Case 21.3, Franchina v. City of Providence, beginning on page 467. The issue is whether the city should be held liable for a hostile work environment.

The court's decision states the need to prove that the conduct was severe or pervasive in order to establish harassment, but this excerpt does not directly address this element. In determining whether conduct is severe or pervasive courts look at several factors.These include the frequency of the conduct and the extent to which it is physically threatening as opposed to a mere offensive utterance, and the extent to which it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance. See the description of the incident that is included in the preface to question 3. Based on that, and what is described in the excerpt of the case that is in your textbook, identify the facts that prove that this conduct was severe and identify the facts that prove that this conduct was pervasive.