Disabled Man Sues College Over Firing : Courts: Jeff Gilman contends that he was terminated because of his Tourette syndrome symptoms. The college cites what it calls rude and abusive conduct and unreliability.

Meeting Jeff Gilman for the first time is a disquieting experience.

The red-faced 43-year-old Ocean Park man has a motor tic that causes him to jiggle the left side of his body uncontrollably. His blinded left eye is fixed in a stare. He talks incessantly and seems easily agitated. He repeatedly sniffs and snorts.

Santa Monica College fired him in 1991 after two years as a part-time assistant in its audio-visual department for what it says was “discourteous, offensive or abusive conduct,” “incompetency” and “repeated or unexcused tardiness or absence.”

But Gilman, whose condition has since been diagnosed as Tourette syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder, thinks he was fired because of his handicap. Santa Monica Community College District rules prohibit discrimination, including suspension, demotion or dismissal, because of an employee’s disability or medical condition.

Now Gilman, backed by the California School Employees Assn. and its Santa Monica College chapter, is suing the college, the district’s personnel commission and numerous officials for violating his civil rights and failing to follow proper disciplinary procedures leading to the dismissal that he contends was “arbitrary and capricious.” He wants his old job back, compensation for his financial losses and a court order to the college to give him a fair hearing should it move against him in the future.

“They have to be stopped. They are brutal,” Gilman said in an interview last week. “If they don’t like you they go after you; they have taken years out of my life.”

A Superior Court judge will soon hear arguments and decide the essential question: Was Santa Monica College justified in firing an unsatisfactory and obnoxious employee or did it misjudge an impaired worker?

“Because of the bizarre symptomatology of the disorder, it is often misunderstood,” said Tourette Syndrome Assn. medical/scientific liaison Sue Levi-Pearl in Bayside, N.Y. “But once employers and insurance companies gain a better understanding of the disorder, often these cases can be settled without seeking legal remedies.

“We are not familiar with all the ins and outs of Jeff’s case,” Levi-Pearl added. “But we are supportive of his pursuing justice in what he thinks is discrimination. . . . We hope it shakes down in his favor and it gets a fair hearing.”

Gilman concedes that he is sometimes perceived as threatening and aggressive. “People think I’m psychotic,” he said. He has the characteristic motor tics of Tourette, but not the involuntary spewing of obscenities often associated with it. His sniffing, another symptom, suggests cocaine abuse to some. One colleague, in noticing his red face--the result of psoriasis and eczema--suggested that he attend Alcoholics Anonymous, Gilman said.

He has extremely poor vision, paces restlessly, and has been described in medical reports as having “mood and personality alterations with dysphoric obsessional, irritable and impulsive aspects” suggestive of brain damage. Despite having developed the first symptoms as a youngster, however, he earned a college degree and has been a substitute math teacher since moving here from New York City in the mid-1980s.

“But that’s why this case is so important,” Gilman said. “It’s important to me, yes, but I really believe that an institution of higher learning went out of bounds here . . . technically, they fired a disabled employee.”

It is not clear whether the college knew of his disability initially. His condition was diagnosed in 1984 in New York as chronic multiple motor tic of moderate severity. The UCLA Neurology Clinic diagnosed his disorder as Gilles de la Tourette syndrome in September, 1991--after he was fired but before the appeals hearing that upheld his termination.

The college declined comment through attorney Martine Magana.

But court records show that it backed its decision to fire Gilman with 43 documented complaints of rudeness, angry outbursts and bossiness that students, instructors and other staffers allegedly made to his supervisor, Frances Kurilich, director of the college’s Learning Resource Center. Kurilich also kept a log noting every time Gilman was as little as five minutes late to work.

For his part, Gilman submitted letters from 10 students, instructors and staffers lauding his help and professionalism. He said he was “blown out” by the college’s action, particularly after he had received several positive job evaluations that praised him for “exceeding standards.”

What seems clear is that Gilman clashed repeatedly and increasingly with students who ignored his orders and with one colleague in particular who claims he harassed her.

He once called campus security, for example, after a female student put her feet up on the furniture in the Learning Resource Center. On another occasion, he allegedly ripped a student’s paper from the typewriter and threw it away while the student was in the restroom.

