I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Rob Capriccioso, a reporter who works for Inside Higher Education. Thanks to Ralph Luker from Cliopatria, Inside Higher Ed had gotten wind of my blog post on Monday about my colleague Yves Magloe. Capriccioso’s story runs in today’s Inside Higher Ed: Mentally Untenured.
As soon as I have an update on the situation, I will share it here on the blog. I can say that I am comfortable with my decision to share publicly of my own battles with mental illness. There is a dreadful myth that those who battle various mental illnesses cannot hold down regular jobs, particularly in a profession such as mine. This myth is persistent; Joel Sax linked to my Monday post and got this anonymous comment from someone who called himself HR Guy:
I’m with a K-12 school district. Teachers with mental health problems are not just “inconvenient”, they can be dangerous to themselves and to the students. As a school HR person, we definitely want to get these individuals out of the classroom. Ninety percent of the time, they’re not good teachers anyway.
Well, I suppose a paranoid schizophrenic in a full-blown episode could present a potential danger. But the vast majority of those of us who deal with things like bipolar and unipolar depression, serious personality disorders, and so forth are capable — with professional help — of functioning effectively and safely. And of course, I take umbrage at the suggestion that 90% of the time, those of us who have a history of mental illness make lousy teachers! No, I’m not "fishing for compliments". I’m quite confident in my abilities, thanks, and I am grateful to God and to this institution that I am allowed daily to do something I love and at which I believe I am pretty damn good.
I’m sadly certain that the attitude of that anonymous HR guy on Joel’s blog isn’t all that different from the attitude of those who chose to terminate Yves Magloe.
I’d also like to point out a couple of key differences between myself and Yves. Yves is, according to the accounts of mutual acquaintances, a shy man. I’m an ENFP. Yves is a native of West Africa, and at the time that he fell ill, had no family in the United States. I’m a sixth-generation Californian with a large extended family. Each time that I fell ill, dozens of family members and friends rallied to my side. Even at the darkest moment of my struggles, I had zealous advocates standing with me, running interference for me, and making sure that I got the best possible care. Yves — whose temperament is more withdrawn and whose background less well connected — did not have access to those resources.
And I am still teaching, with tenure — and Yves is fighting to get his job back, as well as to get this institution to recognize the real nature of mental illness. He is in my prayers, and I ask all of you who can do so to continue to contact those in power here at the college on his behalf.
You can email the college president, James Kossler, here.
You can email the head of human resources, Jorge Aguiniga, here.
Contact the board of trustees by going here.
UPDATE: The Board of Trustees declined last night to consider rehiring Yves. I assume the next step is litigation. I’m also told that mental illness will be a topic for general discussion at the next board meeting on June 21.
I have e-mailed the parties as per your request Hugo and I hope all turns out satisfactorily. It does disappoint me to see that your defense of Magloe mentioned not one phoneme of understanding for the college’s position. It may be wrong to have terminated Magloe, certainly without the process he was due, but I’m aghast that a sixth-generation resident of America’s most litgious state couldn’t have, at least for form, mentioned that the powers-that-be have reason to fear lawsuits. Good luck to Magloe, it sounds as if his condition won’t affect his ability to perform his job too much.
A lot of the things you mentioned in this post sound sadly familar to me as a person with epilepsy, the types of walls we have and the things we do and work around because we ‘might have a seizure’. Can’t drive, if you listen to my mother can’t ride a bike, and should be living in fear of the when the ‘Big One’ hits and could kill me. I wanted to be a nurse - sorry, can’t; wanted to teach - what if you have a seizure in class?; and of course the frustation of looking through the help wanted ads and trying to figure out what the hell having a driver’s licence has to do with my typing speed. My mother says ‘you could have a seizure and DIE!’ and I say ‘I could die walking across the street!’. There comes a point when you have to decide whether to live your life by the ‘mights’ or the ‘coulds’ or if you’re going to live it RIGHT NOW and let them deal with themselves. You do what you need to do to care for yourself, but you can’t let the things that might never happen run your life. People with mental and other neurological disorders have a big fat fight ahead of us, mostly because we ‘look ok’ most of the time, and people are visual. It’s earier to explain the need for ADA when you’re in a chair or are missing a limb; for those of us who never learned to self-advocate, it’s a nightmare.
I hope the school gets their butt sued off, and I hope Mr Magloe comes out of this stronger and where he needs to be.
Douglas, I do have sympathy for folks who work in human resources departments — theirs is often a difficult and thankless task. Sometimes, whatever they do, they end up getting sued. It can’t be fun for them.
On the other hand, when they issue sweeping pronouncements about the general unfitness of those who battle mental illness to be professors, or when they ignore the legally guaranteed rights of sick employees, they deserve opprobrium — and litigation.
Yes, when we complain bitterly about the excessive litigousness of society, we should keep in mind the alternatives. In this case, discrimination without recourse. Good on you getting this egregious nonsense in the public light, Hugo.
A lot of folks who complain about litigiousness in US life do keep the alternatives in mind, djw. They’re the ones who complain not-so-bitterly; often, they’re folks like myself, who in over 20 years as a hotel union shop steward, was asked on innumerable occasions if a garden-variety grievance was actionable. Every spurious accusation of discrimination just made our union look like an enabler for cry-babies; if you know a union that can afford to be seen that way, gimme their address. I need a job.
Not that I think this applies to Magloe. I simply felt a blogster of Hugo’s obvious fair-mindeness could and should have taken the most elementary step to dispel ideas that he was sticking up for Magloe simply Magloe, like himself, suffered from mental illness.
If I didn’t have to tutor that night, I might show.
Yes, the splotch that was left on my blog by the fellow from the Georgia Department of Education (I was able to track it back by the DNS record) was all too familiar an imprint. Stigmatizing is the word we use to describe such language and it is important to challenge it when we see it.
I remember that this is only one HR person. Still, it indicates that there is a great need for education.
A regular reader of my blog went to NAMI about Magloe’s situation. I suggest you also contact the Depressive and Bipolar Support Alliance (http://www.dbsalliance.org). I feel for Yves because he is one of us. You don’t let a person twirl about in the wind just because you’ve never met him.
BTW, Hugo, I can get you some talking points on mental illness for future board meetings.
How ignorant - it is the very nature of Bipolar I that the people not only make great teachers but doctors, actor’s managers, scientists, artists - I recommend “an unquiet mind” for an account of a doctor, dealing with bipolar disorder along with “Fire in the Brian” which is a who’s who of the most respected and admired people through western history - who all happen to be bipolar (including some notable presidents). Though bipolar myself, I have often had to deny treatment or depend on relations as most schools or universities still have a question on thier form: have you ever been committed to a mental institution? That PCC, which used to pride itself on diversity, when they couldn’t get rid of tenured openly racist teachers but drops tenured ones with universally recognized illnesses is a sad sign indeed.
Elizabeth,
I’ve been told I’m bi-polar, though never by an expert, mostly by my family, so we should get along. If I actually went to an expert they would lock me away. I’d like to get involved in that event. The PCC incident is sad indeed.
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