Kyle confronted a co-worker about the racism.
“What are we as Americans or human beings, that we can’t look at someone we work with and say, ‘Hey, you are being racist? It hurts my feelings,’” Kyle said. “And then they literally say, ‘Hey I’m done with you,’ … And now I walk around here alone doing everything on my own.”
In addition to the alleged racism and drinking, Kyle brings up one of his coworkers who stands by the road and hits on women.
“We know about that,” Yagle said.
“Then why isn’t he gone?” Kyle asked.
Yagle didn’t answer.
No plans to quit
Kyle told The Dominion Post he might get fired over coming to the media but he doesn’t plan to quit.
Quitting isn’t an option because he’s grown to love the cemetery, he said.
“I love being here. I love the job. It gives me a sense of purpose the way these people and their families treat me after I’ve put their loved ones in the ground or I helped them find one,” he said in the recording with Yagle and Spring. “They don’t see my tattoos or my ethnicity.”
Kyle told The Dominion Post he wants people to know they can come directly to him at the cemetery for help.
“As long as I’m not fired from that place for speaking out, if anybody has any questions about that place or any concerns … I will help them in any way I can if the office will not.”