Kurilich, his supervisor, finally concluded that “Mr. Gilman lacks the characteristics that are necessary to work satisfactorily with people, especially young adult students, over any extended period of time.” After repeated warnings and several unsatisfactory performance evaluations between the spring of 1990 and 1991, she recommended that he be fired.

The Board of Trustees dismissed him, and the district’s Personnel Commission upheld the dismissal upon appeal last fall.

But Gilman claims that he was never confronted with the specifics of his alleged violations, that the board and commission relied on hearsay evidence provided by Kurilich, and that his direct testimony and that of two witnesses at his administrative hearing, while electronically recorded, was somehow deleted from the record.

He said his expressions and actions were misinterpreted. In one instance, Kurilich told Gilman he needed to be “attentive to your facial expression and your tone of voice,” two things he cannot always control.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer in Beverly Hills asked that both sides try to agree on a “reconstructed” account of Gilman’s lost testimony, so that he would have a complete record before him.

“I’m not inclined to order (Gilman’s) reinstatement” just because of the deficiencies in the record, he said. “I’m not saying he won’t win down the line . . . but I don’t want to see mechanical error or failure used as grounds for reversal.”

Gilman and his attorney, Karen Hartmann of the California School Employees Assn. in San Jose, are now reconstructing his testimony from memory; the college will be asked to stipulate to it.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, however, has made Gilman’s task a little harder. In the past, if an employer failed to show that it had legitimate reasons for firing an employee, the worker would automatically win. Now, however, the employee bears the “ultimate burden” of proving he was dismissed because of illegal bias, in this case medical disability.

Civil rights groups have attacked the court’s decision as making it next to impossible for discrimination complainants to win because the employee must prove the employer’s motivation, produce evidence of what was in his head.

But Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the high court, said that, “It is not enough to disbelieve the employer; the (judge or jury) must believe the plaintiff’s explanation of intentional discrimination.”

Tourette Syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder named after French neurologist Dr. George Gilles de la Tourette, who first described it in 1825. Samuel Johnson and Andre Malraux are among famous people who are thought to have had the disorder.

It is characterized by tics--involuntary, rapid, sudden movements that occur repeatedly in the same way. They may include blinking, head jerking, shrugging and facial grimacing, throat clearing, yelping and other noises, sniffing and tongue clicking. Some patients also suffer from coprolalia (the uttering of obscenities), or echolalia (repeating a word or sound just heard), while others may jump, touch people, twirl about, or hit or bite themselves.

Can’t a patient control such symptoms?

Not really. They are involuntary, but most people with the syndrome can postpone the more severe outbursts, but like the irresistible urge to sneeze, they must eventually be released. Typically, tics increase as a result of tension or stress and decrease with relaxation or concentration on an absorbing task.

Do all people with tics have associated behavior problems?

No, but many suffer from obsessive compulsive and ritualistic behaviors, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, difficulties with impulse control (which can result in rare instances in overly aggressive, angry or defiant behaviors) and sleep disorders.

What causes the disorder?

The cause has not been established, but it is thought to stem from the abnormal metabolism of at least one brain chemical, dopamine.

Is it inherited?

Yes, usually. A person with the syndrome has about a 50% chance of passing the gene on to a child, although the genetic predisposition may express itself as a milder disorder. Males are more likely to develop symptoms, but only about 10% of children who inherit the gene have symptoms severe enough to require medical treatment.

Is there a treatment or cure?

There is no cure as yet, but a variety of medications are available to help control the symptoms, although most have undesirable side effects. Psychotherapy and relaxation techniques also can help.

How common is Tourette syndrome?

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 100,000 Americans have full-blown Tourette syndrome, but genetic studies suggest that the actual figure may be as high as 1 in 200 if those with chronic multiple tics and/or transient childhood tics are counted.

Are people with the condition retarded?

No, they have the same IQ range as the general population, but many have special educational needs that need to be addressed. Early diagnosis and treatment is important, because the symptoms often seem bizarre, disruptive and frightening to children, parents and those around them.

Source: Tourette Syndrome Assn.