CCSN accused of mental illness discrimination

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, Oct. 16, 2000 | 11:28 a.m.

A former sign language interpreter for the Community College of Southern Nevada has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the school.

Deborah J. Gonzales, 36, who has a schizoaffective mental disorder, alleges in the suit filed Sept. 22 that she was fired in September 1999 from the job she held more than two years because of her disability. She is seeking lost wages, costs of the lawsuit and $300,000 in damages.

But like other state employees, disabled people and gays who attempt to sue the state to protect federally protected rights -- in this case through the Americans with Disabilities Act -- Gonzales faces an uphill battle, said her attorney, Richard Segerblom.

Nevada, led by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, has become one of the leading critics of the 1990 ADA law. In a series of legal briefs, Del Papa has consistently sided with states' rights over federal mandates.

An expected ruling in December from the U.S. Supreme Court on a related discrimination case could also influence the direction Gonzales' case takes in District Court, Segerblom said.

The community college's human resource department denies any discrimination. The school also challenges Gonzales' assertion that she was fired, saying she left voluntarily.

Gonzales claims that in September 1999, shortly after she missed a day of work due to her illness, her supervisor informed her by voice mail that she had been fired.

Two days after being fired, Gonzales said, she was told by phone she could be reinstated if she met with the director of the human resources department. But when Gonzales declined to disclose the full history of her disability to the department director, she was denied her job a second time.

Gonzales said she never requested accommodation for her disability and she logged just three documented absences over 2 1/2 years working full time without benefits. After her termination, the college hired two interpreters with less experience to fill her position, Gonzales said.

Gonzales filed a complaint last November with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, which investigated and later dismissed the claim. After that, she appealed to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC also dismissed her claim, but the organization is reconsidering her case, she said.

The EEOC upholds about 5 percent of discrimination lawsuits, according to records.

"I believe very strongly that the stigma attached to my illness is the problem," Gonzales said. "No one is coming out and helping. So I feel I have to talk. Many professionals have my disorder and operate on the job fine and don't need accommodation. But when their disability is found out, they're let go."

Gonzales takes medication daily for her condition and attends therapy to cope with periodic depression. She is one of more than 11,000 Nevadans living productive lives despite suffering from mental illness, according to Vic Davis, president of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Nevada.

Davis described Gonzales' illness as a treatable, manageable disease comparable to diabetes.

Tom Peacock, director of human resources at CCSN, said Gonzales "was not fired or terminated from this institution. It was her choice not to return to work."

"She filed an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) allegation that went to a mediation hearing with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) from Los Angeles. To our knowledge it was fully investigated and determined that discrimination did not occur and she was given a right-to-sue order."