Teacher Wins Ruling Over College Chief

An instructor who accused Ventura College President Larry Calderon of retaliating against him for filing grievances has won a ruling from an administrative law judge.

Physical education teacher Phil Passno claimed Calderon illegally retaliated by ordering him to undergo a psychological evaluation--an exam he later passed.

Calderon maintains the exam was needed to protect students and staff from Passno’s hot temper. The college plans to appeal the judge’s decision to the state Public Employment Relations Board, which has the power to dismiss or uphold it.

If endorsed by the state board, the ruling would prohibit the college from taking similar actions against Passno and other employees. If either party disagreed with the state board’s ruling, an appeal could be filed with the California Court of Appeal.

Calderon ordered the psychological evaluation one day after he met with Passno to discuss seven grievances, many outlining what the instructor considered to be “gender insensitivity” in the college’s physical education department, where he taught health, wellness and other classes.

At that July 1997 meeting, in response to prodding from Calderon, Passno acknowledged he has had trouble controlling his anger and was undergoing intensive therapy to manage it.

In his 22-page ruling, administrative law Judge Thomas J. Allen concluded that Calderon improperly used Passno’s admission to justify the psychological exam. By federal law, such admissions in grievance meetings cannot be used to justify disciplinary action, Allen said.

“Passno had every reason to believe he would be free at the meeting to express his concerns,” Allen wrote in the decision. He concluded that Calderon violated the federal code by doing “nothing to put Passno on notice that the protected grievance meeting was over and that what Passno said thereafter could be the basis for adverse action against him.”

Calderon said he ordered the evaluation as an effort to protect students and faculty from Passno.

“The judge totally misunderstood the facts,” Calderon said. “If I, in my professional opinion, feel the college staff or students are in any way threatened or in danger, I don’t have a choice” but to act.

The need for a psychological exam was endorsed, as required under college policy, by an independent “risk assessor.” The assessor interviewed four of Passno’s long-term acquaintances and reviewed Passno’s no-contest plea to a 1996 charge of inflicting bodily injury on his wife.

“I made a big mistake,” accidentally hurting his wife slightly in an argument, admits Passno, who now considers himself rehabilitated.

The assessor, who did not interview Passno, concluded the instructor “posed a moderate threat of violence,” according to Allen’s ruling.

Passno then was placed on administrative leave with pay and met with a doctor in Santa Monica for three days. He passed the examination and the doctor recommended he return to teaching.

But Passno, a 28-year instructor, later chose to transfer to an administrative job in the district office. “I’d rather be teaching, but I just don’t think it’s a good place for me to be right now,” he said.

Passno said his troubles with Ventura College managers began after he started pointing out inequities at the physical education department. He complained, for example, when only male athletes were offered jobs at the college gym.

Steve Tobias, who oversees the college’s athletics department, said there was no merit to the complaints but that he was unable to settle the matter with Passno. The instructor, however, dropped the grievances after Calderon ordered the psychological exam, saying he feared further retaliation.

Harry Korn, grievance chairman for the Ventura branch of the American Federation of Teachers, who filed the complaint on behalf of Passno, said he was “absolutely thrilled” that Passno’s complaint was upheld by the relations board.

But by appealing the decision, “That tells me they still think they can retaliate against faculty for filing grievances. They still think they are in the right.”